Hi

I am on Vista Home edition and have just reinstalled the OS due to a virus which wouldn't let system restore or any antivirus run, the next thing it done was deny me access to my external HD so I decided full destructive recovery, all seems fine again apart from the fact I still cannot access my External Hard Drive, its reading "Windows cannot access the specified device path or file. You may not have appropriate permissions to access the item." Strangely enough my other external HD works fine on it is there anything I can try to fix this?

Thanks :)

Maybe permissions don't allow you to get in. Right-click on the hard drive (do this as an Administrator) and look at "permissions" (under the "security" tab). Make sure the permissions are set to allow you to get in from your main account.

It's also possible that you encrypted the hard drive or Windows thinks that the hard drive is somewhere else. If that's the case, you'll have to find the password and the software to let you in. I, somehow, think that this isn't the case, but I'm not sure.

Hi bud, thanks for the prompt reply. Tried right clicking doesn't give me an admin option like it does with other files/applications also enabled take ownership same thing doesn't give me this option, have tried it in different ports same issue. I tried this hd on another laptop and it can be accessed by right clicking and opening in my computer but not by double clicking so it may be an issue with the hard drive itself. However my hard drive that works only works in one usb port, but not the other two. I have tested other usb devices i.e. mouse cell phone and they work fine in these ports so I am really puzzled as to what the problem is.

Could it be a cable issue maybe? It sees the hard drive in 'my computer' but when I double click it nothing happens, same when I try right clicking and running/opening :mad: