External SATA HD via USB

[BigV]

Please help.

I have a nice new hd, 400 GB Seagate, SATA, in an external case, that connects via USB. It has two partitions, one about 80 GB and the other about 300 GB. Both partitions have been formatted NTFS. The first smaller drive has been designated as a primary drive (in case I ever want to boot from it) and the second larger drive has been designated as a logical drive.

I mostly use the larger logical drive for my personal collection of music and pictures, etc. I have stuff strewn over several systems, and this portable unit was intended to let me collect it as I came across it. I want to have it all in one place, then keep it all (or at least a copy of it all) in one place, this hd. So far, so good.

I had a problem with it last night, though. The hd itself and its connection worked fine, the problem was a logical one (I think). I had the drive and the time and the proximity to a system that had a lot of data I wanted to collect.

When I connected the drive it appeared in Windows Explorer normally. But when I went to the appropriate directory that I intended the files and folders to be copied to, I got an error message CLANK! Drive - path not accessible? (paraphrasing) Wha??

But I could create a new directory, so I did and I put the stuff in there. At the end of the long copying process (some tens of gigabytes), I did a graceful disconnect of the usb device and removed the drive.

This morning, (different computer), I went to look at my newly collected stuff, and in that newly minted directory, fewer than 12 hours old, and what to you think happened? Yup. CLANK! Same error message, but this time on the new directory. The old original directories were fine. Intact, complete, open for business.

Grrr.

After several minutes of head scratching, I decided to put the question to the collective wisdom of the cellar, hence this post. MIDWAY through the post, I had an epiphany. I went back to Windows Explorer, and checked the properties of the new, visible, but "not accessible" folder. Hmm. Read only. I deselected the read only attribute, said ok and went on my merry way. Clank. Not sufficient. "Not accessible". So I explored further, and discovered that the permissions ("I", as the local admin on this machine, had on this new folder) were insufficient.

But to paraphrase the wisdom of Mel Brooks, "It's good to be the admin." Insufficient permissions to do what you want? Elevate yourself. Seize ownership of the folder, and all the child objects, and your admin permissions will flow down like water.

Ahhhh...