My O/S is toast. I need to copy files. Mounted HDD, but denied access

cytherian · 19 Jul 2018

Yesterday I was in a good place. My computer was working fine. I received an SSD drive and I was going to install it. When I tried to use the data transfer utility from Samsung, it failed. I tried 4 different programs, each with varying degrees of progress before failing. OK, something wrong with the drive, a bad sector in an uncommon place that won't disturb Windows 10 from running, but prevents a complete partition copy from being made.

To make a long story short, I'm now at the end of my rope. My computer won't boot up properly. Takes ages to get from one phase to the next for logging in. Errors encountered, attempts to recover fail. I need to copy data off.

So I've mounted my hard drive as an external drive and attached to my backup computer. But now, I can't get access to the user data. Even though I use the SAME USER ID. I started searching for answers... nothing straight forward. I'm not buying Easeus or some other 3rd party tool. Windows should be able to permit this. I'm having trouble right-mouse clicking on the drive to bring up properties and perhaps change user permissions.

It has been a lousy day.

EDIT:
In the interest of any similar future problems faced by anyone else that comes across this, I've changed the title and I'll embellish the solution here.

If you need to copy off files from the HDD you had in one computer to another, you may find that when attaching it the USER folders will be inaccessible for security reasons. This, despite the fact that if you check out the security tab for the drive, the "Administrators" group of this computer seems to have complete access. What you need to do is add the "USERS" group and give full access. It will do a file by file permissions change, which is extraordinarily painful as the dialog bothers to let you know each and every file as it whizzes through the list. If you have a large drive this can take about an hour, maybe more. Anyway, once that was done, access was granted.

zbook · 19 Jul 2018

1) The specs entered displayed HP Envy M6
The HP website displayed 14 matching products:
HP Product Warranty Check for Laptops, Printers & Other Products | HPÂ® Customer Support

2) Open the HP website > support and drivers > enter the product or serial number > select the operating system > view drivers > post a URL or hyperlink into the thread

3) Update the specs in the "My Computer" section:
System Specs - Fill in at Ten Forums:
System Specs - Fill in at Ten Forums | Windows 10 Tutorials
In the left corner below in your post you find 'My System Specs'.
After clicking it you can find a link a little below that says 'Update your System Spec', click on this link to get to the page where you can fill in your system specs.
System Info - See Your System Specs - Windows 7 Help Forums

Include PSU. cooler, case, peripherals and anything attached to the computer by wired or wireless (mouse, keyboard, headset, printer, xbox, port replicator, docking station, USB wireless network card, etc.)
https://www.tenforums.com/profile.php?do=extra

4) With the drive in the hard drive enclosure download and install HD Tune on the working computer and post images of the test results for these tabs:
a) Health (SMART)
b) Benchmark
c) Full error scan

5) Open file explorer to find the drive letter for the drive in the hard drive enclosure.

6) Open administrative command prompt and type or copy and paste: chkdsk /x /f /v M:
(replace the letter M with the applicable drive letter)
(This may take many hours so plan to run overnight)

C:\Windows\system32>chkdsk /x /f /v
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock current drive.

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another
process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be
checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)

Type: Y
reboot

7) Find the chkdsk report in the event viewer using the text and images in this thread > copy and paste to notepad > post a one drive or drop box share link into the thread
Read Chkdsk Log in Event Viewer in Windows 10 | Windows 10 Tutorials

SIW2 · 19 Jul 2018

Did you try using a linux boot disc to copy your stuff?

cytherian said:

To make a long story short, I'm now at the end of my rope. My computer won't boot up properly. Takes ages to get from one phase to the next for logging in. Errors encountered, attempts to recover fail. I need to copy data off.

So I've mounted my hard drive as an external drive and attached to my backup computer. But now, I can't get access to the user data. Even though I use the SAME USER ID. I started searching for answers... nothing straight forward. I'm not buying Easeus or some other 3rd party tool. Windows should be able to permit this. I'm having trouble right-mouse clicking on the drive to bring up properties and perhaps change user permissions.

It has been a lousy day.

RolandJS · 19 Jul 2018

Elsewhere, I heard mention of ddrescue and testdisk; however, I have never used such tools, others in here will have to guide you through the usage of those free tools. One thing I recommend: whichever tool or tools you use, allow only a one-sector/one-pass "intelligent copy" or "all-sector-copy" attempt to copy data from the problematic HDD onto reliable external media. Some data recovery geeks recommend working only on a cloned copy -- however, that option is closed based on your opening post.

cytherian · 19 Jul 2018

zbook said:

6) Open administrative command prompt and type or copy and paste: chkdsk /x /f /v M:
(replace the letter M with the applicable drive letter)
(This may take many hours so plan to run overnight)

C:\Windows\system32>chkdsk /x /f /v
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock current drive.

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another
process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be
checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)

Type: Y
reboot

7) Find the chkdsk report in the event viewer using the text and images in this thread > copy and paste to notepad > post a one drive or drop box share link into the thread
Read Chkdsk Log in Event Viewer in Windows 10 | Windows 10 Tutorials

I updated my system specs. I have 2 laptops, the Envy M6 and the Pavilion 15-ab010nr. The Pavilion is the one with HDD problems. I removed the drive and attached it to the Envy M6, then ran chkdsk /f. It passed and found 52 bad sectors. I ran it again using chkdsk /r and it's taking a very long time. Mysteriously it's saying it cannot replace bad clusters due to insufficient disk space, which is odd (it was 50% full).

cytherian · 19 Jul 2018

SIW2 said:

Did you try using a linux boot disc to copy your stuff?

I initially ran a Linux boot disk to see if I could repair it, but there was no straightforward way to do it. Disk clone failed due to bad sectors. I'm hoping after the chkdsk completes, I'll be able to gain access to the drive and copy off user files. And if Windows struggles with that, I'll try it from a Linux boot environment.

When drives start to suffer bad clusters / sectors, can it become a waterfall effect where it just keeps getting worse each time the drive is accessed?

EDIT: The chkdsk seemed to recover the HDD somewhat. I could begin copying off files, with some having to be discarded due to unrecoverable errors.

I'm hoping that after I copy off everything I can try repairing the file system to clear out this available file space mismatch so that I can then repair the bad clusters. Doing a fresh O/S install would be a major pain, so if I can transfer over the O/S intact, that would be far preferable.

zbook · 19 Jul 2018

1) On the working computer open administrative command prompt with the malfunctioning drive in the HD enclosure.
Determine the disk number and then view the partitions for the problematic drive.
Run these commands for the other thread to compare the two disks.
2) type or copy and paste these commands:
3) diskpart
4) list disk
5) list volume
6) select disk 0
7) detail disk
8) list parition
9) select partition 1
10) detail partition
11) select partition 2
12) detail partition
13) select partition 3
14) detail partition
15) select partition 4
16) detail partition
17) (if there are additional partitions on disk 0 then continue in the same fashion)
18) select disk 1
19) detail disk
20) list partition
21) select partition 1
22) detail partition
23) select partition 2
24) detail partition
25) select partition 3
26) detail partition
27) select partition 4
28) detail partition
29) (if there are additional partitions on disk 1 then continue in the same fashion)
30) exit
31) When these have completed > right click on the top bar or title bar of the administrative command prompt box > left click on edit then select all > right click on the top bar again > left click on edit then copy > paste into the thread

cytherian · 20 Jul 2018

zbook said:

1) On the working computer open administrative command prompt with the malfunctioning drive in the HD enclosure.
Determine the disk number and then view the partitions for the problematic drive.
Run these commands for the other thread to compare the two disks.
2) type or copy and paste these commands:
3) diskpart
4) list disk
5) list volume
6) select disk 0
7) detail disk
8) list parition
9) select partition 1
10) detail partition
11) select partition 2
12) detail partition
13) select partition 3
14) detail partition
15) select partition 4
16) detail partition
17) (if there are additional partitions on disk 0 then continue in the same fashion)
18) select disk 1
19) detail disk
20) list partition
21) select partition 1
22) detail partition
23) select partition 2
24) detail partition
25) select partition 3
26) detail partition
27) select partition 4
28) detail partition
29) (if there are additional partitions on disk 1 then continue in the same fashion)
30) exit
31) When these have completed > right click on the top bar or title bar of the administrative command prompt box > left click on edit then select all > right click on the top bar again > left click on edit then copy > paste into the thread

I've completed all of my data transfers to my backup storage device and I was going to reinstall the HDD back into the computer to see if I could get Windows to recover and clean up the drive automatically. But if you think this would be preferable I'll go ahead and do it. When I ran "chkdsk /r", a number of bad clusters were found, but the warning message said there was insufficient space to replace the bad clusters... which is odd given how the drive is nearly 50% free.

cytherian · 20 Jul 2018

Here's the results:

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: HPENVYM6

DISKPART> list disk

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 465 GB 0 B *
Disk 1 Online 698 GB 6144 KB *

DISKPART> list volume

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 WINRE NTFS Partition 400 MB Healthy
Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 464 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 2 FAT32 Partition 260 MB Healthy System
Volume 3 WINRE NTFS Partition 650 MB Healthy
Volume 4 E Windows NTFS Partition 668 GB Healthy
Volume 5 NTFS Partition 861 MB Healthy
Volume 6 NTFS Partition 1782 MB Healthy
Volume 7 F RECOVERY NTFS Partition 27 GB Healthy
Volume 8 FAT32 Partition 260 MB Healthy Hidden

DISKPART> select disk 0

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> detail disk

Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB
Disk ID: {54C34F16-877D-11E8-BF46-A0481CD308FE}
Type : SATA
Status : Online
Path : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1100)#ATA(C00T00L00)
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : Yes
Pagefile Disk : Yes
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : Yes
Clustered Disk : No

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 WINRE NTFS Partition 400 MB Healthy
Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 464 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 2 FAT32 Partition 260 MB Healthy System

DISKPART> list partition

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Recovery 400 MB 1024 KB
Partition 2 System 260 MB 401 MB
Partition 3 Reserved 128 MB 661 MB
Partition 4 Primary 464 GB 789 MB

DISKPART> select partition 1

Partition 1 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> detail partition

Partition 1
Type : de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
Hidden : No
Required: Yes
Attrib : 0X8000000000000001
Offset in Bytes: 1048576

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 9 WINRE NTFS Partition 400 MB Healthy Hidden

DISKPART> select partition 2

Partition 2 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> detail partition

Partition 2
Type : c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b
Hidden : Yes
Required: No
Attrib : 0X8000000000000000
Offset in Bytes: 420483072

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 2 FAT32 Partition 260 MB Healthy System

DISKPART> select partition 3

Partition 3 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> detail partition

Partition 3
Type : e3c9e316-0b5c-4db8-817d-f92df00215ae
Hidden : Yes
Required: No
Attrib : 0X8000000000000000
Offset in Bytes: 693116928

There is no volume associated with this partition.

DISKPART> select partition 4

Partition 4 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> detail partition

Partition 4
Type : ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7
Hidden : No
Required: No
Attrib : 0000000000000000
Offset in Bytes: 827338752

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 464 GB Healthy Boot

DISKPART> select disk 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> detail disk

asmedia ASMT1153E SCSI Disk Device
Disk ID: {6535E79E-1983-4A2F-ABB8-1922CA60E742}
Type : USB
Status : Online
Path : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : UNAVAILABLE
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 3 WINRE NTFS Partition 650 MB Healthy
Volume 4 E Windows NTFS Partition 668 GB Healthy
Volume 5 NTFS Partition 861 MB Healthy
Volume 6 NTFS Partition 1782 MB Healthy
Volume 7 F RECOVERY NTFS Partition 27 GB Healthy
Volume 8 FAT32 Partition 260 MB Healthy Hidden

DISKPART> select partition 1

Partition 1 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> list partition

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
* Partition 1 Recovery 650 MB 1024 KB
Partition 2 System 260 MB 651 MB
Partition 3 Reserved 128 MB 911 MB
Partition 4 Primary 668 GB 1039 MB
Partition 5 Recovery 861 MB 669 GB
Partition 6 Recovery 1782 MB 669 GB
Partition 7 Primary 27 GB 671 GB

DISKPART> detail partition

Partition 1
Type : de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
Hidden : No
Required: Yes
Attrib : 0X8000000000000001
Offset in Bytes: 1048576

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 10 WINRE NTFS Partition 650 MB Healthy Hidden

DISKPART> select partition 2

Partition 2 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> detail partition

Partition 2
Type : c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b
Hidden : Yes
Required: No
Attrib : 0X8000000000000000
Offset in Bytes: 682622976

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 8 FAT32 Partition 260 MB Healthy Hidden

DISKPART> select partition 3

Partition 3 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> detail partition

Partition 3
Type : e3c9e316-0b5c-4db8-817d-f92df00215ae
Hidden : Yes
Required: No
Attrib : 0X8000000000000000
Offset in Bytes: 955252736

There is no volume associated with this partition.

DISKPART> select partition 4

Partition 4 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> detail partition

Partition 4
Type : ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7
Hidden : No
Required: No
Attrib : 0000000000000000
Offset in Bytes: 1089470464

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 4 E Windows NTFS Partition 668 GB Healthy

DISKPART> select partition 5

Partition 5 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> detail partition

Partition 5
Type : de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
Hidden : No
Required: Yes
Attrib : 0X8000000000000001
Offset in Bytes: 718378369024

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 11 NTFS Partition 861 MB Healthy Hidden

DISKPART> select partition 6

Partition 6 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> detail partition

Partition 6
Type : de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
Hidden : No
Required: Yes
Attrib : 0X8000000000000001
Offset in Bytes: 719282241536

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 12 NTFS Partition 1782 MB Healthy Hidden

DISKPART> select partition 7

Partition 7 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> detail partition

Partition 7
Type : ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7
Hidden : No
Required: Yes
Attrib : 0X0000000000000001
Offset in Bytes: 721150803968

There is no volume associated with this partition.

DISKPART> exit

cytherian · 20 Jul 2018

I ran SeaTools from Linux. Unfortunately it has an LBA error correction limit built-in, and recognizes it by the drive serial number. The drive is branded Samsung, but it is made by Seagate. I had to exit and re-run several times to advance the corrections, but eventually I hit a wall at about 80%.

However, at this point I was finally able to reboot into the normal Windows 10 desktop.

I tried running the built-in drive checking utility but after a time it began to get bogged down. The Event Viewer displayed an entry that recommended running CHKDSK /SPOTFIX. I'm hopeful Windows' own tools are the best choice here, now that the operating system is at least mostly functional (AFAIK).

When I ran a Linux based diagnostic test on the logical partitions, there was an ominous assessment. I can't recall the exact wording, but something to the effect that the drive's service life was coming to an end. I have used this laptop extensively, since it's my primary computer, and pretty much 8 to 12 hours a day. Fortuitous timing that I got myself an SSD replacement for the HDD.

I rescued all remaining data files that hadn't been previously backed up. My next step is to attempt another disk clone to the SSD. If that fails, I expect I'll have to install the O/S fresh, reinstall all programs, and migrate my data to it.

My O/S is toast. I need to copy files. Mounted HDD, but denied access

Attaching HDD from 2nd computer to 1st, no data access