WD External hard drive trouble with read-only access

I just got a new HP desktop with 64bit Home Premium. My external, which
I loaded from my Dell laptop (with Windows XP), now is all read-only.
(The read only box is filled, rather than checked.) I cannot modify any
files in he drive, but can access them all.

I have already tried the following proposed fixes with no success:


- Right-click on drive; properties; tools tab; check now; unchecked
both boxes and started and completed the check with no errors
- Changed drive ownership to administrator
- Changed drive ownership to my personal account

After each of these I tried to clear the read-only box, but the files
still can't be modified, and the filled box is back when I re-open the
properties on folders inside the drive.

Any help would be appreciated!

Click Start-All Programs- Accessories,

Right click CMD.EXE and select Run As Administrator,

Type CD\ to drop into the root directory.

Change to the external drive letter and type the following;

ATTRIB -S -H -R *.*/S and hit Enter.

Thanks a lot! :D It works just fine now...

Could you possibly explain what exactly those commands did? I am just
curious as to what needed to be changed and how you came up with this
particular solution

External is USB? Check that registry value
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies\WriteProtect is
not set.

You didn't bother to quote Badger's message - and the "forum" to which you
posted your messages simply relayed them to the Microsoft public news
server - with NO context - so I've pasted his instructions here, with my
comments inserted

This opens an "elevated Command Prompt", officially known as an
Administrator:Command Prompt. See the Title Bar in the Command Prompt
window. You must furnish Administrator credentials to open this window.
Once here, any command or application you launch will run "elevated" - as
Administrator.

The Command Prompt window, elevated or not, is an emulation of MS-DOS, the
operating system that many of us used for years before the first Windows
arrived back in the 1950's. Even though the GUI (Graphical User Interface)
puts a pretty, friendly face on the operating system, under the hood, many
jobs can only be done by using the more-powerful "DOS" commands. Those of
us who grew up with these commands use them as second nature and don't
remember that they are a new idea to some users.

CD is for Change Directory and \ is the symbol for the Root, or top-level
directory for a drive; "directories" are now called "folders" but the
command is still CD, not CF. In the Command Prompt window, type CD /? to
see a "mini-Help" file listing all the parameters and switches that you can
use with that command. This /? trick works with just about any command;
read on...

Again, type attrib /? to see a list of switches and parameters with this
command. Attrib is for Attribute. Each file or folder may have one or more
of several attributes: System, Hidden, Read-only, etc. This command can
turn those Attributes on or off. The wildcard *.* applies it to all files
in that directory, and the /s extends the command to all subdirectories
(subfolders). Badger's command will remove all those attributes from all
the files and folders in the directory where it is used.

If you have more questions, you might want to "cut out the middleman" and
post directly to the Microsoft public news server, which is free and does
not require you to log on. Just click here to start up your default
newsreader and connect to THIS newsgroup:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsof...rdware_devices

[gut_reaper]

hey, i tried the same thing but my command prompt says "path not found"
then i tried typing ATTRIB -S -H -R and it says access denied -k: \HPLauncher. exe
access denied -K:\autorun.inf
i tried deleting and changing the partition so that i can use it on my ps3 but i failed. new partition CDFS