External HDD access denied on a Windows 10 Computer

Support
1

Hello Folks!

Today I put my external HDD, which I use at my main working Windows Computer onto my manjaro laptop.
I installed zoom via the terminal (AUR Package) and updated my system before that.
I also used the command

sudo pacman -S git base-devel --noconfirm

Putting my HDD onto my windows PC now - it’s tells me that my access is denied.
On the other hand - I still have access via my manjaro laptop…

Does anyone have a solution to fix this problem?

I would be grateful for any advices!
Greetings

2

Did you format the disk? Or do anything to it?
Installing packages while its plugged in wouldnt have changed permissions on it.
In fact - usually windoze drives dont have permissions at all, but linux filesystems like ext4 do.

3

I think it might be linked to the System Update, cuz it was quite a huge package.

4

Can you provide screenshots of the Windows error dialog?

Make sure you don’t tell Windows to try to fix the drive or format it.

I don’t understand why you’re bringing up the fact that you ran updates on Manjaro? It could be a coincidence that one thing happened after the other.

What filesystem is in this drive?

5

If I have to guess then filesystem of that partition is not FAT32, or exFAT or NTFS, so Windows has no access to it because linux filesystems are not supported. And yes, I remember you get such a message if the partition has a foreign filesystem.

6

Except they phrased the introduction as

But I too suspect they formatted it in manjaro (purposefully or otherwise).

7

Is there a way to undo that?

8

Two folders appeared on my HDD.
A “system Volume Information” and “$RECYCLE.BIN”.
I sadly can’t post any pictures I guess.

9

First check, if it really a linux filesystem:

lsblk --fs

If that is true, then Windows have or had access to this partition since only Windows creates these folders.

10

You can use a third-party service, such as imgur, and post the link in here. If links are not allowed, just “cheat” by breaking up the URL. :wink:

11

So apparently what he tells me after dooing the

lsblk --fs

is:

sdb
└─sdb1
ntfs Elements
C8D0A29FD0A2936C 1,4T 22% /run/media/lauritzr/Elements
sr0

Could it be that Manjaro linked the permission to open the HDD to one explict username which in my case is “lauritzr”?
Is there a way to “reopen” my HDD to all Users?

12

Yes, but it does not change any written permissions on NTFS, since Linux does not support the Windows Permission-Managment, but it emulates the permissions by remapping it for your username.

So if you want to change permissions on the NTFS filesystem you have to change that on Windows, since Linux changes nothing there as described above.

1 Like
13

Do you know the command to:

  1. add a second user name
    or better:
  2. delete any namelinked connections with the HDD?
14

@Vagabund

Why would you do that? There must be an owner and a group of the files so that you can access the files, it will not work without. As said… remapping on linux is just a translations layer, nothing more. No permissions which have been set on Linux on NTFS will survive after reboot or remount of the HDD, they are temporary.

Changing the permissions directly on the filesystem, so that windows can read and write to it, have to be done on Windows.

1 Like
15

Can you please provide / link to this screenshot? For the sake of accuracy, it really depends what the “error” is.

“Access is denied” is too vague to troubleshoot.

  • It might be in regards to mapping a drive letter (that somehow was unmapped.)

  • It might be in regards to NTFS security / access control (as @megavolt explains must be done from within Windows itself.)

  • It might be in regards to a filesystem error, in which you need to run a check/repair from within Windows itself.

1 Like
16

Thank y’all for your help and your time!
I said like you did and added my user via the window properties.

Wasn’t hard, just hard to find… ^^

Thank you!

17

I marked post #12 as the solution for future readers, members, and web searches.

As the author of a thread, next time the issue is resolved, you can click on the three-dots … for the relevant post and then choose :white_check_mark: Solution

And then Paypal me 550 € for time and labour. :smirk:

18

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