External HDD. Please help me
 

Righto. I have an external HDD - Western Digital Elements 500GB. I
formatted it to NTFS a while back. The HDD itself is fine.

Vista Ultimate x64 has serious issues though. I am administrator, yet
suddenly I cannot rename any file. I can't press F2, I can't right-click
and do Rename (it isn't even on the right click menu), it isn't on the
toolbar menu, just gone.

I've been renaming files all week just fine. Now this. It happened last
week sometime too. Also sometimes it randomly decides that I can't add
or delete anything to the drive.

When I go into the Security settings, it says Admin has full privilege.
When I try to set full privilege on User, I get an error message for
*every file on the disk* saying that the file is Write Protected. It is
not. Well it shouldn't be.

This is another problem. Vista decides that every file on there should
be set to Read Only. I uncheck the box, and it re-checks it when I
reopen it.

What is Vista's problem? Why can't it just let me do what I want to do?


--
dave24x

External HDD. Please help me
 

I really don't hate Vista but it is problematic.
It has been my sad experience that many Vista installations do not stably
retain ownership/permission/sharing status from one session to the next.
This is true in Vista 32 and Vista 64. I'm sure some do, I have just never
seen one.
This is a given with external drives whose settings may be wiped out when
the unit powers down or is disconnected from the host machine. This behavior
is not a constant but a frequent occurrence.
It is an almost daily occurrence in my 2 small (5-10 machines) mixed
XP/Vista work environments that folders on a Vista machine, internal not
external hard drives, whose sharing/ownership settings have been correct and
have worked stably for some time suddenly no longer share properly. Not just
data folders but things like printers as well. Hence shared peripherals
should never be connected to a Vista machine if at all possible.
Drilling down through the obscure aracana of the sharing dialog boxes shows
that all settings are, indeed, correct and nothing has changed.
Microsoft and its apologists, who are the "MVPs" posting answers in this
newsgroup will deny this is so but it is a fact and one of many reasons why
Vista is unsuitable for large network environments. Who has the IT capacity
to constantly troubleshoot hundreds of unstable network clients? Or if the
client is to be locked down so hard that it is little more than a data input
terminal who needs the cost and overhead of Vista?
I hope that if you power down your drive, disconnect, reboot the machine and
reconnect the hard drive you will be able to reset permissions, at least for
that particular session. I most sincerely hope that you have never used any
password whatsoever.
If you can read the drive at all I would back-up any needed data to an
operating system neutral device like CD or DVD. That way if you have access
to an XP installation you may be able to retrieve the data and reset
attributes.

External HDD. Please help me
 

Thanks. I can restart the machine and it will then let me edit files
and such. I haven't tried unplug/replugging the HDD itself, I will try
that next time.

Over the course of the past few months since I started with Vista, I've
tried solving this problem on numerous Vista forums, and some 'expert'
MVP guy posted some long winded fix that didn't do anything. I've tried
to hack it through DOS, tried doing stuff in the registry, everything.
What is the deal with this Microsoft? I hope Windows 7 doesn't have
this nonsense.

Vista doesn't even manage to get folders right. I have set the Music
folder to display as Music Details style. Suddenly, every folder on the
drive sets to Music Details. Even better, some subfolders actually IN
the music folder have set themselves to Picture display. When did I
tell it to do that?


--
dave24x

External HDD. Please help me
 

This post doesn't offer a solution either but adds to the complaint. My Vista
x32 ultimate machine also often unexpectedly alters the "view" I selected for
folders. Folders which should not be in picture mode are, and when I open my
Control Panel or Explorer I never know what View each folder and sub folder
will display with. This is very taxing as I must adjust as I go along, and
then at the next reboot I must start all over again. I have not used a
password on my external HDD and from this it seems I shouldn't attempt to do
so.

Vista seems to "forget" the Folder View it is set at from log on to log on.
I too hope Windows 7 corrects this irritating issue.
--
seree


"dave24x" wrote:


Thanks. I can restart the machine and it will then let me edit files
and such. I haven't tried unplug/replugging the HDD itself, I will try
that next time.

Over the course of the past few months since I started with Vista, I've
tried solving this problem on numerous Vista forums, and some 'expert'
MVP guy posted some long winded fix that didn't do anything. I've tried
to hack it through DOS, tried doing stuff in the registry, everything.
What is the deal with this Microsoft? I hope Windows 7 doesn't have
this nonsense.

Vista doesn't even manage to get folders right. I have set the Music
folder to display as Music Details style. Suddenly, every folder on the
drive sets to Music Details. Even better, some subfolders actually IN
the music folder have set themselves to Picture display. When did I
tell it to do that?


--
dave24x

External HDD. Please help me
 

seree;1028658 Wrote:
Vista x32 ultimate machine also often unexpectedly alters the "view" I
selected for folders. Folders which should not be in picture mode are,
and when I open my
Control Panel or Explorer I never know what View each folder and sub
folder
will display with. This is very taxing as I must adjust as I go along,
and
then at the next reboot I must start all over again. I have not used a
password on my external HDD and from this it seems I shouldn't attempt
to do
so.

Vista seems to "forget" the Folder View it is set at from log on to log
on.
I too hope Windows 7 corrects this irritating issue.


THIS.

My wallpapers folder has inexplicably set itself yesterday to Music.

I set my Music folder to Music Details, with the Details view. Several
folders inside are set to picture somehow, and every folder has a
different view!


--
dave24x