Why are all of my USB ports recognizing all of my external hard drives as internal and making them "Not Accessible?"

Question

Hello. I have a very frustrating issue that I can't seem to find an answer for anywhere else online (that actually works). Last night, I opened "Explorer" and noticed something a little weird. All of these Removable Disk drives were showing and they've never been there before.

Upon trying to open one of these disks (to see what it was), I got the following error message:

Then, I unplugged my Multiple Card Reader (see picture) and they all went away so I learned that the card reader was the culprit. The funny thing, however, is that I've used this card reader probably a hundred times and it typically stays plugged into my PC and I've never had it do this. When it worked, it would only show up as a single Removable Disk like it's supposed to and would only show up if an actual card were in it.

I figured that was the only issue. I'd throw away the card reader, get a new one, and all would be fine. But then, I went to open my external hard drive, usually labeled "Removable Disk (D:)." It's a 16 TB WD Elements desktop hard drive that has always worked just fine. However, I noticed it now said "Local Disk (D:)."

In Disk Manager, it is also listed as "Basic:" The one pictured below is another external hard drive - a Seagate 4TB portable HD, but the same thing was happening with the 16TB desktop external HD.

When I tried to open it, I got this same error message:

I then tried the same hard drive in my laptop and I was able to access it, with all files still there. So, I learned the problem isn't the hard drive, it's something with my computer. I also tried another portable external hard drive and even a flash drive in all of my computer's USB ports and they all have the same error message "Access is denied." when I try to open them.

I then did what I always do when something like this happens and scoured the internet for a solution. I saw several people with similar issues and some solutions were offered. I tried everything I saw and nothing worked. Several of the suggestions were to fix a faulty hard drive - my hard drives are fine as they work on the other computer. Plus, when I did try to change permission settings, I wasn't able to. I received this message:

When I clicked on "Advanced," I got this message:

I even restarted the computer in Safe Mode to try to change permissions, and I wasn't able to.

I also tried uninstalling and reinstalling my USB controllers within Device Manager. Upon restarting, no fix - same error message - drive still labeled as "Local Disk."

Deactivating the paging settings also didn't work.

Basically, I saw several possible solutions for hard drive issues, but virtually no fixes for this being a computer issue. I'm pretty tech savvy, or at least resourceful enough to usually figure this stuff out, but this one has me scratching my head.

I just used that card reader and external drive as normal, without issues, last Friday. Nothing has changed with my computer from Friday to yesterday, when I noticed the issue. Nothing was installed, deleted, modified - nothing. This appears to have just happened out of nowhere.

I feel like I've narrowed it down to either a motherboard or BIOS issue or possibly an OS issue, but I would love some expert advice on this.

I have the following motherboard and system info:

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Answer 1

Hello there,

Based upon the information provided

There are lot of reasons that could be the conflict.

Please search CMD on the search bar and then

Type chkdsk and hit enter

check if there is any disk issue

I would prefer you to Please make a soft reset to the pc for that

Open Settings:

Press Windows key + I to open the Settings app.

Access the Recovery Options:

In the Settings app, click on "Update & Security," then select "Recovery" from the left sidebar.

Choose Reset this PC:

Under the "Reset this PC" section, click on the "Get started" button.

Choose an Option:

You'll be presented with two options:

Keep my files: This option will remove apps and settings but keep your personal files intact.

Remove everything: This option will remove all of your personal files, apps, and settings.

Select the "Keep my files" option.

and check the issue again.

And see if it helps,

Thank you

--If the reply is helpful, please Upvote and Accept as answer--

Answer 2

Limitless Technology • Follow38,326Reputation points Aug 16, 2023, 6:53 AM I would prefer you to Please make a soft reset to the pc for that

Thank you for this info @Limitless Technology . I tried the soft reset as you suggested and it didn't work, but you did lead me to thinking about doing a full hard reset. That did work! Obviously, that was my last resort, but I'm convinced there was no other way to resolve this issue. Even in safe mode, it wouldn't allow me to change permission settings or anything. I updated the BIOS and that didn't work either. I literally tried everything that I found on the web and nothing worked. A hard reset was the only option and it worked. Luckily, I followed the advice of Matt Johnson (whoismatt on YouTube) when I built my PC and my little 500GB internal C: drive is just used for operating system and applications. I have two other much larger internal hard drives that store most of my important data. I disconnected them for the reset and saved the few files I had on my C: drive to Google Drive before the hard reset. It's a bit more work getting everything back to the way I had it, but totally worth it to have my USB ports functioning again. Thanks for steering me in the right direction!