I have an external HDD, which can be powered by either using a Power Supply or the USB port itself. When I use the USB to connect directly to my computer, I can access the Filesystem, can Copy Files to my drive, I actually can edit them and Save Files, but I cannot Delete, Create nor Save Files as New File on the drive.
But if I use the cable and plugin my USB cable after 6 seconds, it suddenly works!
This problem does not appear on Windows XP, but on Windows 7 and 8.
What could be causing this problem?
51 Answer
This sounds like a permission problem. Usually large external USB flash devices are formatted with NTFS which supports permissions for creating, editing, reading, deleting of file/directories.
As this is unwanted on an external USB flash all files are usually created using the permission "Everybody" set to "Full control". May be because of an error or a certain application it looks like the permissions were changed.
I would do the following:
- First I would check the disk for errors (chkdsk).
- On Windows 7/8 open the property page of the disc and select the security tab. Edit the permissions and add "Full control" for Everybody and apply this to all files, folders and subfolders.
Alternatively if you can backup all the files from the stick, and just format it new. This should also "erase" all your problems.
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