Question Can't create an empty file on my internal E drive (8TB) after having using WIN11 disc to repair

[barleysinger]

I have no idea what to do next. I bought a new PC. A custom build from a well known company (supposedly good).

Waited a few weeks for my monitor to show. I set it all up. It wouldn't boot properly (I have complained to the vendor).

I got tired of having to boot to a WIN DVD to get past the problem so I used the Windows 11 disc to repair the OS. After that it booted perfectly, except that I can no longer write to my 8TB SATA E: drive (WD 8TB Red Plus 256MB CMR 3.5" SATA HDD).

I did chkdsk and windows said it had errors so I let the OS reboot and the repair the HDD. I still can't create a new file on E: or do any other write operation. chkdks claims there are no errors.

I can see it. I can browse it and I can open the files locally and from the local network. But I can't make a new file on the HDD. When I try to I gt this message.

So what information would be helpful?

-- more info --

so I just tried editing a file already on the E: HDD

This file was made by a different machine via local network before I 'fixed' my Win install.

In fact any of the text files on machine SPEEDY drive E: can be edited by SPEEDY or anyone else on the network. But I cannot make a file on that HDD from anywhere.

I can still edit it and save the changes even though I cannot make any files on that HDD.

and saving a file on the drive from another machine (the one that created it). I added a line to the test file, saved it, and it was fine.

 

[USAFRet]

Forget "repair"...maybe try a full wipe and OS install on the desired drive?

How To - Windows 11 clean install tutorial

Windows 11 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows 11, version 23H2 or newer but can be equally applied to earlier versions which may have some basic differences in the screens you see but will largely remain similar in...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[barleysinger]

Forget "repair"...maybe try a full wipe and OS install on the desired drive?

How To - Windows 11 clean install tutorial

Windows 11 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows 11, version 23H2 or newer but can be equally applied to earlier versions which may have some basic differences in the screens you see but will largely remain similar in...

forums.tomshardware.com

I'm currently copying everything on E: to F: so I can reformat the annoying HDD and see if that works.

Sure there may be some other way to remove the 'stupid' from my E drive permissions without that step but I sure don't know what it is. If somebody tells me it would be great. At this point I figure I copy my data from E to F and reformat E (which had no errors on chkdsk).

Oh well. I got here by doing a repair & at least it boots properly.

I know one step I ought to take somewhere in all of this is to allow Windows 11 Pro to update (noooo!) It is possible that this is what was done right before this box was shipped - the thing that left it unstable.

 

[USAFRet]

I'm currently copying everything on E: to F: so I can do just that. There may be someway to remove the 'stupid' from my E drive permissions without that step but I sure don't know what it is.

I got here by doing a repair. At least it boots properly. But I'm a bit reluctant to let Win 11 Pro update given that this is probably what was done right before this box was shipped.

What drives are E and F?
Hopefully not just partitions on a single drive?

The permissions thing is probably because you're trying to copy the whole Library? Documents/Music/etc...

Do the full wipe and reinstall.
Then all should work, including ongoing 'Windows Updates'.

 

[barleysinger]

What drives are E and F?
Hopefully not just partitions on a single drive?

The permissions thing is probably because you're trying to copy the whole Library? Documents/Music/etc...

Do the full wipe and reinstall.
Then all should work, including ongoing 'Windows Updates'.

C and D are SSDs (2tb) and e and f are both 8TB SATA drives (WD 8TB Red Plus 256MB CMR 3.5" SATA HDD).

Still freaky that Win 11 is treating an entire drive this way.
||
>The permissions thing is probably because you're trying to copy the whole Library? Documents/Music/etc...

I think you are confusing things.

I *cannot* create a new file on E regardless of how. It doesn't matter if I try to just make a new text file, or if try to make a second copy of a file that is right there in the same directory (copy and paste). It fails. This is not about the permissions on a file being copied to E. It is about the permissions on the entire drive.

Having found this out I started backing up E onto F so that I can reformat E.

E was fine before and then an OS screw up gave it restrictions such that nobody can make new files on it regardless of which machine they are on. But they can edit existing files.

 

[Buffer0195]

Have these 8TB drives been used before? Maybe in a RAID array?

Check CrystalDiskInfo to see if your drives report bad health.

1. Ensure you have enough space on the drive in the drive's Properties window. Double-check this because Windows rounds down some displayed data. If you're filling the drive to capacity (or very close to it) know that there are files that manage the NTFS filesystem that take space as well.

Can you save a 1kb text file?

2. Permissions may be involved here even if you didn't set them. I would run this command to reset them and allow them to inherit the default permissions.

Reset permissions on drive assigned E:
ICACLS "E:\" /reset /T /C
ICACLS "E:\" /inheritance:e /T /C

Reset permissions on drive assigned F:
ICACLS "F:\" /reset /T /C
ICACLS "F:\" /inheritance:e /T /C

3. If you still can't fix this error I would clean the drive using DiskPart (Run -> DiskPart). Be careful! Double-check that you are formatting the drive you think you are. Label the drives something you recognize and check Disk Management to note their disk number as in disk 0, disk 1.

DISKPART> list disk
DISKPART> select disk [0]
DISKPART> clean

This will completely clear all partitions and volumes on the drive and de-initialize the disk. You'll need to use Disk Management in Windows (Windows + X, K) to set the drive up again with partitions.

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If everything else fails you may have to kiss your data goodbye and format if you don't have more backups. Follow the 3-2-1 rule in the future. 3 copies of your data, 2 locally stored copies, 1 cloud copy.

 

[General_Cool]

Is the drive set to read only mode? If so I'd check CrystalDiskInfo like Buffer0195 suggested for drive health, as the drive may be failing and in read only mode for data protection purposes.

You can change a drive to/from read only mode like this: https://superuser.com/questions/1742390/how-to-make-my-d-drive-read-only