After Vista upgrade, 2nd HD can't be accessed

[Ben]

Upgraded to Vista Ultimate from XP. Boot drive is fine, but my 2nd drive,
which is only used to store pictures, cannot be accessed. I know all the
data is still there, because McAfee will scan the drive. My desktop picture
is also still present.

When in explorer and I click on the drive letter D, I get this message:
"D:\ is not accessible. Access Denied".

Any suggestions? Am i missing a driver of some kind?

 

[Bert]

Upgraded to Vista Ultimate from XP. Boot drive is fine, but my 2nd drive,
which is only used to store pictures, cannot be accessed. I know all the
data is still there, because McAfee will scan the drive. My desktop picture
is also still present.

When in explorer and I click on the drive letter D, I get this message:
"D:\ is not accessible. Access Denied".

Any suggestions? Am i missing a driver of some kind?

Maybe another letter had been assigned to the drive.
So, look in 'My Computer', and/or try some other letters, E, F, ....

Bert

 

[BobF.]

When Vista is built on your system, it creates a Recovery Partition. (D
It is used by Vista for that purpose (Recovery) and it protected. It would
not be a good idea to try to play with it. Don't try to delete, move or add
files to it. At random times Vista will create a "restore point". These
are used as reference times for you to restore your system in case you have
a system crash or an anomaly that you can't fix. A recovery list is created
for you to select from. You can also create you own restore point at any
time, when you feel your system is running smoothly. BTW "My Computer" is
now just "Computer".

 

[Malke]

When Vista is built on your system, it creates a Recovery Partition. (D

????? You will only have a special recovery partition if the operating
system came preinstalled by one of the big OEMs like HP or Sony - and if
that big OEM uses the special partition method to take the machine back to
factory condition. A clean install of Vista on bare metal will certainly
not magically create a "Recovery Partition" nor will it do this on an
upgrade install that did not originally have a special partition. In any
case, the OP has said his data is residing on a second hard drive, not on a
partition on the system drive.

The OP is having ownership issues. I'm not sure how he originally structured
the second hard drive (encrypted files? password protected with third-party
program?), but taking ownership of the drive/folders/files is probably what
he should do.

To the OP:

A. Check the permissions of the file or folder the file is saved in and take
ownership:

1. Right-click the file or folder, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Security tab.
3. Under Group or user names, click your name to see the permissions you
have.

To open a file, you need to have read permission. For more information on
permissions, see What are permissions?

http://tinyurl.com/2j9vgr

To take ownership of a folder:

1. Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then click
Properties.
2. Click the Security tab, click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
3. Click Edit. Administrator permission required If you are prompted for an
administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide
confirmation.
4. Click the name of the person you want to give ownership to.
5. If you want that person to be the owner of files and subfolders in this
folder, select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
6. Click OK

Malke

 

[BobF.]

Thanks Malke, I didn't realize this. My Dell also came with a D: partition.
My frame of reference was in this regard and when I read the OP's
description, it fell right into the incorrect model I had in my mind. I
would have liked to go back and re-read the thread but you deleted it. But
thanks in any regard.