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How to Change Read Write Permission on External Hard Drive /SD Card/ SSD?

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Published By Deepa Pandey
Ashwani Tiwari
Approved By Ashwani Tiwari
Published On April 2nd, 2024
Reading Time 6 Minutes Reading
Category Windows Error

Do you want to know how to change read write permission on External hard drive on Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, and below versions? This error can occur in any storage device, like a hard disk, memory card, microSD card, SSD (solid-state drive), etc. To know the steps to change permission on external hard drive in Windows 10, continue reading this post.

Hard drives are the storage devices used to save files and data on a computer system. Though every computer comes with its own set of internal hard drives, users are often seen to use the external hard drive to meet their needs. Imagine someone connecting an external HDD to the system and seeing that they cannot copy or edit any file due to write protection. This is surely an annoying situation and this often happens to users. To solve this problem, this write-up will provide two solutions to enable write access to external hard drive in Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, 7, etc. You can apply the solution to the memory card and SSD drive as well.

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How to Change Read Write Permission on External Hard Drive? User’s Query

“After coming back from a trip, I connected my external HDD to my laptop to copy some movies. But to my utter surprise, I could not copy any movie / TV series saved on that hard drive. It says the write permission is protected. The HDD was fine just a week ago and now it started behaving like an alien. Please help me, as I have no clue what has happened to my HDD. Let me know how to change permission on external hard drive in Windows 10.”

“I have a Sandisk memory card, which restricts me from saving new data. Then, I think, the written permission changed. Can anyone suggest to me steps for how to change read-write permissions on the microSD card?”

“I am using the external solid-state drive on my Windows 10 PC. But when I tried to transfer some files from my PC’s internal hard disk,. It prompts me with an error message, i.e., hard drive write-protected. Is it possible to change read-write permission on a solid-state drive (SSD) in Windows 10?”

Why Do I Have a Read Write Permission Issue?

In case you are wondering why you are having this problem, here is the reason:. The main cause of this issue is a conflict of ownership. If a single external hard disk is used in multiple Windows versions and the ownership of the HDD or its file is assigned to anyone’s account, other account users will face this problem. This situation is especially true in the case of Seagate and some other external hard disks. Since you have landed on this page, don’t worry, as we will be explaining your remedy to external hard drive permissions in Windows 11, 10, 8.1, and 7 in the upcoming section.

Methods to Change Read Write Permission on External Hard Drive Windows

There are different ways to enable write access to external hard drive, memory cards, and SSD drive-related issues. Here, we have chosen to discuss two commonly used techniques step-by-step.

Technique 1: Change Read and Write Permission on External Drive Manually

  1. Initially, connect the external hard drive to your Windows system and wait until the system detects it.
  2. Then, press Windows key+ E together to open File Explorer.
  3. Select the drive letter for the external HDD and right-click on it to choose Properties.
  4. Choose the Security tab from the Properties window.
  5. After that, click on the Edit button to make changes to the permissions.
  6. On the next screen, you will see a section called Permissions for Authenticated Users.
  7. Check the Allow boxes corresponding to the Full Control, Modify, Read, and Write options.
  8. Finally, click on Apply >> OK to allow read and write permissions to every user.

Technique 2: Change Read Write Protection from the External Hard Drive by Using CMD

If the previous technique fails to change permission on external hard drive in Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, 7 or below versions, try this one.

  1. Press Win + R together and type cmd in the box to hit Enter.
  2. Run the command prompt as the administrator.
  3. Write diskpart and press Enter.
  4. Type list disk and press Enter again.
  5. Now, type select disk X and press Enter. (Here, replace X with your drive letter.)
  6. Write attributes to disk, clear read-only and then hit Enter.
  7. Close the command prompt. You will see that the write permission has been changed on the external hard disk.

What If External Hard Drive Data Is Not Visible Due to Corruption?

Sometimes, the external hard drive data may face corruption issues, and therefore, the systems are unable to detect them. This is an equally annoying situation for the users. To fix any type of external hard drive corruption, users can go for Hard Drive Data Recovery Software. This tool is capable of resolving both mild and severe corruption issues with an HDD. It is compatible with hard drives containing IDE, EIDE, and SATA ports.

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It is capable enough to recover deleted files after the Windows 10 update. All in all, this software can be trusted for any kind of external hard disk issue. If, for any reason, the user deletes his data from the hard drive,. There is no need to worry. Just try the Data Recovery Utility. However, if you are a computer user, then you must have this solution that can save all your files. To know how to do this application. Follow the steps mentioned below:

5 Quick Steps to Recover Lost Data From PC

  • Step 1: First, download the software and install it on your system.
  • Step 2: Then, scan your system hard drive (from data lost).
  • Step 3: After that, preview the complete data in the software panel.
  • Step 4: Finally, Save all lost data from hard drive

Concluding Words

The above discussion focused on how to change read write permission on external hard drive on Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, and 7. Here, three popular methods have been shared with the readers that they can implement to enable write access to external hard drives, memory cards (micro SD), and SSD. It is expected that the users will be able to perform the techniques by following the guidelines.