Keep losing access permission to external HDD

I have a brand new WD Red 4TB external HDD. I use this as a backup for my windows.
It is externally powered.
I used multiple of USB3.0 cables to test it out.
At least once a week I'll get external HDD getting corrupted/locked with the following message:
You don't currently have permission to access this foler.
Click Continue to permanently get access to this folder.

I replaced the HDD with a WD Black 2TB drive to test... a week later the same issue.

I keep losing my backups!

My PC has also an internal WD Black 2TB HDD with no issues whatsoever. This only happens to my external device.


Processor 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-11900KF @ 3.50GHz 3.50 GHz
Installed RAM 32.0 GB (31.9 GB usable)
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

I use self-powered WD MyBook External USB 3 drives plugged into a self-powered USB 3 Hub and haven't seen the issue. Haven't needed to open the cases to check if the drives are Red, Black, Green or Blue as used in Desktops or Servers or NAS. Same for my 2 My Passport drives. Also have not seen that issue when plugging drives into a USB3 2-bay Drive Dock for working with them. Have you tried the drive/s on a different computer?

Check permissions - this link may help (don't worry if it's not an HP): FIX: You Don't currently have permission to access this folder (Solved)

I have not experienced permission problems but I definitely have battled my external drives not being detected when the PC wakes from sleep. I can not say for certain why, just that I know it has something to do with the way 11 handles power. I found using externally powered drives connected to an externally powered hub has solved most of my problems though it's not 100%. It still happens occasionally.

I also use an external drive for images on one of my systems, but I only turn it on when I need it. Don't know if that would help.

One thing just came to my sometimes-feeble mind, when losing access to a drive occurs it may help to open Task Manager and go to Windows Explorer/File Explorer and Restart it, force re-reading the drives available. Quicker than rebooting.

I had seen a similar issue on my enclosure (external SATA HDD).
it's related to energy-saving, sleep-mode, , ,. no good solution even I turned off all settings of energy-saving, sleep-mode.

Once idle awhile, my PC will lose the connection of enclosure. Now I simply turn it off if NOT in use.

Gil80 said:

I replaced the HDD with a WD Black 2TB drive to test... a week later the same issue.

I keep losing my backups!

Click to expand...

My thanks to Gil80 -
This post may be what I've been battling, my external drive(s) not being detected when Macrium scheduled B/U's try to run. I can see the drive in File Explorer but Macrium does not. I use external drive for my Macrium images. Both 4GB / USB 3.0 - WD Elements and a Toshiba Canvio

Per Berton's post I'll try Windows Explorer/File Explorer Restart and see if it fixes the problem.

For my problem - a simple file explorer restart did the trick. The Macrium form only offered (1) a new 3.0 drive (2) new cable.
Now got to figure out how to automate it before any of my scheduled back up's start.

Berton said:

File Explorer and Restart it

Click to expand...

Thanks Berton

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.
In the meantime, I disconnected the drive.