[Coco] W A R N I N G!!!

[Jay Coleman]

Others have mentioned bad hardware or a virus, which I agree should be investigated.

Another possibility is NTFS can have major access issues if you saved the data on one system and are reading it on another, or even using a different user (different ID specifically, the username doesn't matter).  Or even after some system updates.  Presuming you're using windows, one thing you can try is to open an explorer window as Administrator (right click, Run as Administrator), and try to view the data.  If you can access it now then it is a permissions issue.  You can also open a cmd prompt as administrator and navigate to a file you couldn't access and run  'more <filename>'.  Here also if you can get data it is a permissions problem.

In an administrative command prompt also, you can use
dir <drive>:<file> /A
Or
dir <drive>:<file> /Q /A
to see the current file owner.  If it shows a long code, then the SID (the code) is not mapping to a user on your system.

If it does look like a permission/ownership issue, there are a few fixes.  None of the below should cause any actual loss, but it is possible to make things worse, so use with discretion.  I suggest trying on a small subdirectory first.

To give yourself permissions again:
icacls <drive>:<file, dir or *> /grant:r <username>:(F) /T /C
This grants full permissions (F) to all files, recursively (/T) on <drive> to <username>, continuing on errors (/C).  :r says to replace any previously existing grants for that user.  You can add /Q to quiet success messages and speed things up if there are a lot of files.
icacls /? includes a list of the permission codes.  There are also a lot of other possible options such as /reset.

You can also try (from an administrative prompt)
takeown /F <drive>:*  /A /R
This give ownership of all files on <drive> recursively (/R) to the Administrators group.  At that point you can reset the permissions using properties from explorer.

Generally, I don't recommend using NTFS on removable media.  It's more resilient than FAT, but is still subject early removal/disconnect damage and a lot of the permissions structures depend on system specific IDs, or even a specific set of inheritances, so it doesn't transport well.

If it doesn't seem to be permissions, or otherwise nothing else seems to work, I've had excellent results from testdisk (https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk).  It is fantastic at recovering lost data.  The only bad part is it can (at times) be pretty technical, and the process can take several hours depending on the disk size.  It's safe to use, it won't make any changes without asking, and changes are only part of repairs, not retrieval.

Basically, it will scan the entire drive looking for any remnants of partitions, file tables, directories, what have you, then let you save whatever it discovers somewhere else.  I once used it to pull the entire contents from a 4 GB compactflash (thousands of pictures) with a wrecked master directory.  Great tool.

Feel free to email direct if I can clarify or help, but please note I sometimes miss emails in the flow.

Hope this helps and good luck!
Jay


On September 20, 2018 1:27:57 AM CDT, Joe Schutts via Coco <coco at maltedmedia.com> wrote:
>Hi Everyone,
>While this warning pertains to Windows (and Linux) Based Systems it can
>also pertain to CoCo Users as well, especially if you are using a SATA
>or an IDE HD attached to an external SATA or IDE HD Docking Stations.
>
>I have a 2-Port External SATA Docking Station that I use mostly for
>long-term Program and Data storage using mostly 1TB (and up to 4TB)
>HD's. I recently added a 3-Port External Docking Station (1 IDE and 2
>SATA Ports) to my system.
>
>Somewhere between using the 2-Port and the 3-Port Docking Station (I'm
>still trying to figure out WHEN AND WHY this problem occurred) ALL of
>my information disappeared on several HD's. And when I say several
>HD's, I mean OVER 8-10 HD's. I figure I have lost OVER 10-16 TB worth
>of info. Now the weird part is that ALL my Directories (AND my
>Sub-Directories) are STILL there and show up without any problems. The
>MAJOR problem is that ANY Directory (or Sub-Directory) that had ANY
>info in it, has disappeared... It's completely gone...
>
>Now I'm afraid to put anything on my HD's (using any external HD
>Docking Station of ANY type) to transfer files to any external HD.  Now
>I'm pretty sure that the info is still there, but the question now
>becomes "HOW do I recover or access my old info?"
>Something else that enters into this puzzle is the part that ALL of
>these HD's were formatted in NTFS format. So now what program do I use
>or HOW do I recover my lost info???
>
>If ANYONE has ANY ideas on how I should proceed AND/OR which program I
>should try to use, PLEASE let me know as I've run out of ideas and VERY
>desperate...
>
>I hope this helps and that NO ONE else runs into this problem. I'd hate
>to see anyone else have this problem like me...
>
>Take care everyone...
>
>Joe...
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
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