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Question

USB Thumb Drive asking for admin rights (I am the admin)

Aug 31, 2017 1:17PM PDT

Hi
I am admin on my laptop. From past 3 weeks, I am having trouble with usb thumb drives. I can create folder in the thumb storage USB, and can copy from the usb. But I cannot copy INTO USB or Delete anything IN USB.

The first error pop up says "You'll need to provide administrator permission to copy to this folder". and there are three option: Continue, Skip, Cancel.

https://ibb.co/e2krgk

If I click on "Continue", I get another pop-up saying: "You need permission to perform this action". There are 2 options : Try again, Cancel

https://ibb.co/m5MWgk

If I click "Try again", the same pop up appears over and over.

I have done all kind of things. Went to device manager and deleted greyed out USB drives.

https://ibb.co/maBKZ5

Right click on usb drive, click properties > security > advanced > Permissions. It shows everyone has full control under permission.

https://ibb.co/cp2tu5
https://ibb.co/esizZ5
https://ibb.co/dgV2nQ
https://ibb.co/ce02nQ
https://ibb.co/gWRKZ5
https://ibb.co/mkDBgk
https://ibb.co/jKZHMk

Some options later are greyed out, since it's a corporate laptop. But I could perform any action of the laptop. its just from last 2-3 weeks USB is behaving into these errors.

Please help.

Regards

Discussion is locked

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Answer
First we need to clear up the admin misconception.
Aug 31, 2017 1:55PM PDT

Admin is not God. Even the admin accounts must obey file, folder and device permissions. The drive is NTFS so you may get messages like all the above.

I see Everyone which is OK but I can't find the owner of the root folder. May have missed that.

So if this was mine, I'd just copy the content out, format the drive again which resets all permissions and try again.

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Even formatting does not work
Sep 1, 2017 9:08AM PDT

Hi

I inserted a fresh usb in another usb port and tried to format it so that I could copy the file to it. I downloaded HP's formatting utility HPUSBDisk.exe but I can not even run this utility. The error message is in the attached picture.

https://ibb.co/jg2abv

Note: However, I am able to install any other software.

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Yup. I have to run the HP formatter as Admin now.
Sep 1, 2017 9:14AM PDT

It's deeply confusing to many that they are admin but still need to run as admin.

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USB has data but Computer Management shows USB is 100% free
Sep 1, 2017 12:28PM PDT

Another puzzling thing is that I have data in the USB Drive as shown in figure below.

https://ibb.co/hfaFbv

But when I go to Computer Management, it shows E: (USB drive) is 100% free.

https://ibb.co/g5PK3a

I tried everything but still the admin error persists (cannot copy or delete anything in USB)

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That may be a clue. Not a great one.
Sep 1, 2017 12:38PM PDT

But this sounds like the old issue noted time and time again at prior discussions found with https://www.google.com/search?q=windows+7+shows+100%25+free+in+disk+management

My answer is this is a Microsoft Windows Bug that hasn't been fixed. To really rankle folk and I hope you understand, Microsoft usually calls this cosmetic since WFE is right and it doesn't matter what disk management reports. "Cosmetic."

That said, there is something iffy about the drive. I can't guess what it is but if this was mine I'd take it to my Linux machine to wipe and reformat.

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Resolved
Sep 2, 2017 6:31PM PDT

So, I took the USB and tried to format on my mac. But the same problem. Permission denied. I downloaded the software "NTFSmac15" but it gave the same error.

Finally, with USB thumb drive in the USB port, I re-started Mac in recovery mode (press option key while restarting) and from there opened Disk utility and erased the drive and formatted in exFAT system.

It works like charm now.

Thanks everyone for the support.

Regards

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Tim Taylor approved.
Sep 2, 2017 6:48PM PDT

More power.

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Reading some priors, someone noted FAKE MEMORY STICKS.
Sep 1, 2017 12:40PM PDT