[Guide] 'access denied' when writing to a file on Win7

[Koby]

If you used an external drive on Windows XP and then plug the drive into a Windows 7 PC you might have experienced this issue when trying to write to a file or save edits to an already existing txt file.

 

It'll simply pop up saying access is denied.

 

If you create a new file on the drive with the Windows 7 PC, you can save changes with no issue. The problem lies only with existing files added/created while using Windows XP.

 

It's obviously a permissions issue.

 

To fix:

Go to "My Computer" and right click the drive and select "Properties".

Click on the "Security" tab and under Groups or Usernames find "Everyone" and click "Edit".

Under permissions select "Full Control" and apply.

Voila.

 

It'll take a bit of time as you see in the box that pops up that it has to change the permissions of all files on the drive. Once it's complete you should then be able to write to existing files.