Dying OS drive, folder permissions, and HD pooling software

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castun

2[H]4U
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Sep 23, 2010
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HTPC started acting funny about a week ago, just random crashes & errors about Win7 x64 unable to startup, even though rebooting again worked. Nothing that pointed to memory or CPU problems, so I did a deep HD scan with Window's built-in scanner on the 300GB OS drive, took several hours, but no idea if it found or fixed anything because it just rebooted back into Windows just fine.

Tried CrystalDiskInfo next, and sure enough, several errors indicating it's going to die soon.

I have 2 storage drives in there that are pooled with DriveBender (which CrystalDiskInfo shows as both good) that have media. Somehow, I lost write-access to the folders, only have read-access now, and it doesn't seem like I have proper access / permissions to fix. Even though the Administrators group, Everyone group, and the HTPC account (which is the only account, and therefore an Administrator account) are listed as full access, any time I try to move files or adjust permissions it gives me an access denied error. Double checked the user account, definitely still sole account, with Administrator privileges. I can't even create a new folder in the rood of D: either.

Not sure what else to check or try before I get around to replacing the OS drive and reinstalling Windows.
 
Assuming DriveBender is like other pooling software that leaves the files on the disks readable when you separate the devices, Boot off of a linux live usb stick and see if you can copy your files. In linux you should not get any access denied errors at all.
 
I fixed the permission issue, it was a simple matter of removing both drives from the pool and then adding them back in. I think one of the crashes had restored the system to an earlier point which somehow confused access permissions.

Now just a matter of replacing the main hard drive. Wonder if it's possible to just try and clone the drive rather than having to reinstall everything from scratch.
 
So funny story...the drive pool was being set to read-only because the program was still on the trial license. Apparently once that expires it only gives you an hour of full read-write access after every reboot. Problem is, there's no popup or warnings, it just does it. I only happened to see the message in the log when I was snooping around.

I had bought the 2-license deal when I first started using it but never entered the full version serial key. Silly me.
 
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