error 5 no access

[midi459]

when i try to surface scan i get error 5 no access
i tryied unlocked and locked
it states its in use ..spare drive not my boot drive
any ideas ?

[hdsentinel]

I suspect you were trying a WRITE test and you are using Windows Vista/7. Can you please confirm that?

Please use Report menu Send test report to developer option, it would help to verify the situation and check any possible incompatibilities.

[midi459]

yes vista want to run non destructive test on storage drive (non boot

[hdsentinel]

yes vista want to run non destructive test on storage drive (non boot

Thanks, I see.

Under Windows Vista and Win 7 Microsoft introduced a bug (what they call "security feature") which prevents
the low level disk writes (and thus write testing) if the corresponding hard disk has one or more partitions.
Even if the partitions are dismounted properly the operating system blocks access - that's why you
receive the "Access denied" errors.

We're doing our best to improve the situation, it will be fixed soon.
Until that, write tests under Vista / 7 is possible only if you previously remove the partition(s) from the affected disk in
Windows -> Computer -> Disk Management before starting the test - but this is not possible for the "Refresh data area" test.

[davephx]

I realize this is old but wonder if any update.

Getting same as reported on Win 7 64 bit Access denied error however if I ignore the warning and continue it runs the very long disk test and showed no errors on one drive.

But because of the big warning, I hesitate to run it on drives/partitions with critical data.

Have no desire to wipe out partitions in order to do test on a clean drive.

Thanks

[hdsentinel]

Do you plan to use the READ or WRITE test?

Generally, the READ test can be started on the drive even if you receive this message as it does not affect the stored data in any ways.
So it is completely safe to start.

The "Access denied" error is displayed because one or more software has open file(s) / folder(s) on the corresponding drive. This can be a running application, antivirus software, Windows system/temp file(s) or anything else. Even an open Explorer window may prevent the lock (and exclusive use) of the disk.
(basically this is not related to Hard Disk Sentinel but an other software).


For a WRITE test, the exclusive lock is required (otherwise the test cannot run due to limitations of Windows).
For a READ test, the exclusive lock is not required, so you can select Continue to proceed the test. Just in that case other programs running may affect the measurement of the transfer speed which may result in some darker spots on the disk surface map. However, if the test does not show yellow or red blocks, then everything is perfect - regardless of the other programs running.

So if you plan to use the READ test, you can use the Continue / Ignore button (depending on the OS version) as it does not affect the stored data.

[davephx]

Great explanation.

On the READ test, I am not finding info on what the "dark green" means that I notice. I might have missed but haven't found explanation of the different colors of green that show up with surface scan test.

The green checked icons or red is creative idea. At first I wondered how they all of a sudden showed up in Explorer and wondered if I just hadn't noted before till I read HDS put them there.

[hdsentinel]

Thanks for your answer.

For more information, please check Help -> Hard disk tests -> Surface test.

"During the tests, Hard Disk Sentinel verifies the integrity of each sectors under the displayed blocks. If the block is accessible and can be processed without errors, they are shown by green color. Darker green color means that the sectors are slower and harder to process. "

...
"Note: during the tests, software and the operating system running in the background may affect the performance (thus the resulting color) of each blocks. To minimise this effect, the software prevents the screensaver from starting, prevents the computer entering any standby or lower power management mode and using a higher priority. Anyway, it is recommended to close all other background operations during the test and repeat the test if the performance decrease effects a larger area (not only 1-1 blocks). The software has option to repeat the test to minimise this momentary performance decrease."


and there are also some example images in this section.

[davephx]

If all else fails read HELP

Unlike many program where help is often of no help yours are great --- if we would just read them !

[juice99]

We're doing our best to improve the situation, it will be fixed soon.

so 4 years later I still got this problem described in this thread, I cannot run any destructive or even READ-WRITE-READ test on my D: partition. I made sure that it is unmounted (with no letters assigned) and not being used, my system is on C: of course, but still I cannot run this test... I get this error 5 no access

are you going to fix it?

[hdsentinel]

I'm really going to "fix" it - but I'm afraid it does not really depend on us, it is not really a problem/bug/limitation of the software.

The tests run on physical hard disks, not partition(s).
So if you prefer to test a particular hard disk with WRITE type tests (including the WRITE test, WRITE+READ test, READ-WRITE-READ test or Reinitialize disk surface test), the hard disk need to be completely unmounted from the system, to prevent any kind of other access by other software (including the OS).
Of course if you have C: partition (your Windows partition) on the same hard disk, it cannot be unmounted: Windows does not allow this.
This is logical of course - as otherwise the system would crash immediately when a system file / appliction would need to be loaded or a file (eg. a temporary file) need to be written.

So if you prefer to test this hard disk, I'm afraid you'd need to
- connect it as a secondary hard disk in an other computer
- start a Live Windows CD/DVD/pendrive and launch Hard Disk Sentinel Pro (portable) which can then unmount the drive (as the OS would not be active on this hard disk) and perform the testing.

Yes, years ago we expected that there may be a quick fix or similar situation which will allow testing PARTIAL hard disk under Win7 (just like as it's possible under XP). But found no such solution - that's why the situation is still the same.

Anyway, constantly looking for new ways and improved test methods which makes things easier - these are under construction and will be available in a later version.

[rippro]

I too had the exact same problem. The solution was to do a quick format ext4 (Linux) that way windows doesn't want anything to do with it and HDS will be able to lock it and you can perform any write test

[hdsentinel]

The problem was that one or more file(s) or folder(s) used by any installed software.
This may be sometimes hard to tell if no software seems running, as it is even possible that a background defragmenter / antivirus / indexer service was actually using / monitoring one or more files/folders.

Yes, formatting to a partition which can't be read/written by Windows (and any other software) is a good solution, but may be complicated.
It may be enough to simply
- perform a quick format of the partition (to surely clear it completely)
or
- delete the partition(s) from the drive

as then we can be sure that no software can use/lock any file or folder.