How to Fix Error “Location is Not Available” in Windows 10, 8, 7?

Content

  • Why does computer say “location is not available”?

  • How to fix location is not available in Windows 10, 8, 7?

  • Method 1. give the full control of the file or folder. 

  • Method 2. Have the ownership of the file/folder

  • Method 3. Run CHKDSK.exe command

  • Method 4. Format the hard drive

  • Conclusion

Scenario

Why does computer say “location is not available”?

“Location is available” can be cause by various reasons, like corrupted file system, bad sectors, incorrect operation. And when you receive a message saying your external hard drive, USB, particular file or folder is not accessible, it usually displays some symptoms on the pop-up dialogue, such as “Access is denied”, “Parameter is incorrect”.

If you have this issue, don’t worry, just refer to the next part try to solve this problem in Windows.

How to fix error “Location is not available” in Windows 10, 8, 7?

Next, this part will demonstrate 4 methods of unavailable location in Windows 10, 8, 7 according to the common reasons.

Method 1. Give user the full control of the file or folder

When you have a problem that a file or folder is inaccessible, maybe it is because the Windows does not have enough authorities to manage the “location”. you can try to enable the user full control to solve it.

Step 1. Locate the file or folder. Right-click on it. Then select “Properties” on the drop-down menu.

Step 2. Choose the “Security” tab, click the “users” icon.

Step 3. Click “Edit” to change the permissions.

Step 4. On the “Permissions” section. Make sure “Full control” is allowed.

Method 2. Have the ownership of the file or folder

Taking ownership of a file or folder is to have the permissions to change a file or folder. When the file, folder or a drive is not available, you can try to take the ownership of it

Step 1. Right-click on the available/inaccessible folder or drive, and select “Properties”

Step 2. On the Properties window, choose “Security” tab. Click the “advanced” button.

Step 3. Click “change”, and select your user name. Then hit “OK” to save the setting.

Method 3. Run CHKDSK.exe check

Corrupted file system and bad sectors can lead to “location is not available” problem. And sometimes, it comes with a message like “The parameter is incorrect”, “This volume does not contain a recognized file system”, and so on. After tried solutions above, you may need to consider this condition.

To check and fix bad sectors and corrupted file system, you can run CHKDSK checking program that will scan through all sectors on your hard drive and report its status. Then it will automatically repair the hard drive.

Option 1. Check hard drive with Command Prompt

Step 1. Press “Win + X” and click “Command Prompt (administrator).

Step 2. Type “chkdsk drive number /f /r /x” on the Command Prompt. And press Enter.

And it will exam the drive. And files, bad sectors and other information will be displayed on the window. Then the program will try to fix the drive.

Option 2. Check hard drive with AOMEI Partition Assistant

If you don’t know how to operate Command Prompt. You can turn to a user-friendly partition disk manager-AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. This software is also able to check a hard drive with chkdsk.exe. And its intuitive interface make it easy-to-operate.

Click the download button to solve the problem.

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant. Tight-click on the hard drive that has the error, and choose “Surface Test”.

Step 2. It will pop up a small window, click “Start” button to check the hard drive.

Method 4. Format the hard drive

If all the solutions above can’t help you out of this problem, I afraid you need to format the hard drive to reconstruct the file system. AOMEI Partition Assistant supports format a drive to FAT32, NTFS, exFAT, and Ext2, Ext3, Ext4. And this formatter can even help you to format a encrypted drive that may also lead to “location is not available access is denied” error.

✍Note: But formatting will delete all data on the hard drive, please back up the data you need beforehand.

Step 1. Open AOMEI Partition Assistant. Right-select the hard drive that has the “location is not available” issue.

Step 2. Choose a file system for the drive, and click “OK”.

Conclusion

This article summarizes 4 methods of solve “location is not available” in Windows 10, 8, 7. Hope these methods can help you. If you find another solution for this problem, you can share it down below.

And to avoid such drive problem as possible, it is good idea to keep your hard drive well managed. For example, you can partition your hard drive rationally and store OS on the C system drive while keep other data on other drives. AOMEI Partition Assistant is a powerful manager that makes it easy.

You can upgrade to Professional edition to have more advanced features, like allocating free space from one partition to another, extending system partition.

— Update: 04-02-2023 — us.suanoncolosence.com found an additional article Fixes to Location is Not Available in Windows 11/10 from the website 4ddig.tenorshare.com for the keyword location is not available access is denied.

Part 3. 4 solid fixes to Location is Not Available Error

Method 1: Enable Full Control for the File or Folder

A major cause behind the error reading “location is not available the file cannot be accessed by the system” can be due to Windows not having authority to access the said file or folder. In these cases giving full control of the file or folder in question to the user is the way to go. Follow the simple steps given below to do it the right way.

Step 1: Right-click on the folder with the error and select the “Properties” option from the menu.

Step 2: In Properties, go to the “Security” tab and click on “Users”.

Step 3: Here you need to change the permissions of this folder so click on “Edit”.

Step 4: Once in the Permissions sector enable the “Full Control” option and click OK. Restart your PC.

Method 2: Take Ownership of the Inaccessible Drive

Just like a file or a folder, a drive may also show the location is not available access is denied error. To solve it you’ll have to take ownership of the inaccessible drive, here’s how.

Step 1: Go to the “Properties” of the drive-by right-clicking on it and selecting Properties. In properties head over to the “Security” tab and go to “Advanced” settings and click on “Owner”.

Step 2: Next up, click the “Change” option and enter your username or the Administrators name in the “Enter the object name to select” field. Now click the “Check names” button and see whether the input has changed. If it has, click OK to save changes.

Step 3: The last step is to check the “Replace owner on sub containers and objects” and apply the changes. Alternatively, you can check the “Replace all child object permission entries” option.

Method 3: Run CHKDSK Command

CHKDSK always comes in handy with hard disk-related errors and the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable windows 10 windows location is not available error is no different. To use it follow the below steps.

Step 1: Bring up the command prompt by pressing the Window key and typing “cmd”.

Step 2: Run the command prompt as an administrator. Once the command prompt is up type in the following,

chkdsk e: /f /r /x

Here “e” refers to the letter of the drive you want to repair.

Step 3: Close the command prompt and see whether the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable error is resolved.

Method 4: System Restore

If none of the above fixes work then doing a full system restore is your best option to get around error 0x80070570: the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.

Step 1: Type “System Restore” in the search bar and click on the “Create a Restore Point” option that pops up.

Step 2: Select the “System Restore” option under the “System Protection” tab.

Step 3: In the “System Restore” look for the most recent restore point, select it and click on Next. This will initiate the restoring process.

— Update: 08-02-2023 — us.suanoncolosence.com found an additional article How to Fix ‘Location is not available’ Error When Accessing Certain Partitions from the website appuals.com for the keyword location is not available access is denied.

Recently, users have reported that they cannot access certain partitions in drives in their Windows operating system. In some cases, the partition is visible in File Explorer, while users cannot locate it in others.

Article post on: us.suanoncolosence.com

There can be several reasons behind this issue, such as a corruption error within the drive itself. In this guide, we will walk you through the troubleshooting methods you can try to fix this problem for good. The solutions listed below are according to the causes of the issue, so we recommend you go through them first to see what might result in the error in your case. 

1. Run a CHKDSK Scan

The first thing that you should do after running into an error related to the drives is run a CHKDSK scan using the Command Prompt. 

During Chkdsk, disk space and disk usage are examined, and a specific status report is provided for each file system. You will find a list of file system errors in the status report, which you can then resolve manually or through the chkdsk utility. 

Here is how you can run the CHKDSK scan:

  1. Type cmd in Windows search and click on Run as administrator. 
  2. Click Yes in the User Account Control prompt.
  3. Alternatively, you can also launch a Run dialog by pressing Win + R keys.
  4. Type cmd in the text field of Run and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open Command Prompt with administrative privileges.
  5. Once in the Command Prompt window, type the command mentioned below and hit Enter to execute it. When executing this command, the CHKDSK utility will scan for problems without changing anything. 

    chkdsk
    Run the CHKDSK command
  6. If you want to run the CHKDSK scan on a drive other than the C drive, then execute the following command. Replace D with the letter of the targeted drive. 

    chkdsk D: /f
    Execute the entered command

Now, wait for the commands to execute and then check the results. You can check for the relevant solutions online if any issues are identified. If no problem is identified with your disk, you can proceed with the next troubleshooting method below.

2. Make Sure You Have Access to the Partition

If you are trying to access the partition of a drive you do not have access to, you can also run into the error. 

If this happens, here is how you can give yourself the required access:

  1. Right-click on the targeted drive and choose Properties from the context menu.

    Choose Properties from the context menu
  2. In the following window, head to the Security tab and click on the Advanced button.

    Click on the Advanced button
  3. Next, click on Edit and select the Change hyperlink.

    Click on the Change hyperlink
  4. In the Select User or Group dialogue, enter your username and click Check Name > Modify the ownership.

    Click on the Check Names button

Once done, check if you can now access the targeted partition successfully.

3. Restore the System to a Previous Point

In Windows, when the system starts to act up, and you cannot find a solution or simply do not have enough time, you can revert the system to a previous point where it was working perfectly fine. 

This is done using the System Restore utility, which creates restore points in Windows now and then, especially when performing critical operations like installing a system update. If anything goes wrong, you can pick up a restore point and revert your system to that point within a few clicks. 

This method will show you how to use this utility to resolve the problem. Before you proceed, ensure that this feature is enabled on your computer. Otherwise, you will not be able to use it. 

Here is all that you need to do:

  1. Press Win + R to open Run.
  2. Type control in the text field of Run and hit Enter.
  3. Select Create a restore point in the Control Panel window.

    Click on the Create a restore point option
  4. Click on System Restore and then hit Next.

    Click on the System Restore button
  5. This window should display a list of restore points created on your system. Click on the most recent one and hit Next.
  6. Wait for the changes to implement, and then check if you can use the partition now without any problems.

4. Delete the Partition

Another thing that you can do is delete the targeted partition and create a new one. This, however, is only recommended if that partition does not contain any important files, as you may lose them during the process. 

If you wish to proceed, here is all that you need to do:

  1. Type cmd in Windows search and click on Run as administrator.
  2. Click Yes in the User Account Control prompt.
  3. Now, type the command mentioned below in the Command Prompt and hit Enter to execute it. 

    Diskpart.exe
  4. Next, execute the following commands one by one: 

    disk management rescan
  5. Type list disk and hit Enter. This will list down all the disks available.
  6. To select a disk, type the command below. Make sure you replace the x with the letter of the targeted disk. 

    select disk X
  7. To view its partition, execute the following command: 

    list partition
  8. Execute the following command to choose the faulty partition. Replace X with the letter of the targeted partition: 

    select partition X
    Execute the Select Partition 4 command
  9. Finally, execute the command below to delete the partition: 

    delete partition override
    Remove the partition

Once done, restart your PC. You can now create a new partition and check if it works fine. 

If the issue persists after following all the suggested troubleshooting methods, we recommend you contact the official Microsoft support team and report the issue to them. They will be able to identify what is causing the problem and then suggest a fix accordingly.

— Update: 16-02-2023 — us.suanoncolosence.com found an additional article 7 Situations Where There Is the “Location Is Not Available” Error [MiniTool Tips] from the website www.minitool.com for the keyword location is not available access is denied.

Source: us.suanoncolosence.com

Error – Location Is Not Available

Location is not available. Have you ever received this warning in Windows? A user from social.technet.microsoft.com writes:

To be honest, I have also received the same error this month. If I Google “location is not available”, I get about 1,650,000,000 results (0.50 seconds), as demonstrated below. This indicates that this error is a topic of concern to everyone.

Now, in today’s post, we are going to show you the details of the “location is no available” error and introduce the ways solve this error, which includes the use of a free file recovery software to recover your data.

7 Situations Where There Is the “Location Is Not Available” Error

In general, there are many various reasons including mistaken operation, computer virus invasion, and so on, that could result in the “location is not available” error.

Next, let’s discuss seven situations where we may encounter this error. Of course, not all situations are listed here, and this post will just introduce the most common situations.

Chapter 1: Location is not available – the volume does not contain a recognized file system

Symptoms

When attempting to access a drive (or external device, such as external hard drive, USB flash drive and SD card) in Windows, you may receive a warning: location is not available….

the volume does not contain a recognized file system. Please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted.

Causes

To fix this error without losing data, you should first figure out why this error happens.

As we know, the possible reason is RAW file system, and this file system is not recognized by Windows. So, users are not allowed to access to it. And, it typically occurs when the records determining the file system type or location on the disk are damaged or corrupted, usually the partition table or the boot sector.

Solutions

Here, after recovering lost data, you can try formatting, repairing partition table, or other solutions to fix this error.

Watch the following video know how to successfully fix the “location is not available” error.

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Chapter 2: Location is not available – the parameter is incorrect

Symptoms

Causes

  1. Unplug removable drive directly
  2. USB port problem
  3. Bad sectors on the hard drive
  4. File system goes wrong
  5. …

Solutions

Here are few methods that you may follow to fix this issue.

Method 1. Formatting the inaccessible hard drive

Step 2: Right-click the target drive and select “Format“. Click “OK” on the pop-up message box.

Click here to get another useful solution to format drive.

Method 2. Run “chkdsk /f /r”

If “the parameter is incorrect” error is caused by bad sectors, lost clusters, cross-linked files, file system errors and directory errors, please consider the following steps:

Step 1: Open Start and type cmd, and next select Run as administrator.

Step 2: Type command line chkdsk X: /f /r (X is the drive letter of the inaccessible partition), and then press Enter. (Here we take drive F for example, as shown below.)

Conclusion

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Although formatting disk or running the “chkdsk /f /r” command line can help to fix “the parameter is incorrect” error, the 2 methods will delete all original data on this drive. Therefore, before fixing “the location is not available” error, you had better transfer its data out.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery is a good solution for lost data recovery. Developed by MiniTool Solution Ltd., this professional file recovery software can help to effectively and quickly recover lost data from different data recovery situations without affecting the original data because it is a read-only tool.

Besides, this software supports various operating systems including Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10. Now, you can download this software to try it out. If it can detect the files you want to recover, you can get a license key to activate it to recover the data.

Free Download

Now, let’s see how to recover word document, photos, videos and other data from drive whose location is not available by using the free power data recovery software.

Step 1. Launch MiniTool Power Data Recovery. Select the drive which prompts “location is not available” error, and click Scan.

Step 2: Preview files, check needed files, click Save button and then choose a safe place to store them.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery can effectively retrieve data from inaccessible drive, and you can try it to transfer data out and then fix your drive error….Click to Tweet

Chapter 3: Location is not available – access is denied

Symptoms

When try to open a drive, you may get an error message saying “location is not available X: is not accessible – access is denied “. (X is the drive letter of the inaccessible hard drive.)

Causes

Various reasons can cause this error, including mistaken operation, virus invasion….

Solutions

Now, you can read this “How to Fix – Hard Drive Is Not Accessible. Access Is Denied” post to learn how to solve this error effectively. If you suddenly find a USB device is not recognized by Windows 7 or other OS, please try your best to make it appear so as to recover data.

Chapter 4: Location is not available – the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable

Symptoms

When using a USB drive under Windows operating system, you may encounter the error message “file or directory is corrupted and unreadable”. As a result, you cannot access data stored on the USB hard drive partition.

Causes

As a matter of fact, if file, folder, MFT (Master File Table), FAT (File Allocation Table) or the USB drive gets damaged due to certain reasons, this error will appear.

Solutions

To fix this error, you can turn to command line to check and repair file system error (please refer to the “chkdsk /f /r” command line in chapter 2), or you can format this corrupted drive for reuse.

How to Fix “The File or Directory is Corrupted and Unreadable” Error will show you more details about dealing with this error and minimize the loss.

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Chapter 5: Location is not available –desktop blank and apps deleted

Symptoms

A typical example from answers.microsoft.com is shown here:

Causes

This error usually occurs after a corrupt Windows update gets installed on your computer or when your system crashed abruptly.

Solutions

Here are a few methods that you may follow to fix this issue.

Method 1: Reboot your PC, press F8 to get Advanced Boot Options, select Last Know Good Configuration and boot Windows normally.

Method 2: Open Cmd, type and execute the following two commands in the command prompt to create a new user profile:

net user /add usernamehere passwordhere

net localgroup administrators usernamehere /add

After that, copy your data from the corrupt/previous profile.

Chapter 6: Location is not available – CRC error

Symptoms

My laptop shows “Data error (cyclic redundancy check)” error while copying data from external HDD to my laptop, and it’s my own experience.

Causes

This issue may be caused by various factors, including registry corruption, a cluttered hard disk, an unsuccessful program installation, misconfigured files, and more.

Solutions

To successfully solve this problem, you can find answers from this post: How to Fix Data Error (Cyclic Redundancy Check)! Look Here!

Video Tutorial

How do I solve the data error without losing the original data

Chapter 7: Location is not available – the specified network name is no longer available

Symptoms

Consider the following scenario:

You have a Windows 7 computer that supports the sleep and resume functionality. You access a mapped network drive from Explorer on this computer, then put the computer to sleep and wake the computer again after some time.

In this situation, you cannot access the mapped network drive for a short time, and you cannot save open Microsoft Office files (Word, Excel) within the first 30 seconds after you resume from hibernation. Additionally, you may receive error messages such as the following:

Location is not available.
Can’t Access x:
The specified network name is no longer available.
The local device name is already in use.
This connection has not been restored.

Causes

This issue occurs because the Server Message Block (SMB) session is deleted on the server-side.

Solutions

See “‘Location is not available’ error when you access a mapped network drive after Windows standby or resume” to learn how to fix this error.

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Bottom Line

Now, 7 situations where we may encounter the “location is not available” error and corresponding solutions are listed here.

Like this post! Share it to help more users.

Should you have any question or suggestion about this “location is not available” error, please leave it in the below comment or directly send to [email protected].

Source: https://www.diskpart.com/articles/location-is-not-available-1984.html

Article post on: us.suanoncolosence.com

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