errors is to walk through these troubleshooting steps, in order:
Run thechkdsk commandagainst the hard drive.
This could be a temporary problem that a simple reboot can fix.
Change the drive letter.
For whatever reason, Windows might be struggling to identify the gear with its current drive letter.
Completing this step might “refresh” Windows' connection to it.
Scan the hard drive with amalware removal program.
If malware is to blame for the error, removing it might restore access to the drive.
Disable your antivirus program.
This might happen if it identified a threat but didn’t remove it.
Formatting will erase everything from the drive!
Before you complete this step, try recovering files from the drive using afile recovery program.
If the reason for your The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.
In this case, you’ll need to replace it.
Check out our updated lists of thebest USB flash drivesand thebest external hard drivesfor suggestions.
This not accessible error can happen at any time, even if youve recently used the drive.
There are several reasons you might see this error:
This error could occur on any Windows operating system.
The steps below apply to Windows 11 and earlier, back to Windows XP.
