How to Fix — Location Is Not Available in Windows
Have you ever encountered the “location is not available” error in Windows?Do you know when we will encounter the “location is not available” error? (Here, I bet you will be interested in this post 7 Situations Where There Is the “Location Is Not Available” Error.) Do you know how to access data stored in the drive with “location is not available” error? Now, read this post to find answers.
Top 5 Types of Location Is Not Available
Case 1: Location is not available — access is denied
When trying 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.)
Case 2: Location is not available –volume does not contain a recognized file system
When trying to access a Windows hard drive, you may get the following tip:
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.
Tip: here, I guess you might be interested in this post “The Volume Does Not Contain A Recognized File System — How To Fix”.
Case 3: Location is not available — the parameter is incorrect
After connecting USB flash hard drive or external hard drive to computer, you try to double-click this drive to access its data. Unfortunately, you get a warning message that saying:”【drive letter】:\ is not accessible. The parameter is incorrect.”
Case 4: Location is not available — file or directory is corrupted and unreadable
When trying to store data on hard drive, you may encounter the error message “file or directory is corrupted and unreadable”.
Case 5: Location is not available — CRC error
A user from Tom’s Hardware writes: I was transferring files from my external hard drive (Seagate, 250GB) when the power shut off. When I use the drive again, I got this cyclic redundancy error and Windows suggests formatting the drive. I can’t do it now since I have many important files. I tried disk check but the drive is inaccessible (even in cmd prompt). Any suggestion please.
How to Fix: Location Is Not Available
Step 1: Recover data from drive with the “location is not available” error
As a matter of fact, if you want to successfully solve this issue without data loss, you had better transfer its data out at first. And, MiniTool Power Data Recovery, a free as well as professional data recovery software developed by MiniTool Solution Ltd., is recommended here since it can effectively recover data. In general, as long as lost files are not overwritten or file loss is not caused by hardware failure, you can try using this tool to retrieve lost data.
The above window is the main interface of this professional freeware. Here, you can see 5 different data recovery modules, and you can select a suitable one according to actual needs to recover lost data. For instance, if the partition exists, you can try clicking “Damaged Partition Recovery” feature to recover lost data. So, at this time, you can choose this module to recover data from drive with the “location is not available” error. After that, you will be given detailed operating prompts. Just do as told.
Watch following video to know more details about damaged partition recovery.
Step 2: fix “location is not available” error
After transferring data out, it’s time to deal with this error. Here are a few methods you might consider.
· Method 1: format disk
Once you encounter the “location is not available” error, you can try formatting it to reuse it again. And, Window build-in disk management tool as well as partitioning tool like MiniTool Partition Wizard can help to format disk.
For more information, please see How to Format a Hard Drive with Ease?
· Method 2: chkdsk
Alternatively, you can try using DiskPart to fix this error as long as you are familiar with its commands.
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.
Conclusion
After seeing the above introduction, I guess you might have a basic understanding of this “location is not available” error. Should you have any question, please feel free to send email to support@minitool.com.