Fixed: Unable to Delete Files from External Hard Drive

By Achilles Hill | Last Updated January 03, 2024

It must be troublesome that you cannot delete files from the external hard drive in Windows 10, especially at the time you need to release disk space. When you are stuck with this annoying situation, you can firstly attempt to restart your computer and scan your system for malware. If the issue persists, then you can follow this article which sums up common fixes for the problem unable to delete files from the external hard drive.

1. 1. Obtain the Permission of the Unwanted File
2. 2. Remove Write Protection from the External Drive
3. 3. Check the External Hard Drive for Errors
4. 4. Delete Undeletable Files with File Deletion Genius

1. Obtain the Permission of the Unwanted File

You can apply this workaround if you cannot delete files from your external hard drive because you don't have the administrator permission to delete the file.

Step 1: Open your external hard drive and right-click the unwanted file to choose Properties option.

Step 2: Switch to Security tab and click Edit option.

Step 3: Click Add button in the shown window.

Step 4: Input Authenticated Users in the blank white section and hit OK button.

Step 5: Select the added Authenticated Users, check Full control box under Allow and also click OK button to save your setting.

Now, you can try to delete the unneeded files from your external drive.

2. Remove Write Protection from the External Drive

The disappeared Deletion option is one of the reasons for "unable to delete files from the external hard drive", which can be caused by the write protection function. If this is your case, you can adopt this fix to remove the write protection from your external drive and then see whether the issue is solved.

Step 1: Run Command Prompt as an administrator.

Step 2: Type diskpart and hit Enter to run the command.

Step 3: Execute the following commands:

1. list disk
2. select disk 1(you need to replace "1" here with the disk number of your external hard drive)
3. attributes disk clear readonly

3. Check the External Hard Drive for Errors

If you receive the message "The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable" when you are deleting files from the external drive, it might indicate that the file system of the drive is corrupted. To get rid of the error, you can use Windows built-in Check Disk utility for help.

Step 1: In File Explorer, right-click the external hard drive and select Properties option.

Step 2: Click Tools option on the top menu. Then hit Check button to error checking the external hard drive.

4. Delete Undeletable Files with File Deletion Genius

Still unable to delete files from your external hard drive after trying the fore methods? No worry, it's available to delete the undeletable files of your external drive via iSunshare File Deletion Genius that can not only remove stubborn files from your internal/external drive efficiently in Windows but also make the deleted files unrecoverable. Just try this amazing utility within 4 steps now.

Step 1: Run File Deletion Genius on your Windows 10 computer.

Step 2: Directly drag and drop the unwanted file to the tool or you can click Add button to input the unnecessary file.

Step 3: Select the file deletion mode and slow mode is more preferred here as it can erase the useless file more completely.

Step 4: Hit Delete button in the lower right corner and click OK option to forever delete the selected files from your external hard drive.

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• How to Securely Delete Big Files/Folders in Windows 10
• How to Delete Files without Sending to Recycle Bin on Windows