I got a new, bigger office desk (physical), took everything apart, cleaned up the floor under the old desk, put in the new desk and connected all the computers/hubs/drives again.

Tried to backup last night and it wouldn't. Same for Microsoft SyncToy (which I use to backup data separately from the full disk backup). The error message came and went quickly but I think I noticed the drive connecting and disconnecting. Not sure because as soon as I turned my head it was back on. The drive is connected to a 7 port USB hub.

I'm confident that I found the source to be a bad USB connection to my USB hub with my external drives connected. I'm about 90% sure because now it is accessing the disk without dropping. Last night it didn't always recognize the disk.

After cleaning the connections with DeoxIT I checked the internal and external drives for errors and found none (using the tool in Properties). I googled and read that if there are bad sectors, Win10 will go into a read-only mode to protect itself.

Problem is all my folders turned themselves into read-only and after I undo that, they revert back to read-only.

Using properties, sometimes the read only square will just disappear after hitting apply, sometimes it will go through the motions taking a few minutes to complete, and as soon as I go back, the folder says read only again but the files are no longer read-only (actually, now I'm not sure if they ever were).

Well, I tried SyncToy this morning, and it appears to be working. I have an early gig so I won't try a backup now. That tells me the problem is probably solved.

EXCEPT THIS: The folders (not the files) still say Read Only in Properties (square completely filled in).

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Bob

No, I've never encountered this. But when I Googled "Windows 10 all files and folders turn read-only" I saw that this problem is quite real. There are various solutions posted.

Thanks. I've saved a few links, and I'll try to backup before I give any a shot.

Bob

Follow up - one of the methods worked, but sorry, I lost the link. It wasn't complicated.

The cause of the problem may have been a USB cable. I read that with some read/write or bad disk sector problems, Win10 will write protect files to keep them from being overwritten.

I have an external 'toaster' drive docking station for my backups. I replaced the long USB type A -> B cable with a short one. The long one was one of those see-through plastic sleeves with red covers over the USB connectors. I replaced it with a black one. I even replaced the black one with another because as a road musician, the first rule is "it's always the cable".

After I got the read-only attributes off the files, I could change, move, delete or whatever for any file, but SyncToy and Acronis still didn't work.

I swapped 'toaster' drives from another computer, and that wasn't the problem.

I upgraded to Acronis 2017 (which I needed to do anyway) and still had the problem.

So I was contemplating how to get tech help, where should I go, how to formulate the question, when the idea popped to my head to replace the black USB with the original one. Didn't seem logical because the two short ones work on other USB devices, but I did it anyway and voila! the problem is solved.

So now, is there a difference? I know the color choice isn't probably a factor, but are there two different kinds of USB cables with an A on one end and a B on the other?

I googled this and got no answers (perhaps due to the wrong search terms). But I thought U stood for Universal.

Notes

Off the top of my head I thought of these:

1-USB comes in three types, 1,2, and 3. Maybe you have a USB 1 cable plugged into a USB 3 port? Or some other combination>

2 - broken or loose wire/connection in the toasters' USB or HD receptacles?

3 - static build up?

4 - HD, toaster or cables getting ready to die?

5 - Win 10 did something weird?

Thanks Mario, they were all good troubleshooting questions.

Thought of a few of these myself, and with a couple of adjectives that can't be printed on a family forum.

The cable has USB1 on one end and USB2 on another as did the replacements.

Funny that the two short cables that didn't work between the USB hub and the toaster work on other USB 1->2 devices that I have.

I also tried swapping two toasters from two computers, so that tends to eliminate the device. Having the same identical defect crop up on two units at the same time is an extremely remote possibility.

In addition, I used more than one HD in the toaster slots to eliminate that. I even reformatted an old smaller drive in the other toaster/computer first (quick format).

Static buildup is not a problem in humid Florida, but corroded connections are, thus the use of both DeoxIT Red and DeoxIT Gold.

Note: DeoxIT Red is the best connection cleaner I've ever found and using DeoxIT Gold after cleaning keeps the connection from oxidizing for a longer time.

So I'm thinking design defect? Perhaps improper tolerances in the jack, compensated by the plug? A tiny bit can mean a lot. This is grasping for straws I know. Since it is working now, I think this will be filed in the troubleshooter's report as "Came clear while testing".

Notes

We call it 'self-healed' here .. <grin>

I call it Cosmic Rays.

This stuff can be so...sooo...SOOOO DAMNED FRUSTRATING. And when it finally clears up you have no resolution, nothing to point to and say WOW, that did it!

That's why I think cosmic rays is as good an answer as any. They are tiny charged particles, they can hit an atom in a critical spot in just the right way...

Bob

Agreed. And in addition, nothing you can do to prevent it from happening again, or nothing you know will fix the problem if it does happen again.

On the other hand, I'm glad it's working.

So the computer backed up last night, we woke up this morning, I have a gig this afternoon at my current favorite venue, the weather is nice and warm (it's an outdoor gig) and life is good.

Notes