Attack of the white crosses

[Coxie]

Yeah, clickbait title I know!

So, upon booting this morning I noticed something a trifle weird when using explorer. Every hard drive has a red circle with a white "X" in it, (see attached picture). Can access the drives, apparently, as per normal and nothing untoward shows up in device manager or disk management. Have I unwittingly initiated the start of the overthrow of humans by advanced AI/SkyNet? Is my unparalleled collection of cat pictures at threat? Google has not provided any answers that on how to remove them I can find (although have only had 2 espressos so far). Does the collective of bigger brains than mine have any insight as to how to remove them/resolve the problem they indicate?

Specs: i5 4690k; GB Z97X UD5H-BLK; 16Gb HyperX Fury 1866; "C": M.2 WD Blue; "D" Kingston 2.5" SSD; "E" & "F" Some older Samsung Spinners; OS Win 10 1903 (18362.175)

TIA, Paul

 

[Bighorn]

Just a guess, could it be some protection software doing that such as antivirus/antimalware because it is no longer protecting the drives? The only red marks I get on drives is with my 2 NAS drives when they have lost connection through the Router and the mark is not the same as you show.

 

[Coxie]

Just a guess, could it be some protection software doing that such as antivirus/antimalware because it is no longer protecting the drives? The only red marks I get on drives is with my 2 NAS drives when they have lost connection through the Router and the mark is not the same as you show.

Currently, I use Sophos Home Premium, nothing is showing in the dashboard and the application is up to date. So thank you for giving me a steer to look in that direction. The four drives are internal, so I cannot see it being a network issue

 

[Wolfie]

Hi Coxie,

right click one of the drivers and then on properties and check security to see what and who is allowed access to the drives:

 

[Coxie]

Hi Coxie,

right click one of the drivers and then on properties and check security to see what and who is allowed access to the drives:

View attachment 10357

Hiya Wolfie, all four drives show the same as the one in the attached picture (which appears to be the same as yours (I think!!))

 

[Wolfie]

Hi Coxie,

are you 100% certain because if in any of the lists it shows you (the user) as not being listed, it may deny you access!.

 

[Coxie]

Hi Coxie,

are you 100% certain because if in any of the lists it shows you (the user) as not being listed, it may deny you access!.

Yeah, I'm pretty certain Wolfie. I have access to the SSDs & HDDs and the files within. The only thing I can hazard a guess at is that the OS icons have been messed with somehow. But that doesn't really seem likely as this is the only discrepancy that I can see. I've attached a screenshot that shows dialogue boxes for all 4 drives. They appear the same as yours and identical to each other

 

[davehc]

I would suggest Bighorn's idea is close to the mark. It looks like you have , or did have, more than one and one of them is advising you that the drives are unprotected, Have a look at the built in antivirus . It normally turns off by default, but maybe not this time.

 

[Wolfie]

Hi Coxie,

try creating a new local user account and see if you can access the folders/drives in the new account!.