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Nenoeiu's avatar
Nenoeiu
Iron Contributor
Jul 28, 2025

Unable to move ANY files

New harddrive, fresh win10 install. Have all current updates. Copied data from old harddrive to new harddrive, no problem. Then out of nowhere, I can no longer move any file on any drive. And I don't mean just between drives, I mean any file from any location. I can create and delete, just not move anything. There are no errors, just the red no icon when I try to move something. I am an admin account. I did create a restore point before I started reinstalling my apps and restored from there, issue persists. I'm at a loss on wtf just happened.

I created another admin user and switched accounts, problem follows. I'm also getting the following error when I try to open file explorer from the quick launch (but I can open it by right-clicking on start).

So quick recap, I can read, write, delete just not move. I can copy files within the same directory but not copy to another. I've also noticed a lot of files are now blocked because it came from another computer.

(writing this post as I continue to troubleshoot)

Virtually every folder has been marked as read-only. If I uncheck it then reopen a folder's properties it still says read only.

I can move files to subfolders, but not back up the hierarchy.

Ok, now I'm super confused. I can copy files through command line and I can cut/paste files through explorer. Just can't do the drag and drop in explorer.

1 Reply

  • Add permissions to the folder or restart explorer.exe. If that still doesn't work, close the occupying process!

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