0x80070057 an unexpected error is keeping you from copying the file

[DIE5EL]

After many hours of trying to figure this out I have decided to make an account here and post.
I have a 3TB SATAII hard drive which I have lost access to some of the files. I can't read them or copy them.

In my screenshot above it says:

An unexpected error is keeping you from copying the file. If you continue to receive this error, you can use the error code to search for help with this problem.

Error 0x80070057: The parameter is incorrect.


sfc scan

I saw on several help sites a registry edit fix in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\System folder, but I don't seem to have that folder


Tried copying files with Goodsync and same thing

Using this I could see all the affected files next to the unaffected files and in most cases the affected files seem to be of larger size than unaffected files in the same location, and in other cases the affected files seem to be modified more recently than unaffected files in the same locations.

Is this fixable? I've had several hard drives physically crap out on me and it doesn't really seem like that's the case here. I also see that this error is related to windows update problems with other people, but I don't know if that's my case so I posted it here in Win 10..

Oh, I don't know that this could be related, but this occurred in coincidence with my move to the states. The drive was installed in my desktop in Korea, I took all my hardware out, packed them individually, carried them on the plane on my back, and when I set it up in the states everything is working fine except this problem with the secondary drive. The master drive is a SSD drive and after 2 weeks of daily use here seems to be no problems with that.

Thanks for your help in advance

 

[jcgriff2]

Hi. . .

Add "take ownership" to your context menu (RIGHT-click menu) in Windows Explorer.

https://www.sysnative.com/forums/wi...right-click-context-menu-windows-8-1-8-a.html

The tutorial is listed for Windows 8/8.1, but does work for Windows 10.

The REG file combines "takeown" + "icacls"

After you add takeown, go to the folder or file in question, RIGHT-click on it, select "Take Ownership".

See if that helps.

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

 

[DIE5EL]

Hi. . .

Add "take ownership" to your context menu (RIGHT-click menu) in Windows Explorer.

https://www.sysnative.com/forums/wi...right-click-context-menu-windows-8-1-8-a.html

The tutorial is listed for Windows 8/8.1, but does work for Windows 10.

The REG file combines "takeown" + "icacls"

After you add takeown, go to the folder or file in question, RIGHT-click on it, select "Take Ownership".

See if that helps.

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

Thanks for the reply!
I was able to get Take Ownership to my right-click menu and applied it to a couple different folders and files and I'm still not getting any of the files to be able to be read...

 

[jcgriff2]

Is the drive (HDD) in question your internal HDD containing Windows or is it a slave or external HDD?

What exactly are you trying to do with the files in question? i.e., copy them, delete, open, move, etc...?

What is their origin (where did they come from)?

Is it possible that an app/program is using them? If so, Windows would not let you edit, move or delete them.

 

[DIE5EL]

Is the drive (HDD) in question your internal HDD containing Windows or is it a slave or external HDD?

It was an internal slave drive before I took down my pc and after I put it back together I set it up the same way. There is no operating system on this drive. It's just storage. As of now I have it in a usb external enclosure.

What exactly are you trying to do with the files in question? i.e., copy them, delete, open, move, etc...?

There are photos (jpg and raw), photoshop project files, video files, and documents that I don't have saved on any other drive. I also have a few games I installed, but basically I just want to save my photos and vids to a couple other drives so I don't have to worry about losing them. I have been trying to both open and copy.

What is their origin (where did they come from)?

From my cameras, my phones, from photoshop save dialogue, and downloads from various places. (For example, there are 3 mp4 video files of our most recent ultrasound that were downloaded from the hospital's website; One of the files won't open and 2 of them will.)

Is it possible that an app/program is using them? If so, Windows would not let you edit, move or delete them.

I'm not sure if that could be possible or not... I guess the only program I can think of would be Adobe Bridge, since it is basically a file browser.
I have tried the drive in another computer with a usb external enclosure and it's the same thing.

 

[axe0]

Hi DIE5EL,

Could you see if you can copy files through a WinPE.
See Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums


Have you attempted to run chkdsk on the drive? If not, please run chkdsk on the drive through Windows Explorer.
To run chkdsk through Windows Explorer:
- Right click on the drive
- Click 'properties'
- Click 'Tools'
- Click 'Check' with 'Error checking'.

 

[DIE5EL]

Hi DIE5EL,

Could you see if you can copy files through a WinPE.
See Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums


Have you attempted to run chkdsk on the drive? If not, please run chkdsk on the drive through Windows Explorer.
To run chkdsk through Windows Explorer:
- Right click on the drive
- Click 'properties'
- Click 'Tools'
- Click 'Check' with 'Error checking'.

Hello axe0 and thanks for the help!

I had run chkdsk on the drive not too long after I first noticed the problem and it completed with no errors:


BUT, now that I tried it again, I can't get it to scan. I just get a cycle of these two popups:

event viewer:


I booted on a usb drive with the method you linked and all the same problems with the 3tb drive. (I had connected the USB-only one with the boot on it-, the 3tb drive with the problems, and a brand new 4tb drive to try and copy the files to.)

 

[jcgriff2]

Hi. . .

Very interesting that the scans tell you first that the drive does not need to be scanned because there are no errors; then it tells you that Windows needs to scan the drive. :0

Let's run hardware diagnostics on it and see what comes back.

Run SeaTools for DOS, LONG test - https://www.sysnative.com/forums/hardware-tutorials/4072-hard-drive-hdd-diagnostics.html -- just on the drive in question.

It will be a very long test (primarily because of its 3GB size), so I suggest that you just let it run overnight.

Our next step will be to run SysInternals Process Monitor (ProcMon) with the drive attached and see what exactly, if anything, is accessing it.

From Microsoft TechNet - Process Monitor

Last question for tonight - when you took ownership of the files and folders, did you do it at those levels? I.e., have you tried to just go into Windows Explorer and RIGHT-click on drive e: (or whatever its drive letter is) and take ownership of the entire drive?

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

 

[DIE5EL]

Hi. . .

Very interesting that the scans tell you first that the drive does not need to be scanned because there are no errors; then it tells you that Windows needs to scan the drive. :0

Let's run hardware diagnostics on it and see what comes back.

Run SeaTools for DOS, LONG test - https://www.sysnative.com/forums/hardware-tutorials/4072-hard-drive-hdd-diagnostics.html -- just on the drive in question.

It will be a very long test (primarily because of its 3GB size), so I suggest that you just let it run overnight.

Our next step will be to run SysInternals Process Monitor (ProcMon) with the drive attached and see what exactly, if anything, is accessing it.

From Microsoft TechNet - Process Monitor

Last question for tonight - when you took ownership of the files and folders, did you do it at those levels? I.e., have you tried to just go into Windows Explorer and RIGHT-click on drive e: (or whatever its drive letter is) and take ownership of the entire drive?

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

I mounted SEA tools for DOS on a 16GB flash drive (I don't have a CD/DVD drive in my computer) and when trying to boot on that I just get a black screen with the single white blinking line at the top left. I can get into the BIOS but didn't see an option to change AHCI to IDE..
Anyways, can this work with a mounted USB drive?
The USB only has a total of 8.5MB on it, is that also right?

 

[DIE5EL]

Our next step will be to run SysInternals Process Monitor (ProcMon) with the drive attached and see what exactly, if anything, is accessing it.

From Microsoft TechNet - Process Monitor

Last question for tonight - when you took ownership of the files and folders, did you do it at those levels? I.e., have you tried to just go into Windows Explorer and RIGHT-click on drive e: (or whatever its drive letter is) and take ownership of the entire drive?
jcgriff2

Hello again, so I have process monitor open and it's been "Showing events" for 25 minutes now, up to 10,000,000+ events. Am I supposed to wait for it to finish then get a report?

And about Take Ownership, I have the option when I right click on a subfolder or a file only. When I right click directly on the drive from This PC, there is no Take Ownership option there. That's the same with any other drives I connect.

 

[DIE5EL]

Run SeaTools for DOS, LONG test - https://www.sysnative.com/forums/hardware-tutorials/4072-hard-drive-hdd-diagnostics.html -- just on the drive in question.

So with more research I found that SeaTools can only be run from a CD or floppy. Since I don't have a CD or floppy drive in my computer I suppose I can just take my HHD with usb enclosure and do this on someone else's computer and get the same results?
Gonna make a trip to the store for a blank cd...

Oh, and I saved a log file for Process Monitor but it was 12GB haha
I didn't quite understand what it was doing so I left it open 2 hours

 

[jcgriff2]

Anyways, can this work with a mounted USB drive?
The USB only has a total of 8.5MB on it, is that also right?

I do believe that SeaTools for DOS will work from a USB stick, but then again, I've always executed it from a burnt CD and never tried a USB stick -- so I really don't know.

Hello again, so I have process monitor open and it's been "Showing events" for 25 minutes now, up to 10,000,000+ events. Am I supposed to wait for it to finish then get a report?

25 minutes should be more than enough - as long as the drive in question was accessed. As you witnessed, ProcMon can easily log millions of records in mere minutes.

ProcMon writes directly to the page file and will continue until your virtual memory nearly runs out, which will bring your system to an absolute crawl and cause it to be non-responsive. By the time that happens, you will have lost the ProcMon file as you would need to do a hard shut-down to regain control of your system.

And about Take Ownership, I have the option when I right click on a subfolder or a file only. When I right click directly on the drive from This PC, there is no Take Ownership option there. That's the same with any other drives I connect.

OK - my apologies. I wasn't sure whether it would let you take ownership of an entire drive or not.

Oh, and I saved a log file for Process Monitor but it was 12GB haha
I didn't quite understand what it was doing so I left it open 2 hours

You want to open that PML (I think that that's the ProcMon file extension) file with ProcMon. After successful import, click on "Tools" in the menu options up-top; then select "file summary"; then select "by path" to start with. Then scroll down the output looking for the drive letter of the drive in question among the file names in the last column - all the way to the right.

If you find the drive letter, go to left side of that line and expand it (click on the + sign) and see whatever info it provides. Hopefilly it will give us enough info to figure out what is "using" the file on the drive in question.

An alternative to allow me to view the PML file - Try and ZIP the ProcMon file (RIGHT-click on the PML file; select "send to"; "compressed (zipped) folder". It will create a ZIP file with the exact name of the PML file in the folder you are in.

What is its size?

Perhaps you can upload it zipped to One Drive or Google so that I can download it...?

But only do so if you see the drive letter for the drive listed in TOOLS; BY EXT

If the drive letter does not show up, you'll have to let ProcMon run a lot longer to pick up more data. Also, while ProcMon is running, use your system as you normally do. Maybe something you're doing is accessing that file.

Got all of that?? :0 -- If not, please feel free to ask any and all questions. ProcMon can be overwhelming for first-time users. I know that I was when first using it some 10 years ago.

Regards. . .

John

 

[DIE5EL]

I do believe that SeaTools for DOS will work from a USB stick

No luck with the USB and still haven't gotten around to getting to another computer with a blank disc..

You want to open that PML (I think that that's the ProcMon file extension) file with ProcMon. After successful import, click on "Tools" in the menu options up-top; then select "file summary"; then select "by path" to start with. Then scroll down the output looking for the drive letter of the drive in question among the file names in the last column - all the way to the right.

What is its size?

John

I let it go for 20 minutes while using my computer as normal and the log file is 16.7GB. How ever in the file summary there is a save option and that .CSV file is only 3.7MB
I'm guessing you need to see the log file, right? For that 20 minutes I sorted the file summary by Path and could see all the E: drive entries. There wasn't too many of them compared to the master drive, but I did see a few corrupt files and non corrupt files as well.


Something else I thought I should note:
I tried to run >chkdsk /f in cmd and get this

Insufficient disk space to fix..

So I thought I would try deleting some stuff on the drive I don't need.
I found out that I can't delete anything on the drive at all.

Even the smallest of files all say Too Large to delete

So I thought I'd try and delete from the Command prompt but when I enter >cd E: or >cd e:\anythingonthedrive Command prompt will not change directories off of C:

 

[jcgriff2]

....I did see a few corrupt files and non corrupt files as well.

What do you mean that you saw corrupt and non-corrupt files? How do you differentiate between the two?

Also, chkdsk experienced a HDD read error per your screenshot. The HDD may be failing.

Sea Tools for DOS is the next logical item to run.

HDD read errors could be the root cause of your problems.

Regards.. .

jcgriff2

EDIT: ProcMon has a filter that can be set to only pick up entries involving the HDD drive letter in question.

 

[xilolee]

I allow myself to suggest, before you follow jcgriff2's post, you could try cleanmgr (or other tools).

Advanced disk cleanup with cleanmgr (short version):

Read More:

• Open an elevated command prompt
• Launch cleanmgr /sageset:1
• Select all the options, or leave unticked the ones you prefer, in Disk Clean-up Settings.
• Launch cleanmgr /sagerun:1 and let it work till it finishes.

Advanced disk cleanup with cleanmgr (long/detailed version):

Read More:

• Open an elevated command prompt (simplest method on Windows 10: right-click on windows start in the bottom-left corner, click command prompt (admin)).
  This should open a new black window named "command line" or "command prompt", with title Administrator: Command Prompt.
  The last item you should see is the windows system directory: c:\windows\system32> (and the flashing cursor after the "over than" sign).
  In the DOS days, the DOS users saw about the same black window (windows didn't exist or it were being created).
• In that black window, type (or copy here and past there) cleanmgr /sageset:1
  Then press enter (on your keyboard).
• A new window should appear: Disk Clean-up Settings.
  Select all the options, or leave unticked the ones you prefer, then click ok.
• Now come back to the black window and type (or copy here and past there) cleanmgr /sagerun:1
  Then press enter (on your keyboard).
• Let it work till it finishes.

So I thought I'd try and delete from the Command prompt but when I enter >cd E: or >cd e:\anythingonthedrive Command prompt will not change directories off of C:

To change partition, you shouldn't use the changedir/cd command:

D: (then press enter on your keyboard, and the d: partition will be "active")
E:
F:

If cleanmg/"Disk Clean-up" won't work, you could try piriform ccleaner or wise disk cleaner (or wise care 365, or your preferred non-Microsoft tool) to remove unwanted files.

 

[jcgriff2]

chkdsk is still reporting a disk read error. There is something very wrong with your HDD. It is likely failing.

You need to get that blank CD and run SeaTools for DOS.

Disk read error -

View attachment 26822

 

[DIE5EL]

Thanks guys for the posts, I just became busy with work and still settling in to the new house so I've been putting this off a while.
But, I was super disappointed today to find that the exact same thing is happening on the new hard drive I just got a few weeks ago.
Im not sure that this is a problem with either harddrive.
What i did was copy all data that was accessible from the old drive to the new one... I'm guessing it was almost, but not quite, 2/3 of the data.
And I've saved quite a bit of new photos on the new drive. Now some of the new and old data that was all completely fine is now getting the same error message 0x80070057. Some photos I just took 2 days ago and loaded on (over 1500 images) are all inaccessible.

I allow myself to suggest, before you follow jcgriff2's post, you could try cleanmgr (or other tools).

I'm heading out for another job but I will try your suggestions soon

chkdsk is still reporting a disk read error. There is something very wrong with your HDD. It is likely failing.
You need to get that blank CD and run SeaTools for DOS.
Disk read error -
View attachment 26822

Yes, I haven't been using the drive at all until I can successfully boot up SeaTools.
It's just discouraging now that my new drive has the same problem

 

[DIE5EL]

I did a reply to this already but just looked now as saw that it never actually posted..

chkdsk is still reporting a disk read error. There is something very wrong with your HDD. It is likely failing.
You need to get that blank CD and run SeaTools for DOS.
Disk read error -

What would you say if I told you the same thing (but worse) started happening to my bran new 4tb drive?

Since my work has picked up and was out on a job the last several days, I've just had the original hard drive (3tb)sitting aside until I can get SeaTools for DOS running on another computer.

But here's what happened: The 2 week old 4tb WD Red drive I have installed as a secondary drive in its place started doing the exact same thing as the older 3tb drive that we have been talking about. This morning I was suddenly locked out of only some of the files on this drive. The exact same 0x80070057 error. Can't open, copy, move, delete.
I turned of the PC right away and disconnected the drive. Now at night, when I tried to turn on my PC with only my Master SSD, it wouldn't boot. Tried 5 times. I connected the 4tb secondary again and sure enough it boots up off the SSD first try. But now I am locked out of every single subfolder on the 4tb drive.

I really was not expecting this to happen. So now I have important files on both the 3tb and 4tb drive that I wasn't able to save on any other drive =(

 

[DIE5EL]

oh i guess my post from earlier did post. Posts 17 and 18 are basically saying the same thing, #18 with a little more updated detail about the new drive

 

[axe0]

Were you trying to copy data from the 3tb drive to the 4tb drive?

Could you provide us with the system specs?
- CPU
- RAM
- Motherboard
- All drives models
- etc.