The Quick access feature in Windows 10 provides a convenient way to access folders that you frequently use by pinning them. In some situations, the pinned shortcuts in Quick access get stuck and unable to remove or unpin. Quick access sometimes lose track of a target folder if it’s moved to another directory, or deleted; with the Pinned item still pointing to the old location.
If an item in Quick access is stuck, here are some methods using which you can unpin or remove the problematic item.
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Option 1: Create a new folder in the old location, and then Unpin it
Here is a classic case where Quick access failed to update the Pinned item’s target (and showing “Location is not available” error), after the original folder was moved to a different drive.
You could open File Explorer and remove the pinned item by right-clicking and choosing Unpin from Quick access or use Remove from Quick access (for frequent places that’s added automatically).
But what if the options don’t work? Simply create a folder in the same location where the pinned item expects the folder to be. The open File Explorer and unpin or remove the item.
Option 2: Reset the Quick Access Recent Items
This option applies if a 'recent' folder has stuck (not the Pinned folder). Right-click the Quick Access star icon, click Options, and click Clear.
This clears the Recent folders list in Quick Access, without affecting the custom Pinned items.
Option 3: Multi-Select Items and Unpin them
Click the Quick access button (the blue star) at the top. In the right pane or the folder view, select the Pinned item that’s stuck, press CTRL and select another item that you want to Unpin. See also Fix Cannot Unpin FTP Links From Quick Access In Windows 10?
Option 4: Reset or Clear the Quick access Shortcuts
There are situations where nothing would work and invalid pinned shortcut in Quick access get stuck and not removable. The Quick access pinned and frequent items data are kept in a file named f01b4d95cf55d32a.automaticDestinations-ms in the following folder:
Type the above path in File Explorer address bar, and delete this file:
Or simply copy the following command and paste in Run dialog (WinKey + R) to delete the file:
This clears the custom pinned and frequent items listing in Quick access. Windows regenerates this file immediately the next time you open File Explorer, listing the default ones.
Note: You don’t need to clear all the *.automaticDestinations-ms files in that folder as some websites suggest.
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About the author
Ramesh Srinivasan founded Winhelponline.com back in 2005. He is passionate about Microsoft technologies and has a vast experience in Windows — delivering support for Microsoft's consumer products. He has been a Microsoft MVP (2003-2012) who contributes to various Windows support forums.
Symptom
'Try to format an 8GB USB flash drive using command prompt and diskpart, but failed midway clean the disk due to the error message.
Diskpart has encountered an error: Access is denied.
See the System Event Log for more information.'
See the System Event Log for more information.'
Cause
Diskpart clean or format commands cannot be properly completed with access denied error because the device is considered to be blocked (or write-protected), and has to be authorized.
Solutions
3 methods are listed below to help you solve the problem. Try them as instructions.
1. Run the Command Prompt as Admin
To start a command prompt as an administrator
1) Click Start, click All Programs, and then click Accessories.
2) Right-click Command prompt, and then click Run as administrator.
3) If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.
2) Right-click Command prompt, and then click Run as administrator.
3) If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.
Run diskpart again. See if the access is denied error disappears.
2. Remove Write Protection on the Hard Disk, USB Flash Drive or Memory Card
In order to use diskpart to fix the disk is write protected error without access denied error
1. Open up your start menu and click 'Run'
2. Type regedit into the box.
3. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlStorageDevicePolicies
4. Now double click the 'WriteProtect' key and change the value to 0.
2. Type regedit into the box.
3. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlStorageDevicePolicies
4. Now double click the 'WriteProtect' key and change the value to 0.
Have nowhere to find the specified the regedit path? Move on to the final resort.
3. Download Third-Party Format Software to Get Rid of Diskpart Access Denied Problem
Why were you insisting on formatting a disk storage drive or removable storage media in command prompt with diskpart utility? It's tricky, and not a perfect solution for ordinary Windows users. Reasons are apparent to see. As soon as diskpart encountered errors, besides access is denied, many other similar errors only make users go nut. For example, diskpart has encountered an error; the parameter is incorrect, incorrect function, etc.
Therefore, finding a diskpart alternative should be the best way to tackle the diskpart problem that prevents you from formatting a disk, performing a clean or creating a partition. And, EaseUS Partition Master is such an ideal alternative tool that provides all diskpart features for home & office users.
Download EaseUS free partition manager and follow the instruction to install it on your Windows computer (Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, XP and Vista are all supported).
Step 1: Launch EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the partition on your external hard drive/USB/SD card which you want to format and choose the 'Format' option.
Step 2: Assign a new partition label, file system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and cluster size to the selected partition, then click 'OK'.
Step 3: In the Warning window, click 'OK' to continue.
Step 4: Click the 'Execute Operation' button in the top-left corner to review the changes, then click 'Apply' to start formatting your external hard drive/USB/SD card.