How to remove write protection from a usb drive

I have a PNY 16GB USB drive that has worked great for a while. The other day, I tried saving something to the flash drive and I received a write protection error. Now I can't edit or save anything on the flash drive, though I can still open and read the files. None of the individual files have been marked as read-only. I read a bunch of stuff but couldn't figure anything out (I will refer to this website, though I found the same information in multiple guides and forum posts http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-fix-write-protection-errors-on-a-usb-stick/).

I have examined the drive and haven't found any switches that I might have accidentally pressed. I tried using Regedit but the StorageDevicePolicies key didn't exist. I tried creating it and I set WriteProtect to 0 but that did not work. I tried using DiskPart. I entered the required commands properly but afterwards when I viewed the attributes I still saw this:

DiskPart Screenshot .

Basically I have tried everything short of formating the drive. I have lots of files on the drive that I want to keep so if there is anything else I can do please let me know. Thanks!

user3103432

Posted 2016-03-01T00:53:15.463

Reputation: 11

Answers

It sounds to me like the drive may have been removed from a computer suddenly and has gone "read-only" because the filesystem needs repairing. Maybe you can follow the instructions here to check and repair your drive.

davidgo

Posted 2016-03-01T00:53:15.463

Reputation: 49 152

I followed the instructions but I received the error that the drive is write protected so it wouldn't work. – user3103432 – 2016-03-01T03:35:03.300

Once you've triggered the firmware write protect you may as well just throw it away. It can't be reset. – Tetsujin – 2016-03-01T08:18:08.533

Copy everything off the USB drive, format it, then copy everything back. This would be the simplest and quickest way to solve the problem.

update...

You may be able to convert the file system to clear the readonly attribute. Like so...

> convert F: /FS:NTFS

> convert F: /FS:FAT32

user1751825

Posted 2016-03-01T00:53:15.463

Reputation: 846

I tried. I can't even format it because it just says: "The disk is write protected." – user3103432 – 2016-03-01T04:14:10.990

Ah, ok, not so easy then. Have you tried on another computer? I'm assuming you've tried rebooting your computer? – user1751825 – 2016-03-01T04:27:22.617

yeah, I've tried two computers and I've rebooted both after attempting to fix it. I have only tried formatting on one computer though. – user3103432 – 2016-03-01T04:28:26.087

I'm not sure what else you could try. Is it possible the drive is physically faulty? Is it very old? – user1751825 – 2016-03-01T04:37:55.933

How do you change the format? – user3103432 – 2016-03-01T04:38:17.467

I think it may simply be corrupted. I almost always eject it though I may have forgotten once or twice which may have caused the problem. – user3103432 – 2016-03-01T04:39:07.360

Have you tried running the format command from an elevated command prompt? Also you may be able to try the /x flag to tell it to first dismount the drive. Here are the command line options for "format"... https://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/format.mspx?mfr=true

– user1751825 – 2016-03-01T04:43:18.270

If none of these things work (and it sounds like you've tried most of the recommended techniques), your only option may be to get another drive. Don't toss this one. You'll need to keep it secure somewhere (since you can't erase it), or physically destroy it. – user1751825 – 2016-03-01T04:45:44.067

Yes, I think this is what I need to do. Thanks for the help though. – user3103432 – 2016-03-01T04:48:37.813