USB Locked - Can Anyone Help Please

[GeordieGirl]

I have accidently write protected a USB flashdrive, though I have no idea how.  

 

I have Googled and tried mutiple things but I have not managed to remove the write protection.

 

Is there anyone clever enough to tell me, preferably in technological words of two syllables or less, what I need to do to be able to use it again, please.  

 

There is no switch on the drive and Disk Part didn't work.

 

I don't like playing with the registry without step by step instructions but I have created a restore point just in case I need to go into it.

 

Edited April 13, 2023 by GeordieGirl

[computerwiz]

Didn't know that was possible.  Using ChatGPT, got the following suggestions.  Try following them up until the last point and just do the opposite.

 

My guess is somehow you did #1?

 

[GeordieGirl]

13 hours ago, computerwiz said:

Didn't know that was possible.  Using ChatGPT, got the following suggestions.  Try following them up until the last point and just do the opposite.

 

My guess is somehow you did #1?

 

 

Thank you for responding. I didn't do #1.  I never touch the Registry unless I need to, as in this instance.  All I remember doing is formatting the drive and after that is was locked.

 

Regarding #2, I have tried that already and there is no '\StorageDevicePolicies' key in there. after  I get to '\control' it only has '\storage' and under that 3 commands: 

1: EnableDenyGP

2:RegCacheState

3:StorageTelemetry

 

I have looked at all 3 and there is nothing about write/unwrite in any of them.

 

I am using Win 11 and I'm wondering if the little possums at Microsoft have removed that option from the registry for us plebs.

 

I still have an old Vaio running Win 7.  I might try it in there and see what pops up.  My other Dell is also running win 11 so probably no different to this one.

 

If all else fails I will sort it with a hammer and throw it in the bin.  That'll fix it. 😁

Edited April 14, 2023 by GeordieGirl

[Sheep]

5 minutes ago, GeordieGirl said:

If all else fails I will sort it with a hammer and throw it in the bin.  That'll fix it. 

Yup. That'll always work, no matter how complex the technical problems get.

 

This has happened to me a couple of times. A USB key I've been using for some time, always working right, and then all of a sudden I get that error message that says it's write-protected. I, too, did some research and found "solutions" ranging from "diskmgmt.msc" to "diskpart" and quite a few others in between. Nothing worked! In the end I had no other choice but to copy everything off the USB key (it could still read what's on it) onto another one that still worked, and threw out the faulty one. No, come to think of it I should have resorted to the hammer solution. But I don't have as creative an imagination as you do.

 

Sorry to say that's the only thing I can think of. But I'm going to closely follow this topic and see if you finally find a solution that works, besides the hammer idea.

[GeordieGirl]

25 minutes ago, Sheep said:

Yup. That'll always work, no matter how complex the technical problems get.

 

This has happened to me a couple of times. A USB key I've been using for some time, always working right, and then all of a sudden I get that error message that says it's write-protected. I, too, did some research and found "solutions" ranging from "diskmgmt.msc" to "diskpart" and quite a few others in between. Nothing worked! In the end I had no other choice but to copy everything off the USB key (it could still read what's on it) onto another one that still worked, and threw out the faulty one. No, come to think of it I should have resorted to the hammer solution. But I don't have as creative an imagination as you do.

 

Sorry to say that's the only thing I can think of. But I'm going to closely follow this topic and see if you finally find a solution that works, besides the hammer idea.

 

I will keep you updated.  FYI, the Win 7 VAIO didn't result in a positive outcome.

 

There is no private data on it but the hammer option will just allow me to vent my frustration at allowing an inanimate object to defeat me. 😬

[GeordieGirl]

That's it!  I'm done!  I've lost enough of my life pfaffing around with this stoopid thing!!   

 

I created the 'StorageDevicePolicies' in the registry as instructed on a number of sites.  I changed the DWord value to WriteProtect and edited the value data to 0, which by rights, apparently, should have removed the 'WriteProtect' from the drive. 

 

But it didn't!!  Hence, I believe the drive is faulty - even though it's not very old. 

 

Hammer and bin, here we come.

 

At least I have learned something today so it hasn't been a complete waste of time, I s'pose. 🙃

[hatcheckgirl]

Wait!

 

Please have a look at this first

https://www.easeus.com/partition-master/format-a-write-protected-usb-flash-drive.html

”What does it mean when you receive "The disk is write-protected" error message while trying to format a flash drive, pen drive or SD card? It means the Windows operating system has set administrator limitations, the registry entry is damaged, virus infection or third-party encryption software locked your USB pen drive.”

[computerwiz]

8 hours ago, GeordieGirl said:

 

Thank you for responding. I didn't do #1.  I never touch the Registry unless I need to, as in this instance.  All I remember doing is formatting the drive and after that is was locked.

 

Regarding #2, I have tried that already and there is no '\StorageDevicePolicies' key in there. after  I get to '\control' it only has '\storage' and under that 3 commands: 

1: EnableDenyGP

2:RegCacheState

3:StorageTelemetry

 

I have looked at all 3 and there is nothing about write/unwrite in any of them.

 

I am using Win 11 and I'm wondering if the little possums at Microsoft have removed that option from the registry for us plebs.

 

I still have an old Vaio running Win 7.  I might try it in there and see what pops up.  My other Dell is also running win 11 so probably no different to this one.

 

If all else fails I will sort it with a hammer and throw it in the bin.  That'll fix it. 😁

 

Was it a cheap knock-off drive?  From a no-name or hardly-known name company?

 

Those things give so many issues...

[Tortuga]

8 hours ago, GeordieGirl said:

Hammer and bin, here we come.

I have been tempted to use a device impact enhancer (DIE) on some of my devices too... 

[GeordieGirl]

12 hours ago, computerwiz said:

 

Was it a cheap knock-off drive?  From a no-name or hardly-known name company?

 

Those things give so many issues...

 No it isn't.  It's a SanDisk.  I don't do cheap, knock off technology.  It's not worth the plastic it's encased in.

[GeordieGirl]

19 hours ago, hatcheckgirl said:

Wait!

 

Please have a look at this first

https://www.easeus.com/partition-master/format-a-write-protected-usb-flash-drive.html

”What does it mean when you receive "The disk is write-protected" error message while trying to format a flash drive, pen drive or SD card? It means the Windows operating system has set administrator limitations, the registry entry is damaged, virus infection or third-party encryption software locked your USB pen drive.”

 

Thank you Lucy. I have already been on that page.  If there is a page about this issue, I've looked at it. 🙃

 

The problem didn't happen while I was formatting it.  I had already been using it. It was after it had been formatted and I tried to use it again that I found it was write protected.

 

I can't remember why I formatted it but there must have been a reason, and that's when it Write Protected itself.  I don't have a habit of formatting discs for no reason, so I suspect there must have been a problem with it for me to have wanted to format it in the first place.

It happened a while ago and I tried multiple things over a month or two before I even came here to ask. 

 

If changing the registry doesn't work I feel there's no hope for it. 

 

Time for its funeral under the hammer and its bits buried in the great rubbish tip up the road.

Edited April 15, 2023 by GeordieGirl

[Tortuga]

48 minutes ago, GeordieGirl said:

Time for its funeral under the hammer and its bits buried in the great rubbish tip up the road

[Qapla]

1 hour ago, GeordieGirl said:

I can't remember why I formatted it but there must have been a reason, and that's when it Write Protected itself.

 

If there is nothing on the flash drive and it became write protected when you formatted it - you might try formatting it again and make sure when you do that the write protect is not enabled during the formatting process.

 

 

[GeordieGirl]

1 hour ago, Qapla said:

 

If there is nothing on the flash drive and it became write protected when you formatted it - you might try formatting it again and make sure when you do that the write protect is not enabled during the formatting process.

 

 

There is one thing on there that I can't remove.  I can't reformat it because it is write protected and so it won't let me.

[Qapla]

You might try this:

 

Manually Remove Write Protection from SD Card Using CMD Command
Sometimes, when a storage device becomes Read-only, it's a state of write-protected error. The only way out is to clear the read-only state with the command line, making the device re-writable again. 

Follow the steps carefully to remove write protection from your device:

Step 1. Connect your SD card to the computer first.

Step 2. Press Win + R keys, type cmd in the Run dialog and click "OK".

Step 3. Type diskpart and hit Enter.

Step 4. Type the following command and hit Enter each time:

list disk
select disk # (# is the number of your write-protected SD card.)
attributes disk clear readonly

 

 

To make sure you know the correct disk number, run diskpart without the USB flash drive plugged in and note the disk numbers - then close it. plug the USB drive in and run diskpart again ... this should allow you to know and select the correct disk number

 

 

Edited April 15, 2023 by Qapla

[GeordieGirl]

12 hours ago, Qapla said:

You might try this:

 

Manually Remove Write Protection from SD Card Using CMD Command
Sometimes, when a storage device becomes Read-only, it's a state of write-protected error. The only way out is to clear the read-only state with the command line, making the device re-writable again. 

Follow the steps carefully to remove write protection from your device:

Step 1. Connect your SD card to the computer first.

Step 2. Press Win + R keys, type cmd in the Run dialog and click "OK".

Step 3. Type diskpart and hit Enter.

Step 4. Type the following command and hit Enter each time:

list disk
select disk # (# is the number of your write-protected SD card.)
attributes disk clear readonly

 

 

To make sure you know the correct disk number, run diskpart without the USB flash drive plugged in and note the disk numbers - then close it. plug the USB drive in and run diskpart again ... this should allow you to know and select the correct disk number

 

 

 

Thank you John. Great info and I will be keeping it for furture information.

Unfortunately it didn't work for this USB.  I do suspect that the problem must be with the USB itself. It is very odd, I have never had a problem like this before and I have been using computers since DOS was the operating system and 5" floppys were the latest technology. (I still have some 3 1/4" floppys) lol

[Qapla]

Sorry it didn't work. It does sound like there may be a physical problem with that USB drive.

 

BTW - I still have 8" floppys as well as 5¼" and 3½"

[Sheep]

9 minutes ago, Qapla said:

Sorry it didn't work. It does sound like there may be a physical problem with that USB drive.

 

BTW - I still have 8" floppys as well as 5¼" and 3½"

Maybe that's the problem I get with a couple of my USB drives. Something physical. Of all the suggestions I found online to restore the "write-ability" of my USBs, absolutely none of them worked. That includes yours above. In that case I think the hammer is the best solution.

 

WOWW! You mean they made eight-inch floppies before computers were invented?

Edited April 16, 2023 by Sheep

[Qapla]

4 minutes ago, Sheep said:

WOWW! You mean they made eight-inch floppies before computers were invented?

 

No - the 8" floppies were used in systems that had a whopping 64K memory and were considered really fast ...

 

This was drive unit was considered "state of the art" back then

[jwhess]

3 minutes ago, Qapla said:

 

No - the 8" floppies were used in systems that had a whopping 64K memory and were considered really fast ...

 

This was drive unit was considered "state of the art" back then

Thanks for the memories.  I too have 8" floppies (and an *' drive somewhere in the pile).  Do we remember when the 5 1/4" floppies only read one side?  This limited them to 160-180 kb of storage.  You could buy a small "notching device to allow you to cut a side-notch to allow the drive to read the other side if you flipped it over.  Radio Shack had a drive that could get double the data on each side of the disk.  they wanted you to buy specially tested disks for the "double-density" application.  Instead, we would take ordinary 360 kb disks and format them to see if it would work.  Usually about 75% of them did.

 

Write protecting these soft floppy disks required you to put a piece of tape over the notch.  Later with the "hard-shell floppies, the  write-protect device was built in.  It is good to remember.

[GeordieGirl]

2 hours ago, jwhess said:

Write protecting these soft floppy disks required you to put a piece of tape over the notch.  Later with the "hard-shell floppies, the  write-protect device was built in.  It is good to remember.

Haha! Yes!  I remember doing the sticky tape thing.  The 3 1/4" had a little tab that you could slide to lock/unlock it. 

 

My first computer, except for the Commodore 64 that bought for my boys to play on, had 2 x 20mb hard drives and a mono screen. 😱 And DOS. Those were the days!!

I remember being shocked when Windows came out and wondering how I would cope with a whole new system.

 

I did enjoying playing Gorilla, though. 😁

 

And then there was dial-up internet!!! 🤝🤝

Edited April 16, 2023 by GeordieGirl

[Qapla]

Do you remember these?

 

 

I used them before we had the 8" floppy

 

 

[Tortuga]

4 minutes ago, Qapla said:

Do you remember these?

 

 

I used them before we had the 8" floppy

 

 

I used pencil and paper...

[Sheep]

WOWW! This topic is really reminding me of the old days! It's hard to remember how did we ever get along when we had to count on our fingers! (Then to get double-density we had to take our socks off.)

[jwhess]

1 hour ago, Qapla said:

Do you remember these?

 

 

I used them before we had the 8" floppy

I used the cards in my computer programming class.  My younger sister was a "keypunch" operator for her tech school mainframe computer.  The IT guys programmed her terminal to give voice responses to error messages.  Whenever she coded a card incorrectly, the machine would say, "Sorry, Baby". It was late 1960s.