The new flash drive is write-protected. How to remove write protection from a flash drive: Step by step instructions
When working with flash drives, certain difficulties sometimes arise. For example, often the system, when trying to copy any information to the media or format it, suddenly displays a message that the disc is write-protected. As a result, you can neither transfer files to removable storage, nor delete or change them. What to do in such a situation? And most importantly, how to format a write-protected flash drive and return it to its usual working state?
To begin with, we recommend that you carefully look at the carrier itself. Some USB flash drives and memory cards have a dedicated switch. It has two positions: one activates the write lock, and the other removes it.
So, it is enough to move the lever to remove the protection. At the same time, any information can be written to the USB flash drive again. True, first you still need to format the drive using standard Windows tools.
If there is no switch on the flash drive, then just check it with antivirus software. The removable drive may be infected with malware that forcibly protects it from writing and prevents it from being formatted.
For reference! If you use a card reader, then you should check it too. Sometimes due to malfunction this device The system writes that "the disk is write-protected."
Removing disk protection using the Diskpart utility
On operating systems (OS), starting with Windows XP, there is a console utility. It's called diskpart. So, using this tool you can manage various disks. Including, get access to the "problem" media. Working with the utility is easy:
After all the manipulations, the write-protected flash drive should change the file system. In addition, it will again be possible to drop any information on it.
However, please note that there are various write protection systems. Not everything can be removed using the diskpart utility. Therefore, if the procedure did not give the desired result, then try another method. We will tell about it further.
We remove the write protection of the flash drive through the group policy editor
Another method that allows you to format a flash drive even if it is write-protected. It is based on using the capabilities of the local editor group policy:
How to remove protection from a memory card using the diskmgmt.msc utility?
There is another regular Windows component for disk management. It is called the diskmgmt.msc utility. To use this OS tool to remove write protection, you must:
- Press the combination Win + R. Enter "diskmgmt.msc" and click the "Enter" button.
- Next, you need to wait a bit while the system displays the disk configuration.
- Then we find the flash drive and right-click on it.
- Select the "Delete volume" operation. The section will be defined as "not allocated".
- Next, right-click on it. Click on "Create Volume".
- The system will launch the New Volume Wizard application. Click "Next" several times, leaving all the default settings.
- At the end, click "Finish". We are waiting for the end of the formatting process of the flash drive.
Is it possible to format a write-protected flash drive using third-party programs?
Sometimes standard means Windows does not help solve the problem associated with the operation of removable media. Therefore, do not neglect special utilities. They are just designed to restore and format USB flash drives, SD cards, etc. So you can use:
- Special branded software, which is released directly by the manufacturer. For example, for Transcend products, this is the JetFlash Recovery program.
- If for some reason it is not possible to use proprietary utilities, then download and try out other formatting programs. There are a lot of them. Some of the most popular and convenient are Hp disk format tool, HDD low level format, Recuva, SDFormatter, etc.
What else can help to remove file write protection?
- Changing parameters Windows Registry, in some cases it turns out to remove protection. To do this, open the "Run" line. Enter "regedit". In the menu that opens on the left, go to the StorageDevicePolicies folder. You can find it in the following path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control. Here we are interested in the "WriteProtect" parameter in the right panel. We double click on it. Then we change the number 1 in the "Value" field to 0. It remains only to connect the USB flash drive and format it.
- Sometimes you can remove write protection and formatting by updating the firmware of the drive. This can be done in different ways. We recommend using CheckUDisk, UsbIDCheck, USBDeview or ChipGenius. Through them you will find out the VID and PID codes, which are necessary to determine the chip model of your flash drive. After that, you can easily find and download the latest firmware for the media from the network. If suddenly at this stage there are difficulties, then use the site FlashBoot.ru.
- If it is impossible to copy information to the card or save any files, then try to remove protection in this way. Go to "My Computer". Find the flash drive you need there. Click on it with the secondary mouse button. Select the "Properties" line. Then go to the "Access" tab. Next, click on "Advanced Settings". Check the box next to "Share".
- It also happens that the problem associated with the inability to write or format removable media is caused by incorrect installation or incorrect setting programs for creating virtual drives. For example, Alcohol 120%, DAEMON Tools, Virtual CD, etc. Therefore, you should try to remove this software. Perhaps, somehow it blocks the work with the memory card.
If you have tried all the methods described above in practice, but the flash drive is still not formatted, then most likely it is out of order. This happens quite often. Give the drive to service center is not the most rational solution. Repairing a flash drive is usually more expensive than buying it. Therefore, it is best to purchase a new removable media.
Hello! Today we will analyze such a question, how to remove write protection from a flash drive? When this problem occurs, everyone gets a window with such an inscription, “Remove protection or use another disk” or “The disk is write-protected, remove protection or use another disk.” This feature allows you to protect data on a removable drive without changing it. The problem is that it is impossible to write other information to such a drive. Fortunately, there are many ways to disable protection using the advanced settings of a personal computer.
Some models of removable devices are equipped with special write protection levers. To remove protection from a disk, first of all, you need to check it for a physical switch. If there is one, then you need to make sure that the blocking of the USB device is unlocked. In the event that the lever is broken, you will have to purchase a new drive.
Why is the flash drive write-protected? You need to check if the disk is filled with information to the limit. A write error message may appear in cases where the free space on the flash drive is exhausted. To see the quantity free space just go to standard file manager"My computer". Even in cases where the disk is not completely full, the error may occur because the file is too large to copy.
How to remove write protection? It is advisable to check the properties of the file. Sometimes it happens that the copied information is protected from being written to a USB flash drive, and not a removable disk. To change file attributes in Windows environment, you need to right-click on it and select "Properties". We remove the bird opposite the inscription "Read Only", click "Apply". On the Mac systems hold down Control, click on the file, then select "Get Info". We go to "Sharing & Permissions" and in the "Privilege" column we set the value "Read & Write" for our username.
You can use a utility called UsbFix to scan drives. This is an open source program source code for troubleshooting issues with removable drives and USB drivers in a Windows environment. You can download this application for free. After starting the program, you need to click on the "Research" button. When the scanning process is completed, click on "Clean". After that, the removable disk can work as expected.
Checking with an antivirus
Write protection on a flash drive may be associated with an infection of the device. The surest sign is a strange file extension on a removable device. You need to check the drive for viruses and malware. You need to scan the flash drive every time after it is connected to any other computer. Many virus scanners can be configured to automatically scan removable drives immediately after connection. If there is no such function, then you can right-click on the flash drive and select "Scan with antivirus".
The next step is to scan your computer for viruses and other malware. If every removable drive that is inserted into your computer automatically becomes write-protected, then this is a sure sign of an infection. In this case, you need to run an anti-virus scan of the entire computer as soon as possible using a program specially designed for this. For example, you can use Malwarebytes Anti-Malware or Dr.Web Cureit! that protect against most known viruses. These programs are available for free download. I use the latter (does not require installation and after checking the computer and removing viruses, it is painlessly removed).
Disable protection via command line
If all of the above methods did not help solve the problem and the flash drive writes “The disk is write-protected”, then you need to move on to more advanced settings. You need to run the command prompt as an administrator. If the protected flash drive is running in read-only mode, then this can be fixed:
To do this, click on "Start", "All Programs", "Accessories".
Right-click on "Command Prompt" and select "Run as administrator".
Now we enter ".diskpart" and press Enter.
This will launch the DiskPart utility in a separate command prompt window. All windows must be left open.
Enter ".list disk" and press Enter. This command will display a list of drives connected to the computer.
Find the USB drive in the list. All connected partitions are displayed here (including internal hard drives). There are also several columns of information that can be used to identify an external drive.
The "Ltr" column displays the corresponding drive letter for each partition. Not all sections will have letters. If you previously assigned a name to the removable drive, it will be listed in the Label column. In the "Type" column, look for "Removable". The "Size" column helps to distinguish between 2 similar drives if they have different amount of memory.
You need to enter the command ".select disk X". In this case, “X” is replaced by a number from 1 column, which corresponds to a removable disk. For example, if the flash drive corresponds to the value "Disk 5", then we enter ".select disk 5". Now you need to type ".attributes disk clear readonly" and press Enter. This will change the properties of the removable drive, making it non-read-only.
Now it remains to enter ".exit", press Enter and check the flash drive again. After the DiskPart program closes, you can try to write something to a removable disk. You may have to remove and then reinsert the drive to get it to work.
If the command prompt window did not solve the problem, then remove the write protection in the following way.
Disabling registry protection
Open the registry editor. If DiskPart commands didn't fix external drive or it is read-only when connected, then you may need to change the Windows registry. It controls the operating system, so you need to be very careful when making changes. To open the registry editor, you will need the key combination Win + R, after which you need to enter the "regedit" command. If you are not an administrator, you will need to enter a password.
How to remove protection from a flash drive? Use the navigation tree on the left to open the desired location. To do this, expand and collapse the elements on the left to navigate to the following address: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies. If you don't have a "StorageDevicePolicies" folder in the "Control" directory, then you need to right-click anywhere, select "New" and "Key". Let's name it "StorageDevicePolicies" and open it.
Double click on the ".WriteProtect" entry. This will open an editing window. If you don't have a ".WriteProtect" entry because "StorageDevicePolicies" was created, you need to right-click inside the folder and select "New", "DWORD (32-bit)". Let's name it "WriteProtect" and save it. Now you need to double click on it to open the editing window. Change the entry "Value data" to ".0". This will disable write protection on all removable drives. Close the registry editor and restart the computer. From this moment, the flash drive should be unlocked.
Disabling protection with formatting
If all of the above methods did not help, and write protection of the flash drive is still a problem, then it's time to move on to the most radical steps and format the removable drive. This will delete all data on the flash drive, but may make it work again. Restart the computer in safe mode. Unable to properly format drive while in normal mode operating system. You need to have time to press the F8 key before the computer starts loading Windows. Select "Safe Mode with Networking" from the list of boot options.
After downloading, go to "My Computer". This window displays all hard drives and USB sticks connected to the computer. It can also be opened through the Start button menu or using the Win + E key combination. Right-click on the removable drive and select Format. As a result, the corresponding window will open.
Select FAT32 from the File System menu. When formatted, this will make the drive compatible with most computers and other devices. If the disk capacity exceeds 32 GB, then you need to select exFAT. The NTFS file system is only suitable for Windows PCs and is not used on other devices.
Uncheck the box next to "Quick Format" and click the "Start" button. Windows will start the process, which may take a while. When finished, you can check the flash memory. If the problem has not yet been resolved, then we can conclude that the flash drive is physically damaged and cannot be restored.
Disabling security on OS X
On a computer running OS X, the problem can be solved in another way. To do this, open Disk Utility. Permissions for your drives may be corrupted, but this can be fixed. Disk Utility is located in the Utilities folder. On the left, select a write-protected device (the Disk Utility window should list hard drives, CD drives, and all connected drives). Click on the "First Aid" button. Once confirmed, OS X will begin scanning the drive and attempt to fix any problems it finds. This may take some time. If you are using earlier versions of OS X, then you need to go to the "First Aid" tab and click the "Repair Permissions" button.
If the flash drive still does not work, then you can try formatting it. The NTFS file system is not suitable for OS X. Formatting will delete all data on the drive, but may restore it to normal operation. Open the Disk Utility application in the "Utilities" folder and select the write-protected flash drive (it will be displayed in the left frame). Select the desired file system and press the "Erase" button to start formatting. Video on removing write protection from a flash drive.
On the this moment all computer users everywhere use usb flash drives to store and transfer your files. It is not uncommon when data cannot be copied, as the system writes that the flash drive is write-protected. In this case, you need to figure out what caused the problem and how to remove write protection from the flash drive.
If the flash drive is write-protected, then the system will not let you write the file to the flash drive until you remove this restriction. There may be two problems due to which the message “The disk is write-protected, remove protection or use another disk” may appear - hardware (associated with the flash drive itself) or software (associated with the operating system).
Hardware write protection on a flash drive
There is a small share of usb drives on the market (not only flash drives, but also sd cards) that have mechanical write protection. Such flash drives on which the disk is write-protected are mainly aimed at inattentive users who can accidentally delete the necessary files.
Pay attention to the picture above. The usb drive has an "open" and "close" switch depicted by a lock icon. If the switch on your flash drive is in the "closed" position, then writing files to usb will be prohibited.
If your device does not have such a switch, then the disk is write-protected in the operating system settings and interaction with the usb drive controller.
Software write protection
Removing write protection through the Windows registry
In order to enter the Windows Registry Editor, press the key combination Win + R, type regedit there and press Enter. Instead of the key combination Win + R, you can click "Start" - "Run". These actions are equivalent.
On the left side you will see the structure of the registry keys. Go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies registry branch.
However, this thread may or may not exist. If it is, then look at the value of the WriteProtect parameter. A value of 1 disables writing files to the flash drive. Set to 0 for permission, then remove the flash drive and restart the computer. The problem should be gone.
If you do not have such a branch, then you need to create it. To do this, right-click on the section above Control and select "Create Section". Specify a name for the new StorageDevicePolicies key.
After that, go to the newly created StorageDevicePolicies section, right-click on the right and select "create DWORD Value".
Name it WriteProtect and leave the value 0. If the value is 1, then you need to remove it. As in the previous paragraph, after that, pull out usb drive and restart your computer. Make sure the message that the disk is write-protected is gone.
Removing protection via command line
If editing the registry did not help, then there is a way to remove write protection through the Diskpart command interpreter in command line Windows.
Click "Start" and in the search bar write cmd and then a command prompt window will pop up. You can also go to the command line in the menu "Start" - "All Programs" - "Accessories" - "Command Prompt".
At the command prompt, type diskpart and press Enter. After that write list disk and press Enter again.
You will see a list of disk drives on your computer. You need to determine which one belongs to the flash drive on which the disk is write-protected. In our case, this is disk 2, which can be seen from the size of 8GB.
We write select disk 2 to select our disk, press Enter.
We write attributes disk clear readonly to clear read-only attributes.
After executing the commands, close the command prompt, remove the USB flash drive and insert it back into the computer. Try writing something down to see if the problem is solved.
Removing protection using the Group Local Policy Editor
Click "Start" - "Run" and the key combination Win + R and type in the value of gpedit.msc and then press Enter.
The group editor will open. local policy Windows.
Go to the "Computer Configuration" - "Administrative Templates" - "System" - "Access to Removable Storage Devices" tab.
If the "Removable drives: Deny reading" option is enabled, if it should be removed. To do this, double-click on the policy and select "disable", then click OK.
Removing protection using special programs
Now let's look at how to unlock a USB flash drive if the standard Windows tools didn't help. You can try to remove protection using special programs for working with flash drives from different manufacturers, which will allow you to format the disk in order to remove the error on the prohibition of recording.
Free utility which will help you format your flash drive and then the write protection problem will be fixed.
JetFlash program recovery tool
Special Program for flash drives Transcend. This program is designed to fix errors on flash drives of the Transcend brand, including problems with protecting a flash drive from writing files.
I also suggest that you familiarize yourself with the video on this topic, maybe after watching it you will be able to remove the write protection on the flash drive.
If you have any questions, then write them in the comments. We will try to help you.
Problems with flash drives have been known since their appearance, these are the impossibility of formatting, blocking writes to the drive, the appearance of incomprehensible errors. Today we will analyze the case when the flash drive is write-protected, by the way, this solution can later help with .
Let's say you want to throw something on a USB flash drive, that is, write down information, when you try to do this, a message like this may appear: "Disk is write-protected, remove protection or use another disk", or simply that the disk is write-protected. solved this problem in several ways, which we will now deal with.
The flash drive is write protected how to remove protection - options?
In general, there are two ways to remove protection, software and hardware. Hardware way can not be used on all drives, but only on those where there is a special switch. For example, it is on SD card readers on the side, there will be an inscription Lock. As you can see, everything is simple, you just need to switch the lever.
software way. I think you are also clear. To unlock the flash drive, we will use regular Windows tools, for example, the command line, or third-party programs.
How to remove write protection from a flash drive using the registry?
Let's move on to the main process. The first option is to use . To enter it, we open a window "Run" by pressing keys Win+R and enter the command there regedit. Another option, in the search we enter "regedit" and in the results we open the registry on behalf of the administrator.
Now we need to go to the StorageDevicePolicies section. It is located along the path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies
By the way, I already said how to quickly switch to one or another branch.
If you did not find this section there, then create it. To do this, click on the previous section control and choose "Create", after "Chapter" and name it StorageDevicePolicies.
Now, in this section, we have to create a parameter DWORD (32 bits), we do exactly the same. Name this parameter WriteProtect.
Click on the created parameter twice and make sure that its value is 0, if not, change it to zero and save.
After that, you need to exit the registry, pull out the flash drive and restart the computer. When the system boots up, insert the flash drive again. Now you can write any information to the flash drive, since protection is disabled.
If this option does not work, move on to the next one.
Remove protection from a flash drive using the command line
Another programmatic solution to the problem is to use the diskpart command on the command line.
We open the command prompt as an administrator, for this in Windows 10 you can right-click on and select the appropriate item, or enter cmd in the search and open as administrator.
The next step is to enter the command in the command line diskpart and then enter list disk .
Now you need to understand what number the flash drive has. The easiest way to understand this is by volume.
Once you have figured out which number belongs to the desired flash drive, you need to enter the command on the command line select disk"flash drive number » , that is, if the flash drive had number 1, then the command would look like this: select disk 1.
Thus we have chosen desired disk, further, we clear the attributes, for this we enter the command attributes disk clear readonly .
If you have a task to format the drive, then first enter these commands:
- clean– cleaning
- create partition primary- create a partition
- format fs = ntfs- format in NTFS format
- If you are formatting to FAT format, then the command will be: format fs = fat
The read attribute is written in the article -. If you are interested in how to use it for disks and partitions, then read.
Removing protection using the Local Group Policy Editor
I must say right away that this utility is contained only in professional Windows versions, such as in Windows 10 Pro or Windows 8 Pro. You won't see this in home editions.
To enter the group policy editor, you need to press the combination Win+R and in the window that opens enter the command gpedit.msc.
In the editor window, we must go to the next section: Computer configuration - Administrative Templates - System - Access to removable storage devices. We find there the parameter "Removable drives: Deny recording", if it is in the "Enabled" state, then disable it.
To do this, you need to double-click on this parameter, a window will open where we put the checkbox in the position "Disable" and then press "OK".
In many firms, specialists put write protection on removable media. This is dictated by the need to protect yourself from information leakage to competitors. But there is another situation when a flash drive is used on several computers, and The best way protect information on it from users and viruses - put a ban on writing. We will look at several ways to accomplish this task.
This can be done using the means of the operating system itself. Windows systems, use the special software or hardware capabilities of the USB flash drive. Let's consider these methods.
Method 1: Use special software
Not every user can confidently work with the registry or operating system utilities (which we will discuss later). Therefore, for convenience, a special software, which helps to cope with the described methods by pressing one or two buttons. For example, there is USB utility Port Locked, which is designed to block the computer port itself.
The program is easy to use. Moreover, it does not require installation. To use it, do the following:
- Run her. Standard startup password - "Unlock".
- For blocking USB connectors machine select item "Lock USB Ports" and press the exit button "Exit". To unlock them, click Unlock USB Ports
This utility helps protect against copying confidential data from a computer to USB drives. But it has a low level of protection and is only suitable for ordinary users.
This utility will reliably protect the data on the flash drive from being changed or deleted. It is considered effective because it works at the hardware level. Usage in this case looks like this:
The necessary changes have been made to the system. The program has additional convenient functions, which you can find in the menu "Options".
Another very handy program to provide write protection on a flash drive is called ToolsPlus USB KEY.
When using a flash drive in a computer, the program asks for a password. And if it is not correct, then the flash drive is turned off. 
The utility runs without installation. For write protection, you need to press only one button "OK (minimize to tray)". When you press a button "Settings" you can set up a password and add startup to startup. Only one button is pressed for write protection. This program hides in the tray on startup and ordinary user won't notice her.
The software reviewed is the best option protection for the average user.
Method 2: Use the built-in switch
Method 3: Editing the Registry
Method 4: Making Group Policy Changes
it the way is fine for a USB stick formatted in NTFS. How to make a flash drive with this file system, read in our lesson.
- Insert the flash drive into your computer. Right click on its icon in "My computer" or "This computer".
- Open the drop down menu item "Properties". Go to the tab "Safety"
- Under section "Groups and Users" press the button "Change…".
- A list of groups and users will open in a new window. Here, in the list of permissions, uncheck the item "Record" and press the button "Apply".
After such an operation, it will be impossible to write to a USB flash drive.
