USB pen drive is write protected; it ensures your pen drive's safety and the information present on your computer. Write protection is a program that prevents the addition of new information and the alteration of the old data.
If a pen drive is writing protected, you cannot copy, write, or rewrite data on it. Once you attach a write-protected pen drive with your computer, an alert prompting its security will pop on your screen. This virtual lock will only allow you to read or view the files present on the drive.
There are various methods to remove write protection from the pen drive:
Method 1:
The lock switch on your pen drive is a controlling mechanism for writing and reading on the device. Toggling it from lock to unlock enables you to use your pen drive without any restrictions.
The majority of pen drives are designed with a lock system feature, including SanDisk, Sony, Kingston, and many other popular brands.
How do you change pen drive read or write properties?
- 1Click on - My computer
- 2Select - PC or devices with removable storage
- 3Right-click on the pen drive and select - Properties
- 4On the pop-up box, select - Edit
Method 2: Use CMD to disable write protection:
Windows allows a quick and simple way to remove write protection from any drive-in Windows 10/8/7. Following are the steps:
Method 3: Writing protection removal software enables you to remove write protection
You don't have to worry if you're not tech-savvy; EaseUS R and D have released a new kit to help resolve the write protection issue on your hard drive, external hard drive, USB, or SD card devices.
EaseUS tools M is safe while being light-weighted and a computer fixing tool that is a practical one. You can use this click-tool to resolve write - protection issues by yourself. Here's a detailed guide to help you through it:
Method 4:
A graphical tool in the Windows, Windows Registry Editor, Regedit enables authorized users to see Windows registry and modify what needs to be changed. However, registry editing is not a recommended option as it poses a danger and risk.
Steps to remove write protection:
- 1Plug in your pen drive to your computer
- 2Hold the Windows+R key to view the 'Run' box
- 3Type 'regedit' in an empty box and press enter
- 4Press 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE' for expansion of 'System'
- 5Figure the "Current control set" in the "system" list to select "control"
- 6If you don't find a key named "Storage device policies," you will have to create one: right-click "control" for creating a new key and naming it as "Storage Device Policies" right-click on this key for opening "DWORD VALUE" then name it "write protect," double click on this to change the number.
4 Super Effective Methods to "The Disk Is Write Protected" Problem on USB
Method 5: Steps to remove write protection from USB drive effectively
The following steps to help remove write protection from a USB flash drive or an SD card apply to anyone using Windows 7, 8, or 10.
There are online solutions for disabling write protection on your USB key. Jet flash online recovery is used for repairing transcend USB keys for the flexibility to retain stored information or format the key.
Method 6: Formatting Windows after write protection removal:
EaseUs Write Partition Master is the most efficient tool; it is a free partition manager that allows users to format a USB drive to FAT32 or NTFS or EXT supporting 64GB USB flash drive FAT32 without limiting it to 32 GB in windows.
Formatting USB drive when Windows was unable to complete the format:
Choose the USB drive to format
- 1Plug in the USB drive to your computer. Download and launch the EaseUS Partition software, right-click on the USB drive, and then format by choosing the format option.
- 2A new partition label is assigned, file system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2.EXT3) cluster size to chosen partition and click - OK
- 3The warning box has a checkbox, click on 'ok,' and then if you want to retrieve data that is important, a data backup in advance will help.
Execute the changes
Click on the 'Execute operation' button and then select 'Apply,' this will format the USB drive.
Method 7: Using diskpart to remove write protection:
Improper file systems: Files formats differ between Windows and Mac; the former uses NTFS, and the latter use macOS. Mac computers do not support the NTFS file system.
Most USB flash drive, pen drive, micro SD, SSD drive use NTFS, and FAT32, compatible with the Windows Vista 7/8/10 operating system.
On inserting a SanDisk storage device into a Mac computer, you may see a San Disk write protected error.
Method 8: Write protected switch is visible on the lock position:
If you are using a memory card or a USB device plugged onto your computer, run a command prompt. This can be done by searching 'cmd.exe' or 'command prompt' in the start menu.
Run 'cmd.exe' with administrator privileges in case "access denied" message is shown on the display. For activating this, right-click on 'command prompt' in the start menu and run 'administrator' that appears in the menu. At the prompt type, type the following commands and then click on 'enter':
Start by opening File Explorer, move to your drive, and then try to copy a file on it or remove the existing one. In case this doesn't work, your SD card or memory card may be broken.
This sums up our list of methods for removal of write protection; we hope they proved successful and helped you with yours!
