The device is write-protected when formatting. How to remove write protection from a flash drive: we analyze the most effective methods

The era of floppy disks is long gone, but sometimes when trying to write to a flash drive, the user may encounter a situation known since the days of using floppy media - it is blocked and cannot be used.

We will look at how to solve this problem in detail in our article today.

So, you need to write some information to a flash drive, you insert it and receive a message like “The disk is write-protected, remove the protection or use another one.”

This problem can be solved quite quickly, and we will talk about this a little later, but now we should say a few words about the purpose of installing protection from downloading on .

Note! This operation is performed for only one purpose - which can spontaneously be copied to removable media without the user’s knowledge.

Methods for removing write protection from a flash drive

There are 2 key ways to remove protection from a flash drive: hardware and software.

The hardware solution is to install a lock switch, which is present in some drive models, as well as SD cards.

Most often, the toggle switch is located on the side edge of the drive.

Carefully inspect your existing drive and look for an open/closed lock icon or the word Lock on it.

Note! Removing the lock is very simple - just move the lock lever in the opposite direction. That's all. Insert the media into the appropriate slot and repeat the file writing operation again.

The software solution involves the interaction of a flash drive controller, which is responsible for the ability to record information.

You can remove write protection using this method using the command line of the Registry Editor or Local Group Policy.

Learn more about all of the above methods.

Removing protection using regedit

1. Click “Start” and enter - in the search field. Right-click (RMB) on the program and in the context menu go to the “Run as administrator” item.

2. Go to the StorageDevicePolicies section:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies

Important! Important! If there is no such thing, you will have to create it. To do this, click on the section Control - New - Section. We call it “StorageDevicePolicies” without quotes. If there is no such section, you need to create it.

Create (RMB in the right column of the registry) a DWORD parameter (32 bits) in the created branch. For convenience, let's call the element WriteProtect.

3. Make sure that the WriteProtect value is 0. Right-click on WriteProtect and select “Change”. If the value is “1” you need to change it to “0” and click “Ok”.

4. Close the registry editor, remove the media and restart the computer. Insert the flash drive. Now the flash drive works as usual, allowing you to write files.

Removing protection using Diskpart

If we were unable to unlock using regedit, let's try to do it using the Diskpart command interpreter, which allows you to manage the commands that the user enters into the command line when working with partitions and disks.

1. “Start”, enter the name - cmd - in the search field. Right-click in the program and select “Run as administrator” in the context menu.

2. Now you should enter the commands: diskpart and list disk, and after entering each of them, press the Enter key.

3. In the list above, determine what serial number in the name the flash drive has.

This can be done based on the specified size, in our case an 8 GB flash drive, presented in the table as “Disk 1” with a capacity of 7441 MB.

4. Select the disk with the “select” command, clear the attributes that allow only reading “attributes disk clear readonly”.

If, you should enter the following commands: “clean”, create a partition “create partition primary”, format it in NTFS “format fs = ntfs” or FAT “format fs = fat”.

Removing protection using the Local Group Policy Editor

1. Open it by pressing the Win + R key combination, after which you should enter the command gpedit.msc and press “OK” or Enter.

There are often cases when, when it is necessary to enter some information onto a flash drive, suddenly the message “disk is write protected” appears on the computer screen. There is no need to panic in such a situation. There are special programs for removing protection from a flash drive. But first, let’s clarify a little the question of why such protection is installed at all and why it needs to be installed.

Write protection - why is it?

It is impossible to imagine the modern world without the Internet. Its benefits to society are undeniable. However, there was a fly in the ointment. The World Wide Web is teeming with a variety of viruses that penetrate literally any crevice. USB drives are no exception; the information on them must be protected. And in order to protect the flash drive from copying virus files, manufacturers install write protection on it. But this is not the only explanation. Your flash drive can react not only to viruses, but also be full, for example. Or it could be a glitch in the flash drive itself.

Now let’s move on directly to how to remove write protection from a flash drive. There are three main ways to remove protection: software, hardware, and using internal Windows tools.

Hardware method for removing write protection from a USB drive

This method is very simple. Take a good look at your flash drive or micro sd. There should be a small toggle switch on the side. Above it is an open lock or the inscription lock. That's what it is switch to disable write protection. To unlock the flash drive, move the toggle switch and you're done. The protection has been removed. Unfortunately, such a toggle switch is not available on all flash memory and micro sd models.

Removing write protection using programs

Removing protection using programs allows you to save all the information available there on the drive. Let's look at several programs.

HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool

Can work with almost any USB flash drive. Just download the program from the Internet and run the exe file. The program does not require installation. Then you insert your flash drive into the USB port and the program itself determines all its parameters. All you have to do is choose between file system types and click the “start” button. This program allows you to remove write protection from micro sd flash drives.

JetFlash Recovery Tool

This program only works with USB flash drives from certain companies. These are Jet Flash, A-DATA and Transcend. After going through several installation steps, you can start working with the program.

Apacer Repair Program

This software recognizes only Apacer flash drives.

If your flash drive is from this company, download the program and use it.

One of the simplest and most effective programs for eliminating this type of problem. It is downloaded as an archive, which will need to be unpacked first. In the unpacked archive, select the exe file and install the program on your computer. True, this program does not recognize all flash drives, but only running on Alcor MP controller. Pay attention to the name of the flash drive in the line. If it is black, everything is in order, you can start working. If the inscription is red, alas, nothing will happen.

When running all these programs, you need administrator rights. To get them, click once on the software shortcut. A context menu will appear. There, find “Run as administrator” and select it.

Before using the above programs, try some preliminary steps.

The reason that your drive does not want to write information may be its virus infection. Scan the flash drive with an antivirus program. If viruses are found, remove them.
If you have two usb ports, move the flash drive to another port. Sometimes this helps and all information is written perfectly from the second port.
Try it to restart a computer. Sometimes the cause of problems with a USB drive can be system failures.

If all the described actions did not have any result, you should resort to the help of programs. But remember, all information recorded on your flash drive will be deleted.

Removing protection from a flash drive using internal computer resources

How to remove protection in regedit

To open the registry editor, in the Start menu, in the search bar, type regedit in Latin letters. When the regedit icon appears in the search field, right-click on it. In the menu that appears, select “Run as administrator.”

Then we find a folder called StorageDevicePolicies. It is located in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control.

If one does not exist, you will have to create it manually. To do this, right-click on the Control folder and select “New”, then “Partition”. Name the new section StorageDevicePolicies. Right-click on the newly created section. You need to select “New” and “DWORD Value (32 bits)”. Name the selected option WriteProtect. Right-click on WriteProtect and click on “Edit”. In the window that appears, enter 0 in the value line and press “Enter.”

After restarting your computer, the write protection issue will be resolved.

Removing protection using the Discpart utility

Go to the Start menu and type cmd in the search engine. Right-click and run as administrator. Recruiting teams discpart and list disk. After entering each command, press Enter. A list will appear in which you should determine the number of your USB drive. After selecting the desired disk with the select button, delete the attributes that allow read only “attributes disk clear readonly”.

The measure is radical, because after the flash drive is formatted, everything the data will be deleted from it. So think carefully before formatting your flash drive. Formatting a USB flash drive is very easy. Go to “My Computer” and look for the icon of your flash drive there. Click on the right mouse button and select “Format” in the menu that opens. In the window that opens, click “Start formatting.” The problem will be fixed, there will be no need to do anything else. You can format micro sd in the same way.

Removing write protection from a flash drive is not difficult at all. The main thing to remember is that this may delete the information you need.

First of all, I note that on some flash drives, as well as on memory cards, there is a switch, one position of which sets write protection, and the other removes it. This instruction is intended for those cases when the flash drive refuses to format despite the fact that there are no switches. And the last point: if everything described below does not help, then it is quite possible that your USB drive is simply damaged and the only solution is to buy a new one. It’s worth trying, however, two more options: (Silicon Power, Kingston, Sandisk and others), .

It is possible that the flash drive is write-protected in a slightly different way and for this reason is not formatted. It's worth trying the Local Group Policy Editor. To launch it, in any version of the operating system, press the Win+R keys and enter gpedit.msc then press OK or Enter.

In the Local Group Policy Editor, open the branch “Computer Configuration” - “Administrative Templates” - “System” - “Access to Removable Storage Devices”.

After this, pay attention to the item “Removable drives: disable recording”. If this property is set to “Enabled”, then double-click on it and set it to “Disabled”, then click the “Ok” button. Then look at the value of the same parameter, but in the “User Configuration” - “Administrative Templates” section - and so on, as in the previous option. Make the necessary changes.

After this, you can format the flash drive again; most likely, Windows will not write that the disk is write-protected. Let me remind you that it is possible that your USB drive is faulty.

Nowadays, more and more people prefer to use a flash drive to store information. But what if you want to write a document to it, but instead a message appears: “You do not have access to the target folder” or “You do not have permission to save files.” Let's start figuring out how to remove protection from a flash drive. (How to put a password on a flash drive)

Move the switch

First, check to see if there is a small mechanical switch on the flash drive. If it is present, check that it is not in the “Lock” position - in this case, the flash drive is write protected. We put the switch in the open position and everything should work.

If there is no such switch on the flash drive, we move on to more radical methods.

Using the command line

Using this method will allow you to remove protection from the flash drive and save information on it, and working with the command line is not difficult.

In the Start menu, enter “cmd” in the search field and open the command line at the top.

Now, in place of the cursor, enter the Diskpart command and press “Enter”.

Now you need to check which disk number corresponds to the flash drive. You can check the memory capacity of the flash drive. For me this is Disc 2. Remember the number “2” and move on.

In the command line, enter Select Disk 2, you put the number that you defined above, and press “Enter”.

To exit Diskpart, write exit – “Enter”. Close the command line window.

Now you need to restart your computer, and then try to write something to the USB flash drive.

Using formatting

This method will easily restore the functionality of your flash drive, but you should use it only if you don’t mind losing the information stored on it. We will perform formatting not using operating system tools, but using the utility hard disk low level format tool.

The program will do "deep formatting"– that is, at the physical level, each memory cell will be remagnetized and they will be assigned “0”. Zeros are also assigned to those cells that are responsible for protection.

Download a program to remove protection from a flash drive and install it on your computer (download hard disk low lewel format tool), connect the flash drive that we will format to the computer. We run the program as administrator. In the next window, select the device that needs to be formatted. Click “Continue”.

Then you can format the flash drive using the operating system. As a result, all data is erased, and you can copy files to a flash drive, change them, and rename them.

I also advise you to read the article:. It describes four more ways to solve this issue.

Use one of the methods to remove protection from a flash drive and start using it 100%.

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When you try to add data to a flash drive, your computer may display the error message “The disk is write-protected.” Therefore, it is important for anyone to know how to remove write protection from a flash drive. It is difficult for the user to check the cause of the phenomenon, but often this acts as a precaution against downloading viruses from laptops, computers, and other devices to the drive. It is difficult to clear a flash drive of them; it is much easier to protect it and then remove the recording.

How to unlock a write-protected flash drive

Unlocking is accomplished via a lock switch in some flash or removable SD cards. If you find a switch, then the method for removing write protection from a USB flash drive is to switch the lock lever in the desired direction of the open lock image. After this, reinsert the media into the PC port, access to it will become free, and you will be able to record information. To return to the “Flash drive is write-protected” state, switch the lever to the “Protect” position. The same applies to following the point on how to remove protection from a memory card.

Launch Windows Registry Editor

The system registry editor is a way to return the flash card to working condition using simple steps. Follow these simple steps:

First, you need to click on the “Start” icon and type “Regedit” into the search box, right-click on the dropped file, and from the resulting menu click on the “Run Administrator” button.
Select the “StorageDevicePolicies” subsection through the command channel “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies”. The absence of this section on your PC requires you to add it. To do this, right-click on the “Control” subsection, click “New”, select “Section”. Next, you can give the subkey the name “StorageDevicePolicies”, after removing the quotes. While on this registry branch, create a "DWORD (32-bit)" element called "WriteProtect".
Make sure that the renamed WriteProtect element is equal to 0. To verify this, click on the element, select “Change”, correct the one to zero, confirming the selection with OK. The change may not be necessary if the value is already zero.
Close the program, remove the media, restart the PC. A reboot will return the inserted card to its original working state.

Recovery via command line

The command line is an alternative method for solving the question of how to remove protection from a flash drive. The process includes the following points:

Click “Start”, enter “cmd” in the search box, right-click on the program that appears, find “Run administrator” and click on the option.
Enter the command “diskpart”, click “enter”, then enter “list disk”, click “enter” again.
Determine the disk number. If it is the only one, then it will be “Disk 1”. If you have several devices, knowing the capacity or memory of the USB drive will help determine the number.
After selecting the protected disk that you want to fix by typing “select”, you need to clear the read-only attributes by typing “attributes disk clear readonly”. Additional formatting can be done if desired. To do this, use the command “clean”, create a subsection “create partition primary”, format the flash drive to the desired format. Done – the disk is working again.

How to remove protection from a transcend flash drive

Holders of Transcend flash cards can resort to using a utility created exclusively for the brand. The file is called “JetFlashRecovery” and can be downloaded from the company’s official website. The utility is completely free to access, eliminates write protection problems and other emerging difficulties. To make it easier to find the utility, use the file name.

In addition to this utility, the already described command line or registry editor methods are suitable for the Transcend brand. The lock removal tool by switching the locking lever will be an alternative method of removing write protection from such a flash drive. You can try all the methods, because at least one of them should work and help eliminate this painful problem.