Solved USB device write protected

Hi,

After reinstalling my OS “without any reason” every usb sticks and even one external hard drive become Write Protected. Strange thing I didn’t have any problem to format them but still when I tried to download something on them, I receive message: “The disk is write protected, remove the write-protection or use another disk”. I clean attributes in Diakpart. I used “hard disk low level format application” to format and everything was going smoothly but they are still not useful. I tried also regedit to check what number was in StorageDevicePolicy but I didn’t have there QWORD64 with name “Write Protect” which I created with value date “0”.
Now, I don’t have any more ideas what I can do else to fix this strange problem. I’ll really appreciate if someone help me to solve it.
Thanks in advance.

When drives become write protected it often indicates a drive problem.

When multiple drives are affected, it may be related to unexpected shutdowns and restarts (weather, power outages, etc.)


Check the drives using another Windows computer.

If they still display write protected then please test the drives to see if they pass or fail various drive tests using:


Sea tools long generic test (using Windows or bootable versions)



HD Tune Full Error Scan: (free or trial) HD Tune website

or

Macrorit Full Error Scan: Check Hard Disk for Bad Sectors | Scan Disk on Windows


Test USB drives using: GRC | ValiDrive


If the drives pass the above tests there are additional tests.

It was about GPT and MBR but still big thanks for advice !!!!

same thing happened to me, just found out in the middle of the night.. what is going on??? my USB sticks have been locked!! I have lots of paid software and cannot find a fix,,, do I have to go into the registry, did MS screw us recently?

retiredat44 said:

same thing happened to me, just found out in the middle of the night.. what is going on??? my USB sticks have been locked!! I have lots of paid software and cannot find a fix,,, do I have to go into the registry, did MS screw us recently

Click to expand...

Ah - the paranoid default on many posts - assume big bad MS are screwing you LOL.

If they are, I am sure it is just you personally they are after.

What are the details for the external hard disk? This is more likely to be recoverable. I've had lots of cheaper USB sticks go read-only and I think it happens when the internal firmware detects an error. At least the data on them should be safe.

Win11 would not help at all when I took anew 256GB TeamGroup thumbdrive.. and tried to format it, totally unable to format.. I even have paid software like EaseUS partion pro. no go. I used Rufus and also Belana Etcher to put an ISO on it. So tell me it is me!

retiredat44 said:

I used Rufus

Click to expand...

Sometimes with a USB drive after using it for RUFUS, the drive can lock.

You can use RUFUS again to format the drive.
It’s been a while, but from memory:

Open RUFUS
Plug in your USB
Boot Selection; Non Bootable
I select target system: BIOS or UEFI
File System; Your Choice? (For larger USB’s NTFS or exFAT)
Click Start.

I have used rufus with success, every time to be able to format USB sticks when Windows claims they are write protected. It usually happens when I format something with Ubuntu Linux, and Windows does not like it.

retiredat44 said:

Win11 would not help at all when I took anew 256GB TeamGroup thumbdrive.. and tried to format it, totally unable to format.. I even have paid software like EaseUS partion pro. no go. I used Rufus and also Belana Etcher to put an ISO on it. So tell me it is me!

Click to expand...

I have some basic questions.

1. "'a new 256GB TeamGroup thumbdrive.. and tried to format it," Generally new flash drives come factory-formatted.When bought, did you plug it in and check that it shows full capacity in Windows Disk Management? Why did you want to format it again? If unable to format, did you get any error message?

2. Did you plug in any other flash drive and check whether you can access the files in it? If "yes" a system/OS fault is ruled out. And in that case I will assume that the 256GB Team Group flash drive may be fake.

Check with ValiDrive GRC | ValiDrive

jumanji said:

I have some basic questions.

1. "'a new 256GB TeamGroup thumbdrive.. and tried to format it," Generally new flash drives come factory-formatted.When bought, did you plug it in and check that it shows full capacity in Windows Disk Management? Why did you want to format it again? If unable to format, did you get any error message?

2. Did you plug in any other flash drive and check whether you can access the files in it? If "yes" a system/OS fault is ruled out. And in that case I will assume that the 256GB Team Group flash drive may be fake.

Check with ValiDrive GRC | ValiDrive

New utility to check for "fake" flash drives - I like this one

Wow! That's so impressive for a tiny, uninstalled, free utility. Gibson Research is generous. :clap: Visit his site. You might find allot more to help you out with some of his new and older apps. https://www.grc.com/default.htm

www.elevenforum.com

Click to expand...

I bought it on Newegg a few months back... the only message is it is 'write protected' I just use rufus for these pia thumb drives..
some brand thumb drives do not give me any issues, but this brand does..

What is not mentioned here is that Windows 11 also makes use of policies that go with BitLocker and TPM, if the OS is installed by or the pc/laptop has been onboarded that the default security policies set all USB and related temporary storage to read-only by default.

Meaning if you were upgraded from 10, then from here on out any temp storage connected will be automatically set as read-only. Its annoying as a default, and difficult to get rid of if you are not a domain admin or have the domain admin rights. Even the default OS administrator account has difficulty removing or editing these policies because you need to connect to the "Group Policy Management" service which requires you to be connected to that specific domain as admin in order to make changes.

Having to manually diskpart and remove the readonly attributes every time is a pain in the ass.
As well as go through a bunch of registry hacks, which go back to their previous values after each reboot, leaving you back at square one.

The only easy way around this is to format and reinstall windows using local account setup and not the online account method. Another pain in the but to get through, as the windows install defaults to online account setup.

Ways around this are to edit Local Group Policy Management and go to
"Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Removable Storage Access"
edit the All Removable Storage classes: Deny all access policy and change it to disabled, removable disks: deny read access and change it to disabled, removable disks: deny write access and change it to disabled.
I know it says if not set then equals to disabled but this was untrue in my case and only corrected its self when I manually set it to disabled.

Note: If you use or have used BitLocker-protected storage, disable the policy setting "Deny write access to drives not protected by BitLocker," which is located in "Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\BitLocker Drive Encryption\Removable Data Drives."

If you are stuck in an onboarded online account then changing these settings can be a problem, recommended is to enable the local administrator account and then login to it and make the changes from there. Use this account or a newly created local account with admin rights.