16GB Cruzer USB unable to make drive writable

Got the drive from Costco today Made a .zip on my hard drive containing all the crapware that came on the drive Deleted all the files on it Started copying 12.5GB worth of .iso images to it to verify that it’s all working One 3.5GB file copied successfully After that Windows 7 (x64) started reporting that the device was read-only and the other files failed to transfer. There is no way to make the drive writable or to change anything on the device. Even going into Disk Management there is no way to change the drive letter, partition, format or otherwise make any changes to it. It’s a brick as far as I can tell. I’m highly experienced with both hardware and software, so yes, I’m logged in administrator and I know how to twiddle file sharing/permissions etc. I’ve also tried it in my desktop and laptop, same story on both of them (both Windows 7 x64) I just want to make sure I’m not missing anything before I return it as defective. It seems like there are quite a few other threads with people having the same issue and I don’t see any resolutions in those threads and I didn’t find anything helpful in the knowledge base. TIA

If your ISO files are larger than 4GB they won’t fit on a FAT32 formated device which is what all USB drives come formated as.

Windows 7 has a tendency of adding things to Libraries.  And the Libraries have a Share With option which is new and I think defaults to Read Only.  See if your ISO file is noted in one of Win 7’s Libries; Documents, Music, Pictures or Videos,

And from another post these steps may help:

And from a friend named jaclaz :

Can you:

  1. try that same stick on another PC
  2. try another stick on that same PC
  3. try that same stick on the same or another PC with another OS (maybe a Linux LiveCD)

This would exclude *any*

**OS**

or

**PC**

specific issues and pinpoint the issue “inside” the stick.

With the Cruzer plugged in open a My Computer window and RIGHT click

on the device’s drive letter.  Then click on Properties and report what

File System is shown.<br>

To verify the device is read only, in Windows open a Command Prompt and execute:

ECHO Hi, I am echoed to a text file\>?:\mynicefile.txt

replacing the ? with the cruser’s drive letter.  Post the results shown in the Command Window.

Windows 7 has a new function called Libraries to which it can classify things automatically as Documents, Music, Pictures or Video.  And within the Libraries there is a column called Share With.  Check to see if your ISO file on the USB drive is a part of your Win 7 Libraries.  If so use the Share With function to set it to Read/Write.  See if that helps.

I had a USB drive get caught in that senario a while back, how I have no idea, but clicking on the Read/Write option made the device writable again.

Hi. Hopefully this link would help you out. 

http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2532/~/%22flash-drive-write-protection%22-error-appears-in-windows-xp

@beiker wrote:

Hi. Hopefully this link would help you out. 

 

http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2532/~/%22flash-drive-write-protection%22-error-appears-in-windows-xp

 

Did you miss the part where the OP said he was using Win7, or where the KnowledgeBase article says “This applies to Windows XP only.”?

@beiker wrote:

Hi. Hopefully this link would help you out. 

 

http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2532/~/%22flash-drive-write-protection%22-error-appear…

 

Did you miss the part where the OP said he was using Win7, or where the KnowledgeBase article says

“This applies to Windows XP only.”?

Looks like my reply was deleted or never got posted for some reason. Anyway, the links provided weren’t helpful (for obvious reasons) and the device turned out to be a brick. Even Linux couldn’t make heads or tails out of it. The suggestion that I try to see if it was write protected wasn’t helpful - I’m an expert Windows user, I was using the disk management plugin so file systems and permissions had absolutely nothing to do with the issue. From Disk Manager I should have been able to delete the file system/partition or whatever I chose to do, but I had no permissions at all. I exchanged it for a new one and this one works - sort of. No way I’d ever trust any important data to it but it will do (for now) for transporting copies of data. SanDisk really seems to have gone downwhill :frowning: The last 3 devices I’ve purchased from them have been bricks, and one (an old V-Mate that set me back $100) never worked at all and I never got a single response to multiple tech support requests on it. I think this Cruzer will be my last SanDisk device, they don’t have the quality they did when I was buying fistfuls of CF their cards (which still work just fine after all these years)

okay i just got this san disk cruzer fit 16 gb so i put it into the computer i wondering which thing would it be under i have a windows xp so i look in the my computer and the only one open was Dvd/Cd-Rw Drive (D:) could that be the space? Please help and how the **bleep** do i get this little thing out???

the only one open was Dvd/Cd-Rw Drive (D could that be the space?”

Unlikely.  What files are shown as being on it?

how the **bleep** do i get this little thing out???"

The same way you remove any USB device safely. You click on the Windows Safely Remove icon on the Taskbar near the clock.