SanDisk Cruzer Blade 8GB Write Protected by Virus

I’ve gone through the whole internet to solve this problem. I can’t write nor delete any data from my flash drive. Here is a couple of things I remember doing:

Note: I don’t care about the data inside the disk, I can open and back it up anytime I want. The disk is totally readable, but impossible to write. Any extra help not listened above will be appreciated.  Thanks.

1. Linux mountage forcing write permission

Same error as Windows (can’t write because the disk is write protection)

 

  1. Hard Disk Low Level Format Tool

The tool can’t format because the disk is write protection

  1.  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies.

Doesn’t change anything

 

4. Start > Run “cmd”
type–> diskpart
type–> list volume
type–> select volume #
type–> attributes disk clear readonly  {here, DOS actually says that he cleaned the Disk ReadOnly property}
type–> F:>attrib -r /s /d 

Doesn’t work

 

5. HS2.0_Utility_LFormat

Tool cannot find flash drive connected to the computer. It just says “Device not found”

 

6. CHKDSK F: /F

Windows can’t check the disk because it is write protection

 

7. Repair_Neo2.9

It also says that the Device was not found.

 

  1. HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool V2.2.3

Device Media is write-protected.

 

 

This is a known hardware error and can’t be fixed. Sandisk is aware of the issue, although there is no official recall for the product. This is an offical answer if you contact customer service:

"I understand that you are getting write protection error while accessing your Cruzer flash drive. The flash drive has detected a potential fault and has become write protected to prevent data loss. There is no method to fix this. You will need to backup your data and replace the flash drive.

Our team of developers is in combination with the OS developers looking into a solution to resolve this issue.

Please note that only a minor percentage of users are experiencing the write protection issue and these are the customers posting on the internet to find a solution."

SOLUTION 1: Return to where you bought and get a refund (as others usb drives might have the same issue)

SOLUTION 2: Contact Sandisk costumer service and get a refund, for the same reasons

Mine was the same,so I bought another ,but the new still can noe be read by my computer,I called the customer service ,I don’t know what to do now

@huang1230 wrote:

Mine was the same,so I bought another ,but the new still can noe be read by my computer,I called the customer service ,I don’t know what to do now

What did Customer Service tell you to do?

i have the same problem, 2 usb sticks (nasdisk 8G, gigaMax 32G) the problem is cuased by a virus, for sure

fisrt i had 8G write protected, then by mistake i connect the other to my pc at the came time, and it became protected too

i teied all the methods i know, and other i found of the web>>>no way

the i thied diffrent OS win7 winXP ubunto centos >>>> no way

it’s a virus i’m sure

but i still can’t solve the prob>>>>>

the anti virus could’t delet the virus . the stick is protected

we neeeed hellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllp

"it’s a virus i’m sure" 

An interesting idea.  Certainly a possibility_._

“we neeeed hellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllp”

The only solution is to return the drive(s) to where you bought them or to SanDisk.

http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5232/~/return-material-authorization-(rma)-process

this is NO VIRUS ISSUE , this is a Hardware problem from SanDisk, I am an IT pro, my PC cannot be more protected, it is SanDisk’s fault, it happens mostly when you try to copy over 1GB at once to the flash

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Ziadurk is 100% correct . I’ve been using SanDisk exclusively for over 10 years. I have had 2 die on me today. I was transferring files between 3.5 GB to 8 GB and i just figured it was End of life on the first but then a drive bought last week died right after and i was doing the same thing. I’m getting a refund and changing brands. So sad i loved the brand
Everything was working fine transferring large files until i selected multiple files to copy over. Seems as this has been an issue since 2012 based on these posts so apparently this is by design or they don’t care to fix it. Such a shame

Not a virus, just hardware failure mode to render safe. Controller probably detecting failing flash memory or something. Just be happy its read only, in the past intel SSD’s used to fail in a way that only fit business customer use, just bricked. Good for managed raid systems to ensure the redundancy and error systems kick in, but for end users, pretty miserable.

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