guys there is really no way of fixing this ive tried everything from fileshredding to uninstalling the only thing you can do is probably call sandisk and see if they can send you one or you can ask you to wipe yours it may cost you unless you have a warranty on it but thats what i di and there gonna send me one around 2 weeks :cry:
Who posts to a USB Flash Drive forum? I just registered to join in the fun. How many of these do people get through? Anyway it’s loquacious & erudite, so.
I think luckaduck’s right for the wrong reason. Fat32, Dell, Vista, forget it. The drive will store the data it says, less a small amount for who knows why. Here it is: the drive has two write caching policies : (a) pull it out quick; (b) ask Windows to let you pull it out. Default is “Ask Windows” - see that little green tick thing in the System Tray? (If you don’t believe me, go Computer>F-drive>Properties>Hardware>Sandisk Cruzer Blade Device>Properties>Policies). So, that’s how it is, you forget to ask permissionle, pull it out (you might as well marry the thing), no green tick, it says"No way" and uses write protect to stop your barbarity.
Try this: Computer>F-drive (or whatever - call it Mabel if you want)>Properties>Sharing>Advanced Sharing>Share this folder>Permissions>Everyone>Full Control>Apply>OK>Apply>OK (it’s a different box)>Close. Then ask Windows to let you take it out. Then: in Windows run a mega-destructor data erasure program like East Tec or Cyber Scrub (hint: 15 day free trial). When you’re done, leave it for a while, then stick the drive back in, and - yes? No? If the mofo can remember it’s write- protected after your whole system’s been East Tec-ed, it’s more human than I am.
I can’t promise it’ll work, but I’ve done it, and it’s worth a go.
The weird stuff people want you to do - I’m surprised nobody wants to stick a needle in the hole and get at the little write protect man.
Don’t format, don’t mess about with drive recovery programs, and DON’T BLAME THE PRODUCT!
Good luck
Alan
“Here it is: the drive has two write caching policies : (a) pull it out quick; (b) ask Windows to let you pull it out. Default is "Ask Windows”"
Wrong. The default is (a), on Windows XP, Vista, 7-32bit & 7-64bit.
“see that little green tick thing in the System Tray?”
Yes, and it’s present when option (a) is used.
But thanks for posting. 
Well, if (a) is the default, how is it that drives I’ve never modified both came out of the packaging set to “Optimize for performance”, i.e. I have to stop them using the system tray instruction before I remove them?
All I can say is that I had the problem myself and what I described solved it. It could just be luck or coincidence.
If you follow the steps you posted:
“(If you don’t believe me, go Computer>F-drive>Properties>Hardware>Sandisk Cruzer Blade Device>Properties>Policies”
you will see on the Policies tab “Removal policy” and under that heading you will see “Quick removal (default)” and under that option “Better performance”. The word “default” is put there by Windows and doesn’t change if the “Better performance” option is selected.
“So, that’s how it is, you forget to ask permissionle, pull it out (you might as well marry the thing), no green tick, it says"No way" and uses write protect to stop your barbarity.”
Unfortunately if the Better performance option is used and the USB is simply yanked out, it doesn’t say “No way”, it doesn’t say anything. At least not on my machines. And what is this “write protect” you refer to? Is “it” a Windows thing, a hardware thing, …?
“Don’t format, don’t mess about with drive recovery programs, and DON’T BLAME THE PRODUCT!”
Now that is something I agree with. 
My personal theory as to the USB drives getting screwed up is they are used on machines that have the “Better performance” option enabled, they are indeed yanked out without using the Safe Removal option and the FAT on the USB drive gets screwed up if they have written to the USB drive. The files on the drives and the FAT are out of sync.
do you know what’s causing this?? i had this problem wind a cruzer edge 16GB that I returned to the shop, then they gave me a cruzer blade 16GB, 3 days later is write protected as well!! iam trying everything and nothing seems too work! the only thing that changed in my computer last week was some win7 optional updates that I installed… I have no virus, spyware or malware!! scanned dozen of times. Iam going to return the second flash drive but iam afraid it happens again…
a little help here…
Are you using it/them with Windows 7 and Homegroup access?
windows 7 yes, homegroup no, been using them for a few months.I have another cruzer blade 8GB and this never hapened
The only time I have had a USB stick that was writable suddenly not be was when I used it on Windows 7 and somehow it became part of the machine’s Homegroup and I either clicked on the drive’s option to make it Read Only or that was a Windows 7 default. Once I changed the Sharing setting the stick was writable again.
The problem was not the stick’s fault, it was a pc, or noobie’s, fault.
However, there are other things that can protect a USB stick’s files. A business’s/university’s/school’s security settings. A machine’s user settings. A machine’s AV or other app’s security settings. Some of these things can be circumvented by booting the machine to Safe Mode.
Here same problem to SanDisk Cruzer Edge 16GB write protected error
I tried solve this problem until now.
I tried many ways on XP, win 7, vista and Apple MAC.
Tried used Partition, format, Regedit, Low format, Unlock s/w and utility.
almost a week when i have time tried solve this problem.
i think i tried almost all when i got and found information from internet .
also i have 2 more SanDisk Cruzer Edge 16GB but working well
please help me
Thanks
Professor SanDisk,
a quick search on the internet will bring up hundreds of results of people with the same read only problem. I am an IT expert and my 16GB Cruzer Blade made it to 24 hours of use before it to went into a ‘read-only’ lock.
I stopped buying SanDisk products after the catastrophic failure of my 4GB Extreme III SD card.
The current 16 GB Cruzer blade was a gift.
Either post a solution to this problem or post a procedure where we can exchange the unit or receive a refund.
I rather suspect the SanDisk chinese production is biased towards quantity rather than quality.
Regards
1 Like
Yes, there are hundreds of postings of the problem, but there are hundreds of thousands of these devices sold. People with no problem with a device rarely post.
BTW I personally suspect the read only problem has ties to Windows 7 64-bit Read Only sharing option.
insert ur pendrive, if u have any MAC operating system,just insert into DVD drive then restart,then
-press f8 then
-type ” -v -voodoo”
-then black screen ll go for some times
-click to continue
- in the next window click UTILITY from menu bar then click on disk utility
-then choose ur pendrive in explorer left side
-then click on erase
-format in “journeld-extended”
-again format in FAT
be sure u have put legacy usb:”disabled”.
MAC ll change file allocation table.now come into windows check ur pendrive.
Or try long path tool from http://longpathtool.com
This is not serious!
I’ve just purchased a 16GB TS-SANDISK BLADE, and do not wish to store my information on-line. I tried to load a 5GB movie onto the stick, but a message appeared that said the destination was full. Can I format the flashdrive and use it as a normal memory stick? I thank you in advance for your anticipated response.
I’ve just purchased a 16GB TS-SANDISK BLADE, and do not wish to store my information on-line. I tried to load a 5GB movie onto the stick, but a message appeared that said the destination was full. Can I format the flashdrive and use it as a normal memory stick? I thank you in advance for your anticipated response.
(No idea how to post this message elsewhere)
Your drive is formatted to FAT32. This has a 4GB file size limitation. You may want to break up the movie into 2 smaller files.
Hi Tapeworm. Many thanks for your response. Is there no other possible way to copy the complete 5GB file onto the flashdrive?
Once again, Thank you.
Oh well I can honestly say this is not a microsoft proble! I was happily using a SANDISB cruzer Edge 16GB on a mac and a linux box. Always ejecting(sic) the stick before removing. For some reason best known to the stick it went read-only on the middle of a multi file transfer. I have been unable to write to, format or partition the disk since. How do I get a replacement for this product? This thread has had over 7000 views so it’s not an isolated case.
@cedric wrote:
Hi Tapeworm. Many thanks for your response. Is there no other possible way to copy the complete 5GB file onto the flashdrive?
You could re-format the drive to NTFS (same as computer’s hard drive) and that would allow the 5GB file to be transferred. However, there is a reason why all portable flash-based thumb drives are formatted to FAT32. It simply works better for the majority of people.
Try it and see. You can always format it back to FAT32 if you want to.
