How to remove write protection from usb flash-drive?

I have only just stumbled upon this reply. What an ill thought out and quite frankly disgusting response. Firstly i opt not to use the encryption option, as the USB is plugged in and removed multiple times per day. Second, i am a working academic, and the mere suggestion around pornography is absolutely outrageous. Finally, you must be a complete cretin to suggest such a scenario, shame on you @Ed_P you vile being.

I have only just stumbled upon this reply. What an ill thought out and quite frankly disgusting response. Firstly i opt not to use the encryption option, as the USB is plugged in and removed multiple times per day. Second, i am a working academic, and the mere suggestion around pornography is absolutely outrageous. Finally, you must be a complete cretin to suggest such a scenario, shame on you @Ed_P you vile being.

And you FopaUK have no sense of humor!  :cry:

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Hi.

I’ve got write protection fault on SanDisk ExtremePro USB3.1 128GB flash drive.

I understand that the only way to go now it to RMA or recycle it.

But… the problem is that I’ll need to use this and really I don’t know what went wrong. Brand new drive, a few days old. Just regular use, fdisk->mkfs->dd->read. A few cycles.

The option into getting into endless RMA cycle is not very appealing to me. 

Also, what to do? (Except avoiding)

The drive wasn’t designed for the type of use you are doing with it.  You should look for something simpler.

look it is common knowlege a lot of usb drives are tossed because of firmware bugs INCLUDING a FAKE write protection INTENTIONALLY applied to a drive that failed to write data properly
all consumers ask is for a tool that resets that lockout by telling the firmware to ignore that bug an return to factory thereby destroying data but making a perfectly functional drive (maybe with a loss of that block of the nand flash) usable
I don’t care what marketing tells anyone it CAN BE FIXED WITH ACCESS TO SUCH A FACTOR RESET TOOL

sure it may no longer be 100% new in the sense of lost capacity and wear leveling records but 99.9999999999% of consumers don’t care if it dies again due to worn flash rather that it works longer than 2-3 weeks before a write error causes this pointless lockout

tool or gtfo nothing but a fix for this firmware bug or ability to bypass it by factory reset is acceptable 

Sandisk company please create sandisk online recovery tool for write to protect

Try Warranty Replacement Process

If that doesn’t work return it to the seller.

Thank you
rj

Try this, insert the SD card in any DSLR, then FORMAT. Now TRY FORMATING in COMPUTER.
It worked for me.

Write protection from usb could be easily removed by reseting the setting from manage panel of usb and after removing certs chief privacy code it could be writeable.

If you don’t wanna format the USB, try editing Registry and running diskpart to remove its readonly attribute.
Get details

This is a firmware issue. We need tools to wipe, replace, or reset the firmware to default factory settings. It cannot be fixed from the operating system side. It’s the firmware that decides who can read or write to the USB, not the operating system.

Read Kathie’s link above.

years later … haha… Ok I found a fix that worked for me. I couldnt do anything with the flash drive in windows. So…
I put in in a linux pc. (Ubantu) . I used the “Disk” app that comes with Ubantu. It allowed me to delete all the partitions and then to format the drive.
After that it worked fine in windows again.
Good luck!

oops

I have the same problem with a 32GB Memory stick, write protected can’t delete anything from it. Very annoying.

To remove write protection from a USB flash drive, follow these steps:

  1. Check for Physical Write Protection Switch: Some USB flash drives have a physical switch that enables or disables write protection. Look for a small switch or slider on the side of your flash drive and ensure it’s in the “unlocked” or “write-enabled” position.

  2. Use Diskpart Utility (Windows):

  • Connect your USB flash drive to your computer.
  • Press Win + R, type “cmd,” and hit Enter to open Command Prompt.
  • In Command Prompt, type “diskpart” and press Enter.
  • Type “list disk” and press Enter to display a list of connected drives. Identify your USB flash drive based on its size.
  • Type “select disk X” (replace X with your flash drive’s disk number) and press Enter.
  • Type “attributes disk clear readonly” and press Enter to remove the write protection.
  1. Modify Registry (Windows):
  • Press Win + R, type “regedit,” and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.
  • Navigate to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies” (create the StorageDevicePolicies key if it doesn’t exist).
  • Double-click on the “WriteProtect” value in the right pane and set its value to “0” to disable write protection.
  • Close the Registry Editor and restart your computer for the changes to take effect.
  1. Use Disk Utility (macOS):
  • Insert your USB flash drive into your Mac.
  • Open Disk Utility (you can find it in Applications > Utilities).
  • Select your USB flash drive from the list of devices on the left.
  • Click on the “Erase” tab and choose a format (such as exFAT or FAT32).
  • Click “Erase” to format the drive, which should remove any write protection.
  1. Use Disk Management (Linux):
  • Connect your USB flash drive to your Linux system.
  • Open a terminal and type “sudo fdisk -l” to list all connected disks.
  • Identify your flash drive based on its size and note the device name (e.g., /dev/sdb).
  • Type “sudo fdisk /dev/sdx” (replace “x” with the correct letter) and press Enter.
  • Press “d” to delete existing partitions, then “w” to write changes and exit.
  • Format the flash drive using a file system like FAT32 or exFAT.

After performing these steps, your USB flash drive should no longer have write protection enabled, allowing you to write, delete, and modify files as needed. Remember to back up important data before attempting any modifications to avoid data loss.

You can simply change USB Drive Read-Write Properties.

Go to My Computer/This PC and under Devices with Removable Storage, look for your USB drive device. Right-click on it and click Properties. Click Edit, in the pop-up box, sometimes there’s an option to Remove write-protection. Hope this helps!

hi @luck ,
After following your outlined steps, I’m pleased to confirm that they led me to resolve my issue effectively. Your guidance and assistance were invaluable, and I am grateful for your support throughout this process.
Thank you once again for sharing your expertise and helping me overcome the challenge at hand.