If you have previously locked your USB flash drive or pen drive by switching its Lock to ON, the device is locked and write-protected. It means that you cannot format the device nor make any changes to it. Here is how to unlock the write-protected USB: Step 1.
How do I remove write protection on a USB drive?
Type “Attributes disk clear readonly” and press “enter.” Yes, that word is spelled as “readonly.” Finally, wait for the write protection removal to finish, type “Exit”, then hit “enter” to close the command prompt window. Restart your PC and try writing on the USB again after the system has rebooted.
What does it mean when a USB is write-protected?
When a USB drive or SD card is write-protected, you can’t change files on the media; you can only view them. On write-protected media, you can read and copy files, but you can’t write to and delete files.
Why can’t I remove write protection USB?
Disk Write Protected FAQ
If your USB flash drive, SD card or hard drive is write-protected, you can easily remove write protection. You can try running a virus scan, checking and ensuring the device isn’t full, disabling read-only status for a file, using diskpart, editing Windows Registry and formatting the device.
How do I unlock a USB drive?
Method 1: Check the Lock Switch
So, if you find your USB Drive locked, then you should first check the physical lock switch. If the lock switch of your USB Drive is toggled to the lock position, you need to toggle it to the unlock position to unlock your USB Drive.
How do I know if my USB is read only?
If your USB becomes read only mode because of disk errors, you can make use of CHKDSK.exe tool to check and fix found errors on the USB drive. Step 1. Press “Win+R” to open run dialogue, type “cmd” in the search box and press “Enter”, right click the Command Prompt icon and select “Run as administrator”. Step 2.
How do I fix a USB drive that won’t format?
These are some of the things you can do if you can’t format the USB Drive on your Windows 10 computer:
- Make sure the is USB Drive is not Write-Protected.
- Scan your Computer & USB for Virus.
- Run CHKDSK scan on the USB.
- Format USB Drive using Command Prompt.
How do I remove write protection from a USB drive in Windows 10?
To remove the write protection with Diskpart, type the command ATTRIBUTES DISK CLEAR READONLY. If it works, that will be confirmed by the line Disk attributes cleared successfully. Double-check this by trying to copy a small file to your USB drive. If it works, great.
How do I fix write-protected media?
How to Fix “Media Is Write Protected” in Windows
- Check Your Media for a Write Protection Switch.
- Removing Write Protection from Files and Folders.
- Run a Disk Scan.
- Run a Full Malware Scan.
- Check System Files for Corruption.
- Use Advanced Formatting Tools.
- Remove Write Protection With DiskPart.
How do I remove write protection from USB without formatting?
Go to My Computer/This PC and under Devices with Removable Storage, look for your pen 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. Change the status of this option and try again.
How do I unlock a USB drive in Windows 10?
You can also easily enable or disable the USB Ports through Device Manager. You can click Start and type Device Manager. Then click Device Manager to open Windows Device Manager or press the “Windows + X” key, and click Device Manager to open it.
How do I enable USB in safe mode?
Normally, you cannot use USB devices when working in a real mode environment (MS-DOS) or Safe Mode (in earlier versions of Windows). To do so, you must first install USB legacy emulation drivers, and Legacy USB support must be enabled in CMOS.
Can you format a write protected USB flash drive?
Format write-protected USB
Format write-protacted USB disk. To do this, follow these steps: left-click This PC -> select your USB-drive and right-click on it. From the list, select and click Format. Wait for the process to be completed.