Although optical discs are still in demand, there is no longer any need to talk about the popularity of this type of media. Today they have almost been replaced by portable flash drives or simply flash drives. These small devices are versatile, reliable, and capable of storing large amounts of information for long periods of time. And yet, despite their reliability and resistance to physical damage, flash drives, like all devices, can eventually begin to malfunction.

One of these errors, and, by the way, very common, is the spontaneous activation of write protection. It manifests itself in the fact that when you try to write or delete a file from the media, the system displays the message “The disk is write-protected.” It also happens that a flash drive is not formatted using Windows, but usually this happens in more complex situations. However, the problem is not so insoluble, and today we will look at the main ways to eliminate it.

Why does the “Disk is write protected” error appear?

The reasons for the occurrence of the malfunction described above may be different, but, as a rule, they are all associated with either a configuration failure Windows settings, either with failure of the device’s flash memory, or with damage to the file system. Hardware failures and failures in the microcontroller cannot be ruled out. It often happens that the user himself blocks the device by switching a special hardware toggle switch, but this only applies to those flash drives that are equipped with a similar mechanism.

Drive blocking can also be caused by lack of free space on the disk, viruses, natural wear and tear of flash memory (the device is switched to read-only mode), incorrect formatting, removal from the USB connector while data is being written, thermal and electrical effects, getting inside moisture, removal or damage to the corresponding driver, the appearance large quantity bad sectors, less often by changing the file system after using a flash drive on devices with a different operating system. So, how can you remove protection from a flash drive that you can’t write data to?

Removing protection from a flash drive using hardware

Some flash drive manufacturers equip the drives with a small mechanical switch that allows you to enable or disable write protection. If your device has a similar toggle switch, make sure it is set to the UnLock position (towards the open padlock icon).

Insert the flash drive into the USB port and try to write something on it. If you suspect that the switch is broken, do not disassemble the device, but rather take it to service center.

How to remove protection using Registry Editor

If write protection is not related to hardware problems, you can try to remove it through the registry. The fact is that a parameter may be set in the registry that prohibits making changes to file system drive. Click on your keyboard Win+R, enter the command regedit and press enter.

Expand the following branch in the left column of the editor that opens:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/StorageDevicePolicies

Now see if there is an option in the right column of the editor WriteProtect. If it is present and its value is 1, then you have found the reason why the flash drive is write-protected. Double-click on the parameter line with the mouse and change the current value from 1 to 0. Save the settings, restart the computer and check the result.

Attention, it is likely that you will not have some element of the path indicated above. In this case, it must be created manually. Let's say there is no StorageDevicePolicies directory. Click right click mouse over the previous subsection and select “Create” → “Section” from the menu.

Naturally, you will also need to create a WriteProtect parameter. It must be of type DWORD, but can also be QWORD on 64-bit systems.

Using the Command Line

We've figured out how to remove write protection from a flash drive through the registry, let's look at another method - using the built-in console utility Diskpart. After connecting the USB flash drive to your computer, open it as administrator command line and run the following commands sequentially:

diskpart
list disk
select disk N(where N is the serial number of the flash drive)
attributes disk clear readonly
exit

The first command launches the Diskpart utility, the second displays a list of all disks connected to the computer.

With the third command we select the serial number of the removable media, with the fourth we remove write protection from it. The fifth command terminates the Diskpart utility.

This tool can also be used to format a write-protected flash drive, but this is when the files on it are not valuable. In this case, after the fourth step, you should run the following commands:

clean
create partition primary
format fs=ntfs

Unlocking a flash drive through local group policy

Another way to remove write protection involves using the Local Group Policy Editor. By pressing Win+R call the “Run” window, enter into it gpedit.msc and press enter.

In the left column of the editor, follow the path Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → System → Access to Removable Storage Devices.

Now in the right column, find the “Removable drives: Deny read” option, double-click on it and make sure that the radio button in the settings window that opens is set to “Disabled” (the default should be “Not set”).

Utilities from popular manufacturers to remove protection

In some cases, it is not possible to remove protection from a USB flash drive using the system alone. In this case, it is often not only impossible to write anything onto the media, but also when formatting Windows flash drives It says the disk is write protected. In such situations, special utilities can be of great help. It is important, however, to understand that most of these programs completely format the drive during the unlocking process, so about creating backup copy All files on it should be taken care of in advance.

JetFlash Recovery Tool is one of the most popular flash drive recovery utilities. It is intended mainly for repairing Transcend and A-Data flash drives, but can also work with other types of media. The utility supports removing write protection, restoring from a file RAW systems, formatting with preliminary saving of data, correction of file system damage. The program can be used even in cases where the flash drive is not recognized by the system at all.

A utility for restoring flash drives based on Alcor microcontrollers. Like the previous tool, it allows you to remove write protection, as well as restore normal operation of the device. The utility supports the creation of protected partitions on the disk, flashing the controller and analyzing flash memory. Unfortunately, support for the utility has been discontinued by the developer, however, it continues to be successfully used to “treat” Alcor drives.

And at the end of the review, we suggest you get acquainted with another utility for unlocking flash drives. This is HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool - universal free program, used primarily for formatting different models flash drives. The utility supports unlocking USB devices, selecting a file system when formatting, assigning labels, and applying data compression for NTFS. In addition, with its help you can create a bootable MS-DOS flash media.

Flash media is a reliable means of storing personal information of its owner, but sometimes when trying to write files to it, the “Disk is write-protected” error may occur. This problem occurs due to many different reasons, including the failure of a flash drive. You can cope with it at home without any special skills.

Reasons for the error

Before you remove protection from a flash drive, you should familiarize yourself with the main reasons that cause a flash drive to be blocked. The most common of them are :

• incorrect Windows settings;
• USB port malfunction;
• lack of drivers that are responsible for recognizing the media on the computer;
• improper use (removing the flash drive before the writing, downloading, reading or moving process is completed);
• infection of a flash card with a virus;
• the physical switch is in the wrong position.

The appearance of an error can also be associated with a breakdown of the media itself. Cheap Chinese counterfeits of flash cards of famous world leaders have many faults.

Types of write protection

Types of write protection for flash media can be divided into 2 groups - software and hardware. The first type of protection is a set of specialized programs that are designed to ensure data security.

A standard example of hardware protection is the presence on the body of a flash drive of a special switch with which you can manually disable or enable the ability to write files. It is always present on SD cards, but on regular drives it is much less common.

Ways to solve the problem

Before you familiarize yourself with the most effective ways to fix the problem and resort to using them, it is worth checking the functionality of the flash drive on another computer, since the reason may lie in a faulty USB port or poor contact.

It is also worth checking the position of the switch, since it often moves involuntarily. Once you are sure there are no mechanical problems, you can proceed to various troubleshooting methods.

Hardware method

The hardware method using the command line is the most common and effective way to solve the problem. First, you should launch the command line using the Win + R key combination or using the “Command Prompt” application located in the “Start” menu. After opening it, you need to act step by step by entering the following commands:

1. "Cmd" (after opening the Run window).
2. “Diskpart” (to launch the disk manager application on the system).
3. "List disk". A list of disks will appear in the window that opens and you should select the appropriate one from it and enter the command “select disk” and its number.
4. “Attributes disk clear readonly” (entered to remove the lock from all protected files).

As soon as the message “Disk attributes have been successfully cleared” appears, you should shut down, close the command line and check the flash drive for functionality.

Virus scanning

One more effective method The solution to this problem is to scan for viruses. You must proceed as follows:

1. Go to “This PC” and right-click on the name assigned to the flash drive (for example, “Transcend”).
2. Select “Scan for viruses” from the menu that appears.
3. Clean the flash drive from detected viruses.

This method is suitable for any antivirus software installed on a personal computer.

Applying Windows Group Policy

In some cases, the problem lies in the restriction of rights by Windows Group Policy. To remove protection in this case, first press the “Windows” and “R” keys simultaneously, enter the command “gpedit.msc” in the window that appears and click “OK”. Then, you need to sequentially go to the following tabs:

• computer configuration;
• administrative templates;
• system;
• access to removable storage devices.

After opening the option window, you should check the “Disable” checkbox. Then you need to click on “Apply” and “OK”.

Removing protection via Total Commander

A significant number of different functions are offered file manager Total Commander. To remove protection from a flash drive, use it to resort to the following manipulations:

• click “Configuration”;
• click “Settings”;
• go to the “File Operations” tab
• check the “Automatic selection of copying method” box.

To save the settings, click on “Apply” and “OK”, and then check the media for functionality.

Using specialized programs

Using special programs, which can be downloaded for free on the Internet. Before downloading a particular utility, it is advisable to find out the brand of the media itself. Among the most popular specialized programs it is worth highlighting:

1. JetFlash Recovery Tool. This program is freely available and is suitable for A-Data and Transcend media. After downloading and installing the utility, you need to run it and press the “Start” button (the flash drive must be inserted into the USB input). After the process is completed, you should check the media for functionality.
2. Apacer Repair. This free utility specially designed for self-produced flash drives, but is also suitable for other media. After completing the download and installation process of the program, you need to insert the flash card into the USB input and run Apacer Repair. To solve the problem, when running the utility, the user will be prompted to format the media. To confirm, you need to click “Format”.

Formatting media

The most drastic way to solve this problem is to format the flash drive. It should be remembered that when using this method, all files and folders will be erased from the media without the possibility of recovery.

First you need to download and install the free or paid modification “HDD Low Level Format Tool”. Then you should launch it and perform the following manipulations:

• select a flash card;
• click “Continue”;
• go to “Low-level format”;
• confirm the actions and click “FORMAT THIS DEVICE”.

We hope our tips will help you cope with the problem and remove protection from the flash drive.

Despite the active use of " cloud storage", flash drives remain relevant to this day. With their help, it is convenient to transfer information between computers that, for one reason or another, do not have access to the Internet. In order to protect the flash drive from spontaneous copying to it malicious files, it can be write-protected. This will lead to the fact that when trying to write information to the drive, the user will encounter the error “The disk is write-protected, remove the protection or use another disk.” The drive can be write-protected either mechanically (hardware) or software. Below we will look at how to remove write protection from a flash drive, SD card and other similar drives.

Differences between software and hardware write protection of flash drives

Flash drive manufacturers have recently actively used hardware write protection. To do this, a special adapter was installed on the drive body, by sliding which the user could block the flash drive from writing information to it, or unlock it. In USB flash drives this technology has not become particularly widespread, but it is still used on a number of SD cards.

Note: To remove the drive's hardware write protection, you need to find the switch on the case, next to which there is the word Lock (or padlock), and move it to the open lock state. If the device does not have such a switch, then write protection is software.

The software method of protecting a flash drive from writing information to it assumes that the Windows operating system, in accordance with the requirements of the drive controller, blocks the ability to write information. In such a situation, there are several ways to remove write protection, and we will consider them below.

How to remove software write protection from a flash drive

Depending on which version of Windows is used, it is advisable to use one or another method to remove software write protection on flash drives.

Using Group Policy Editor

In professional versions of the Windows operating system, it is possible to make settings through the Group Policy Editor. In other versions Windows given There is no utility, and you will have to use other methods given below.

To remove the software write protection of a flash drive through the Group Policy Editor, you need to do the following:

After that software protection The flash drive will be disabled, and it will be possible to write the necessary information onto it.

By editing the registry

Another way to remove the software restriction on writing data from a flash drive is to use the registry editor. This method is suitable for any Windows versions. Do the following:

Using the command line

In some situations, changes to the registry do not help get rid of the problem with writing information to a flash drive. In such cases, it is recommended to do the following on the command line:

After all the steps described above, you can try to write new information to the drive; the protection should no longer work.

A flash drive is a universal and very convenient means of storing information. However, questions may arise when working with it. Surely many users have encountered the fact that it is not possible to write anything to a flash drive, since it is protected. So, from this article you will learn how to format a flash drive if it is write-protected.

But before you take any serious action, make sure that the problem is write protection. It is also possible that the computer refuses to write information to the media due to damage to the USB port or the flash drive itself. In addition, there are external drives that have a special write-protect switch on the case. It’s also worth checking, just in case, whether there are any viruses on the media. If this is not the case, there are several ways to remove write protection.

One of the simplest and most frequently used methods. To work with diskpart, you do not need to download third-party programs; it is already installed on computers with an operating system Windows system XP and later. Procedure:

1. Open the command line as administrator;
2. Enter “diskpart”;
3. Enter “list disk”;
4. We are shown a list of connected media (which are displayed as Disk 0, Disk 1, etc.). With its help, we determine the number of the Disk we need. It is very important not to confuse the numbers, as you risk losing all data from other media, for example, hard drive. To eliminate the error, you need to know exactly the size of the memory on the flash drive.
5. Enter “attributes disk clear readonly”. If the operation is successful, a disk cleanup message appears. Those who want to simply remove write protection and not format the data right away should stop at this stage;
6. To completely clean the flash drive, enter “clean”;
7. Enter “create partition primary” «;
8. To format in FAT32, enter the command “format fs=fat32”, for NTFS - “format fs=ntfs”;
9. We exit the utility using the “exit” command.

Accessing the Windows Local Group Policy Editor

To launch it, press the Win and R keys simultaneously and enter “gpedit.msc” in the window that appears. Open the branch: Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/System/Access to Removable Storage Devices. Here at the top there is an item “Removable drives: disable writing/reading”. Check the box next to “Disable”. Now you can try formatting the media again. If the “Disable” option was already there, it means that the problem is not in system limitations, but in the flash drive itself, and you need to try another method.

Checking the Windows registry

Sometimes formatting may be prohibited due to incorrect registry settings. To make sure of this, open the command line as an administrator and type “regedit”. The Registry Editor window opens. Select the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder, from there we go down to System and then to CurrentControlSet, there we click on Services and then on USBSTOR. Several parameters will be displayed to us at once, but we are only interested in Start. Its value (indicated in parentheses after the code) should be 3. If there is any other number there, then you need to correct it. To do this, right-click on the parameter, select the function change and in the panel that opens, type 3 (the selected number system does not matter). If the registry value was initially correct, then you will have to try to remove the protection from the flash drive using another method.

You can also try another way to solve the problem without leaving the registry. Using the path already described above, we get to the CurrentControlSet folder, but from there we go to the Control folder. It should have a StorageDevicePolicies section. Here we are interested in the WriteProtect parameter. Its value must be 0 in hexadecimal. If the parameter is specified incorrectly, we forward it. If the value is correct initially, feel free to exit the registry and try to remove the protection in a different way.

Using the diskmgmt.msc utility

This utility is already installed on the system. Open the command line and enter “diskmgmt.msc”. We find the Disk that we want to format. Right-click on it and click on “Delete Volume” and confirm. Now in context menu Find the “Create volume” option and select “primary partition”. We leave all the settings in it as default.

Using Apacer USB3.0 Repair Tool

This is a fairly effective and extremely simple application, which, however, will have to be downloaded from the Internet. There are only two functions in the application menu: Format and Restore. The first function will completely delete all data from the flash drive, and the second will return the factory settings (that is, it will remove write protection).

Access to the manufacturer's website

Some large manufacturers create websites for their customers where they can get free advice or even replace faulty media. You can also find them special software for formatting.

When working with flash drives, certain difficulties sometimes arise. For example, often the system, when attempting to copy any information to a medium or format it, suddenly displays a message that the disk is write-protected. As a result, you can neither transfer files to a removable drive, nor delete or change them. What to do in such a situation? And most importantly, how to format a write-protected flash drive and return it to its usual working state?

First, we recommend that you take a close look at the media itself. Some USB flash drives and memory cards have a special switch. It has two positions: one activates the write lock, and the other removes it.

This means that all you have to do is move the lever to remove the protection. At the same time, it will be possible to write any information onto the flash drive again. True, you first need to format the drive using standard Windows tools.

If there is no switch on the flash drive, then just check it with antivirus software. The removable disk may be infected malware, which forcibly protects it from writing and prevents it from being formatted.

For reference! If you use a card reader, it's worth checking that too. Sometimes due to a malfunction of this device The system writes that “the disk is write protected.”

Removing protection from a disk using the Diskpart utility

On operating systems(OS), starting with Windows XP, there is a console utility. It's called diskpart. So, using this tool you can manage various disks. Including gaining access to the “problem” media. Working with the utility is easy:

After all the manipulations, the write-protected flash drive should change the file system. In addition, it will again be possible to upload any information to it.

However, please note that there are different write protection systems. Not everything can be removed using the diskpart utility. Therefore, if the procedure does not give the desired result, then try another method. We'll talk about it further.

We remove the write protection of the flash drive through the Group Policy Editor

Another method that allows you to format a flash drive even if it is write-protected. It is based on using the capabilities of the Local Group Policy Editor:

How to remove protection from a memory card using the diskmgmt.msc utility?

There is another standard Windows component for disk management. It is called the diskmgmt.msc utility. To use this OS tool to remove write protection, you must:

1. Press the combination Win+R. Enter “diskmgmt.msc” and click the “Enter” button.
2. Next, you need to wait a little while the system displays the disk configuration.
3. Then we find the flash drive and right-click on it.
4. Select the “Delete Volume” operation. The partition will be defined as “not allocated”.
5. Next, right-click on it. Click on “Create Volume”.
6. The system will launch the New Volume Wizard application. Click “Next” several times, leaving all the default settings.
7. At the end, click “Done”. We are waiting for the flash drive formatting process to complete.

Is it possible to format a write-protected flash drive using third-party programs?

Sometimes standard Windows tools do not help solve the problem related to the operation of removable media. Therefore, you should not neglect special utilities. They are specifically designed for restoring and formatting USB flash drives, SD cards, etc. So you can use:

1. Special proprietary software produced directly by the manufacturer itself. For example, for Transcend products this is the JetFlash Recovery program.
2. If for some reason it is impossible to use proprietary utilities, then download and try other formatting programs. There are a lot of them. Some of the most popular and convenient are HP disk format tool, HDD low level format, Recuva, SDFormatter, etc.

What else can help remove write protection on files?

• Changing parameters Windows registry, in some cases it is possible to remove the protection. To do this, open the “Run” line. Enter "regedit". In the menu that launches on the left, go to the StorageDevicePolicies folder. You can find it at the following path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control. Here we are interested in the “WriteProtect” parameter in the right panel. Double click on it. Then we change the number 1 in the “Value” field to 0. All that remains is to connect the flash drive and format it.
• Sometimes you can remove write and format protection by updating the drive firmware. This can be done in different ways. We recommend using CheckUDisk, UsbIDCheck, USBDeview or ChipGenius. Through them you will find out the VID and PID codes, which are necessary to determine the chip model of your flash drive. After which you can easily find and download the latest firmware for the media from the network. If you suddenly encounter difficulties at this stage, then use the FlashBoot.ru website.
• If it is impossible to copy information or save any files to the card, then try removing the protection in this way. Go to "My Computer". Find the flash drive you need there. Click on it with the secondary mouse button. Select the "Properties" line. Then go to the "Access" tab. Next, click on “Advanced settings”. Check the box next to "Share".
• It also happens that the problem is related to the inability to record or format removable media, caused incorrect installation or incorrect configuration of programs for creating virtual drives. For example, Alcohol 120%, DAEMON Tools, Virtual CD, etc. Therefore, you should try to remove this software. Perhaps somehow it blocks work with the memory card.

If you have tried all the methods described above, but the flash drive still does not format, then most likely it has failed. This happens quite often. Taking the drive to a service center is not the most rational solution. Repairing a flash drive usually costs more than buying it. Therefore, it is best to purchase new removable media.

USB flash drives how to choose a USB flash drive.