How to Remove Write Protected USB Drive? Easy Guide

Sometimes, due to the protection enabled in the USB drives, many of us face the issue of getting stuck with some USB drives. Which cannot be formatted and we cannot even copy any of our files. Here are some easy methods that one can try to remove write protected USB drive. Some USB drives have write protection enabled. When it is enabled, it prevents your files from being erased or deleted, or at times, you cannot even write any new files to that device.

Sometimes, this even stops you from formatting the drive. More often than not, you are stuck with a USB drive that refuses to format your Windows OS tells you that the disk is write protected Pendrive Now, typically, the problem lies in the situation where you are able to read your files that exist on the USB drive but cannot really delete them. Also, sometimes it happens that when you try deleting the files, they seem to be deleted fine, but next time when you check, those files are again seen.

What is Write Protection on a USB Drive?

Write protection on a USB drive prevents changes to the device, like copying, moving, or deleting data files. While this option is useful for protecting sensitive data from accidental overwriting, it can also prevent files on the drive from being updated or deleted.

Why Does a USB Drive Become Write Protected?

There are multiple reasons why a USB or pen drive might become write protected:

• Physical Write Protect Switch: Few USB drives have a physical move on the device that permits you to lock or unlock the driver’s ability to write data.
• Corruption File System: A damaged or corrupted file system can sometimes trigger the write-protect feature on a USB drive.
• Registry Setup: If you are using Windows, modified or incorrect registry settings can unintentionally enable write protection.
• Malware or Virus Disease: In a few situation, viruses or malware can corrupt the PEN drive, causing it to become write protected.
• Drive Issues: If your flash drive suffers from bad sectors or other drive errors, it may automatically enable write protection to prevent further damage.

How to Remove Write Protection from a USB Drive? Manually

For formatting a write-protected USB drive, you first have to remove its write protection, which can only be done through tweaking commands that are in the Windows Registry. Here is a step-by-step guide for removing write protection from USB.

Remove Write Protection from Pen Drive Using Regedit.exe

This is the process that involves removing a write-protected USB drive using Regedit.exe in the registry.

• In any of the versions of MS Windows (Windows XP onwards), you can run Regedit.exe (when you search for regedit, it will mostly show the program at the top of the list).
• Now, you can navigate to this key: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies
• Then, in the right-side pane of Regedit.exe, double-click on the WriteProtect value
• Now, change that Value data from 1 to 0
• After that, click OK to save the changes made. and close Regedit and then restart your system
• Now again, try connecting your USB drive. It is likely that you will find that your USB drive is not write-protected any longer
• In the end, you can easily format your drive by right-clicking on the drive in My Computer and then choosing Format

Read More: How to Fix a Pen Drive Shows Empty Even When Data?

Remove Write Protected USB Drive (StorageDevicePolicies)

• If you are unable to find StorageDevicePolicies, then try to create a key in the Control folder by right-clicking over the white space and, after that, choosing New -> Key;
• And thereafter, vigilantly entering the name and then double-clicking over the new key (folder),
• Now, right-click once again. Then, choose New -> DWORD
• For naming it WriteProtect and then setting its value to 0,
• Finally, click OK, then exit Regedit and reboot the system

Remove Write Protection from Pen Drive Using Diskpart

With the USB drive plugged in, launch command prompt

1. For this, got to Start the menu
2. Search for cmd.exe on the Start screen, as in Windows 8 OS
3. In MS Windows XP, however, you can click Start >> Run and then type cmd.exe in that box

Note: You might need to run Cmd.exe using administrator privileges if you are seeing the message “access is denied.”

To do this, you have to:

1. First, right-click on the shortcut
2. Then, choose Run as administrator
3. And now, in Windows 8, choose Command prompt (admin) simply

And now, type the required disk part commands and press Enter after every command

Format the USB Flash Drive

If the above-mentioned method is not able to resolve your issue,. Then do one thing: visit the pen drive data recovery service center for 100% data recovery. Make a backup of your important documents and store them on another storage device. After that, perform the below-mentioned steps.

• Go to Window Explorer >> My PC >> USB drive >> Right-click on it >> Properties >> Close the Window
• Hit on the pen drive, then choose the Format option. When formatted, the USB drive failed to complete. It means there are bad sectors on the drive.

Also read:- Fix USB Drive 0 Bytes Error

What to Do If You Want to Recover Formatted Data from USB Drive?

There were a couple of manual methods that one could use for formatting the USB drive and removing its write protection. However, you must bear in mind that, as such, there is no foolproof guarantee that these methods will work for you in all cases. Sometimes, the USB drive might be corrupted or physically damaged. Therefore, no manual way or manual-level formatting would make it work for you again. Herein, the only solution that rests with you in your case would be to call for some commercial aid in the matter. Pen Drive Data Recovery Tool to recovers deleted, corrupted, and formatted data from USB drives.

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It also recovers deleted partitions from USB drives. Users can download and install this software on any version of Windows. This tool allows you to recover permanently deleted files from USB drives. Just follow a few steps to quickly recover deleted partitions from flash drives and deleted and formatted files from USB flash drives.

1. Download the Flash Drive Recovery Tool for Windows.
2. Select the drive and select the scan option to recover deleted data from the USB.
3. Browse the recovered files and save the necessary files.
4. Select a save location and export the file.

Conclusion

In the write-up, we have a few methods and one automated solution to remove write protected USB drives. Select the solution wisely according to your knowledge.

Also read: USB Ports Not Working in Windows 10?