Remove Write Protection On USB Pen Drive or Memory Card or

iPod
by ROHI T K HU RAN A on DECEMBER 21, 2008

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Trouble:
In the past we had received so many problems from the
readers who have a problem in copying files on their USB
portable devices like pen drives, memory card and iPod etc.

According to the mails we had received about this problem,

people have seen the following errors when their thumbs
drives, memory card etc becomes write protected.

Cannot copy files and folders, drive is write protected

Cannot format the drive, drive is write protected

The disk is write protected

Remove write protection or use another disk

Media is write protected

Some times people say that suddenly their drive become
write protected and they are not able to delete any files and
folder on the drive and also not able to copy new files and
folder to USB portable drive.
Lets see how can you remove write protection on your
portable devices like pen drives, memory cards, iPod and
other USB mass storage devices.

Fix:
Write Protection on any portable USB Device can be applied
by the physical lock provided on the card adjuster or some
times provided on the pen drives, so make sure to make your
drive not write protected by moving the lock in right direction.
But even after moving the physical lock for write protection
the problem can happen due to some virus action. This
happens when some virus or script which applies the registry
hack to make any drive write protect when connected to the
computer, In that case follow the procedure below to
remove write protection from your pen drive.
1. Open Start Menu >> Run, type regedit and press Enter,
this will open the registry editor.
2. Navigate to the following path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControl
Set\Control\StorageDevicePolicies
Note: If the registry key StorageDevicePolicies key does
not exist, you will need to create it
Download this batch file called add.bat from here, and
double click after download the key will be automatically
added to registry.
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3. Double click the key WriteProtect in the right pane and

set the value to 0 in the Value Data Box and press OK button

4. Exit Registry, restart your computer and then again reconnect your USB pen drive on your computer. That is it,
done.
In case you still find an issue, please leave a comment below.

Updated on 28th May 2009

After a lot of user comments telling that the above method
does not work for them, we tell you another method which

you can follow to solve the Pen Drive is Write Protected

problem.
If the above method does not work for you, follow the below
steps:
1. Copy all the important data from this drive to your
computer because this method will format the drive and erase
all the data on the pen drive.
2. Now download the Apacer Formatting Utility, Unzip this
utility to a folder on your hard disk, preferably on a folder on
desktop screen for easy access (Do Not Try To Save it on
pen drive). Keep your pen drive plugged in, and double click
on the Start.bat file in the folder where you unzipped the
above utility. This will start formatting your pen drive, wait till
the formatting completes and the LED on your pen drive stops
blinking. Remove your pen drive after than and plug it in
again.
The above two steps will solve the problem. If you still face the
problem, follow the below steps:
1. Goto Start > Run, type cmd and press enter, this will open
command prompt.
2. Type the following command on the command prompt
replacing X with the drive letter of your pen drive.
CHKDSK X: /F
The above two methods will help you fix the problem.
Note: For all those who are out of luck in fixing the problem
with their portable drives, I would suggest you to get your

drives checked or replaced by the manufacturer to fix it for

you

2222

How to remove write protection from flash drive

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Category: Peripherals
Type: Question
Author: Amittohana

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Hi all,
I have a 4 GB pen drive hp brand, when I inserted it in my pc it shows it is 3.8 gb full. all data in it was my songs,
movies etc. now when I want to delete data or format my pen drive then it shows that it is write protected.

I try all solution of my problem, the HP format tool, low level formatting, reg tweek, try through command prompt,
computer management all that but the result is 0. I know that pen drive is fine the only problem is for write
protection, I requested to all expert that please suggest some genuine solution. hope for a best reply.

Amit Kumar

Asked Amittohana
on Wed, 2011-09-28 15:56

Amittohana's question

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# Comment Id: 30600

Submitted by Ben Henry on Wed, 2011-09-28 17:18.

This is a very serious problem. You are not able to write anything on your pen drive. Here is method to fix it.
1. Go to start menu and open Run.

2. Now type regedit and press enter.

3. A new window will appear. Just go to the following by navigating:
4. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies
5. Now open write protect and enter 0 (zero) where it asks to enter value data and press ok.
6. Just restart PC and I hope your problem is solved.
If not do following:
1. Remove all data from pen drive to some secure media.
2. Follow this link
http://www.apacer.com/en/support/downloads/HS2.0_Utility_LFormat.zip
3. And download it. After downloading unzip it on your computer.
4. Attach your pen drive to PC and open the folder where you unzipped above software. Click on start.bat. This will
format your pen drive.
5. Wait until the formatting is done. Remove pen drive and insert it again. Hope it works.

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# Comment Id: 82144
Submitted by Cyrilsia01 on Sat, 2012-08-25 07:32.

To remove the write protection on your device, follow the procedure below:
1. Click start>Run> and then type regedit and then press Enter to open the registry editor window.
2. Navigate to the path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies. If you
cannot find the StorageDevicePolicies, you need to create it. Download the batch file "add.bat". And then doubleclick it so it will be added to your registry.

3. On the right pane of the window, double-click the WriteProtect key and then set the value to 0 and then press
the OK button.

4. Close the registry window and then restart your computer and then reconnect your USB drive to your computer.

Note: Editing your registry may cause harm to your computer, so I will suggest that you back up all your data
before you proceed.

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