▷ Format write protected usb in windows 10

Sometimes when using USB storage devices such as USB sticks or portable hard drives we get an eventual error that the disk is write protected. Due to this error we cannot make modifications to the files it contains. Today we will see how to solve this error to be able to format write-protected USB in Windows 10.

Index of contents

Write-protected USB error

Currently almost no USB device physically has the mechanism to protect it from writing. We can locate this as a small movable contact at one end of the device.

But if our storage unit has any of these buttons or contacts, what causes this error may be the following:

• A possible failure in the USB port of the equipment: it is not the most common of course, to be sure of this we will place the device in another port and we will see if it throws the same error Failure in the storage device itself: this cause is quite likely and implies that perhaps in a short time we will have to dispose of our pen drive. If the solutions we give you here do not work, it may be useless. A possible system error: this can be successfully solved using this tutorial.

To realize that this error has occurred in our unit we will not have the possibility to copy files to it, we will not be able to format the storage unit or we will not be able to unmount the unit from the computer or the changes made are not stored.

The first thing identifies the error

To identify if the error is from the USB device itself or from the computer, what we will have to do is test our storage unit on another computer.

• If the error is reproduced, the reason is the physical storage unit. If the drive works normally, the error will be located on our computer. It could be the fault of the operating system or the USB ports.

For the latter case we can test on different USB ports to see if the error is reproduced at all. With this we will be almost sure that the error is from the operating system. So let's see what we can do about it.

Format write-protected USB with Diskpart

Possibly this is the option with more possibilities of success if what we want is to directly format write-protected USB. For this procedure we will do the following:

• The first thing will be to run as administrator either the command prompt or the PowerShell. We press the key combination " Windows + X " to open the options of the start menu. Among them, we identify the one of " PowerShell (Administrator) " we click to execute it

In the command window we write the following. (we must press Enter every time we write the command to execute it)

diskpart

With this we start the tool

With the USB drive introducidp we execute:

list disk

And a list of units will appear on screen. We must identify which is our USB. For this we must know the storage capacity of it.

Now:

select disk

We must put the disk number that the previous command has listed as a USB drive.

attributes disk clear readonly

Through this command we will enable the reading and writing of the USB

create partition primary

We create the new partition in the partition table of the disk

select partition 1

We select the newly created partition

format fs =

using this command we will format the USB drive. In format we must put " NTFS " if it is a large portable hard drive, or " FAT32 " or " FAT " if it is a small removable USB drive, as is our case. The most normal will be FAT32.

Next we have to activate the partition and assign it a letter:

activate

assign letter =

With this method we can format the USB drive.

Remove USB write protection with regedit

We will also have some solutions through the Windows 10 graphical interface. It is possible that the error caused by the USB drive is due to a bad configuration of the system registry. As we always say, before touching the Windows registry, you should take a look at some things that we must take into account before starting to touch the Windows 10 registry.

To do this procedure we must follow the following steps:

• Press the key combination " Windows + R " to open the execute tool. In the window we write " regedit " Being inside the registry editor we will have to go to the following path:

  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ StorageDevicePolicies

Here two things can happen to us: that the value key does not exist, so we will have to create it or that it actually exists. In which case we will have a value called " WriteProtect ".

• We will have to double click this value and write a " 0 "

If we do not have it created we will have to create the value key.

• To do this we right-click on " Control " in the directory tree up to where we have reached before. Next we choose " New " and " Key " and we will name it: " StorageDevidePolicies " Now we go inside the new value key created and in the right part of the window we press right click on the blank space. We choose the " New " option " DWORD (32-bit) Value We assign it the name" WriteProtect "

• We open it with double click and write inside it a " 0 " as in the previous case

Now we must reboot the system and try to insert the storage unit inside again. The error should have been corrected. Now we will be able to format write-protected USB.

• To do this we will have to go to " This team " and by right-clicking on the USB drive choose " Format…" Now we choose the parameters that we see in the following image (or NFTS or FAT) and we give it to start.

In this way, we will already have our device formatted.

If the error still continues, we can still do something else. In this case we will have to edit a series of group policies to try to correct the error.

Remove USB write protection with gpedit.msc

• Once again, we press the key combination " Windows + R " to open execute. This time we write " msc " and execute the command. We will have to go to the following path:

  Computer Configuration / Administrative Template / System / Removable Storage Access

Now we will have to locate three group policies that are:

• Priera: Removable disks deny access to run Second: Removable disks deny write access Third: Removable disks deny read access

To modify them we double click on each one of them and we must choose the “ Disabled ” option

The next thing will be to format the device in the same way as in the previous section. Or if you want, with DiskPart.

These are the possible ways that we will have available to Format write-protected USB in Windows 10.

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Have you been able to fix this error? If you have not been able to leave us in the comments and we will investigate new ways to try to solve it.