Windows 7 - IDE connected internal HD keeps 'write protecting' itself. Ideas?

Hi all,

Ok, quick bit of background: I was previously running Windows 7 on an IDE Seagate HD (Master) with a second HD for all my music/audio work (slave).
I had no problems.

I've recently treated myself to a new Crucial M4 SSD which is now my C drive, with Windows and all my apps installed. I'm using my old seagate drive as a back-up of this (cloned) and my old audio drive as before - all my music and work.
Should work fine - but my Audio drive is now write-protecting itself. I've tried wiping and re-formatting the drive, which worked until I restarted and the write-protection returned.
I've tried using the 'diskpart' command and again, worked only temporarily.

Frankly, it's driving me nuts as this is my 'work' drive and I need to be able to write to it / delete from it.

Any help would be hugely appreciated!

What do you mean "write protecting itself"? How does this show up and where?

Not exactly the same problem.

My external HDD often does this, after I have used it at TAFE.
I can fix the problem by running "Error checking".

After I run "Error checking", my external HDD behaves normally.

Those Crucial M4 SSD's have been in various IT articles very recently for dysfunctional firmware, BSOD's, and I believe they are due a firmware update. It could be related to your issues.

It never reports any errors either.

That is a good point.

Thanks for the replies. Well, it's temperamental! On starting up this morning it's fine. But I know it's only a matter of time before the dreaded 'media is write protected' message appears.
When it does I'll try the 'check disk' trick. BTW Lehnerus2000, does this permanently fix your problem?

Another thing I might try is removing the back-up drive once I've updated the clone and just attatching my Audio drive and set it to 'master'.

Hope it's not an issue with the M4 - I chose that one specifically due to good reviews on speed and reliability. But it's the only thing to change on my system....

They have got firmware problems. After a period of time they begin exhibiting strange behaviour.

ATTENTION Crucial M4 SSD owners

No (unfortunately).
It doesn't happen every time, maybe every 2nd or 3rd time I use it at TAFE.

As I mentioned, no errors are reported by the "Error checking".