My new USB HD became READ ONLY and now Windows 7 will not format it.

go to registry, do this and do that, get a HP program that will reformat big drives, it is a permission problem, etc.

Nothing has worked. I finally re-CLONED it and now want to recover the drive.
It is a Fantom 2tb USB HD,
I copied from various HD data and put about 1.7tb on it. I turned it on to use and it was READ ONLY in the control panel/administrative tools/computer management/Disk Management. I tried everything and it was alot form the net. Finally gave up and Cloned it to another one which had a duplicate "uniqueid" but that is another story.
Decided to format it. But Windows, home premium 64bit (image from this site) refuses to format.
The net said, download HP Disk storage USB format tool. That did not work, says is WRITE PROTECTED.
The net said to change the Registry, all bits were "not protected"

ANYONE have the answer? This drive is only 2 weeks old and can not change READ ONLY, cant get rid of WRITE PROTECTED, Can not format. Please do not say it is a permission issue as I think permissions is a folder/file issue. Not an disk issue and no, it has no buttons on it but is a std Fantom disk enclosure.

Try EaseUS® Partition Master 9.2.2 Free Edition Free Partition Magic alternative. Best Free Partition Manager Freeware for Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8 32 bit & 64 bit - EaseUS Partition Master Free Edition.

I agree with the MiniTool partition software recommended by ICit2lol.

I wouldn't even try the windows version. Here is a direct link to the bootable CD:

Partition Wizard Bootable CD allows user to manage partition directly with partition manager bootable CD.

and bootable flash drive:

Boot partition manager from USB Flash disk directly to manage disk partition - Partition Wizard Bootable Flash Drive.

These pages also have instructions on creation of each method.

Thanks,
Any idea why Windows made this READ ONLY at the disk level? I used windows COPY folder to create but when used it later, it was READ ONLY. It did not report a 'collision' either.

When you went to permissions, the owner was EVERYONE, EVERYONE had read and write and nothing looked amiss at all. But Windows made it READ ONLY on the DISK MANAGEMENT and even the Registry had all zero's for permission to write. Weird.

And of course, if Windows thinks it is read only, it will let you touch it under any window program.

Tried DISKPART but it says "is write protected". Now going to the boot-able standalone programs.

Hi jagman55,

1. Have you tried the HDD on any other working PC?

2. What about any other external HDD? Can you read and write to it on your PC?

I've had little luck with "read Only" and "Write Protected" USB devices. The first thing i must know it this: What did you put on it?