If a usb says don't format me i am write protected then what to do

If a usb says don't format me i am write protected then what to do?

I do believe that you could take ownership of it (Take Ownership Shortcut) and then format it. If that doesn't work, post back here.

Happened to me on a 16 GB USB thumb drive a month ago.

It said it was write protected after having worked fine for months. It showed as "RAW" file format in Windows Disk Management. Nothing I tried worked. I was perfectly willing to re-format it, but could not. I assume it was a controller issue of some type.

It had a 5 year warranty, so I got a new one by returning it.

I can't recall all the methods I tried, but the thumb drive had no "rotten software". It was for data only and had been thoroughly wiped and re-formatted dozens of times before. For no apparent reason, it went to "write-protected" and asked me if I wanted to format it. I said sure, but could not proceed. I used a well known partition-recovery tool (can't recall name), but got nowhere with it. The drive was only worth $10 new, so I just RMAed it to Kingston and had a new one in a week. I had no significant data on it.

I think thumb drives are particularly fragile, so I just try to buy brands with a known good return policy as I consider them expendable and prone to drop dead.

Britton30 said:

Did you get this USB pendrive as a handout with ads or brochures on it?

Me??

No, purchased from Newegg ordinary retail. Kingston Data Traveler 3.0 DT100G3, 16 GB capacity.

I'm not sure if the OP is referring to a thumb drive or an external USB hard drive.