New
#1
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?
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.
Hum you could try this too Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command > the clean all takes a little longer but with a small USB not that long
or this Best Free Partition Manager Freeware and free partition magic for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista and Windows XP 32 bit & 64 bit. MiniTool Free Partition Manager Software Home Edition.
see pic
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.
Well I have "cleaned that many now it doesn't matter what they put on them as I got sick of the software they put on them as it was totally useless crap and used up space that I paid for.