write protected pen drive

[dkadyan]

i have a 4gb pen drive which is not formatted it shows that "this disk is write protected "
can anyone help me to format this disk.

 

[HonorGamer]

give this a shot:

1. click Start.

2. type in diskpart

3. wait for the black screen to apear, and type in "list disk"

4. find out which disk is your pen drive then type "select disk (pen drive number)"

5. type format.

try that and post results

Thanks

 

[dkadyan]

it is a scandisk 4gb pen drive.and when i try to format it a msg "this disk is write protected" is appeared.

 

[HonorGamer]

And you did the steps above?

 

[dkadyan]

there are no effect on disk same problem is placed.

 

[HonorGamer]

Try this:

a) Right-click on external hard drive and select properties in the explorer windows.
b) In the properties window, select the security tab.
c) Select the ‘user’ under user name and click on ‘Edit’.
d) In here you can ‘Allow’ or ‘Deny’ accessibility permission.

From: I need to remove write protection on a 4Gb SanDisk Cruzer Edge usb and - Microsoft Answers

 

[dkadyan]

no security tab is appear.
appeared tab is "general,tool,hardware,sharing,customize"

 

[HonorGamer]

Is there a software that came with the disk?

Take that back, read some more and found this:

1. Open Start Menu
2. Run, type regedit and press Enter; this will open the registry editor
3. Navigate to the following path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies
4. Double click the key WriteProtect in the right pane and set the value to 0 In the Value Data Box. Press OK
5. Exit Registry
6. Restart your computer and re-connect your USB pen drive on your computer.

Source: http://en.kioskea.net/faq/6984-remove-write-protection-from-pendrive

 

[dkadyan]

no there are no software

 

[HonorGamer]

Did you try those steps?

 

[HonorGamer]

^^ That will probably have to be the option you will have to go with if nothing else works.

 

[gregrocker]

Formatting erases nothing. Wipe the stick with Diskpart Clean Command.

Then format in Disk mgmt with the stick's native format, give a drive letter and label.

If you want to make it a bootable installer use Universal USB Installer

 

[kado897]

Silly question maybe. Does the stick have a write protect switch?

 

[DeaconFrost]

Silly question maybe. Does the stick have a write protect switch?

I was thinking that myself. I vaguely remember seeing a few drives with write-protection switches.

 

[jumanji]

1. How old is your pen drive? How frequently have you used it?

2. Is it still under warranty?

Now some theory.

The flash controller in a pendrive works in the background constantly replacing the defective cells with reserve cells in its normal lifetime of 100000 (plus or minus) write cycles. When all reserve cells are consumed the flash controller rejects all write accesses - write protected - end of life.

(One may think he had never ever filled the full capacity at anytime and therefore that all the writes were at specific blocks at the beginning or end leaving the others in the virgin state. It is not so. The flash controller spreads writes over all physical blocks during its repeated usage so that all cells wear out - more aptly age - equally.)

It should be comforting to know this if indeed your pendrive has reached its end.

Anyway do all that you can, especially what gregrocker had suggested - zeroing all sectors with diskpart-clean all. You can also use HDDGURU: HDD LLF Low Level Format Tool Try as many as you can.

As a last ditch effort, you may also consider formatting it with what is generally considered as a Swiss-Army knife - the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool - CNET Download.com ( Right click and run as an administrator, if you could run it.)

Also check your pen drive manufacturer's site for any repair/format tool. ( Transcend has one for its pendrives)

Finally warranty replacement or a new pen drive - I love buying new pen drives.

 

[kado897]

Silly question maybe. Does the stick have a write protect switch?

I was thinking that myself. I vaguely remember seeing a few drives with write-protection switches.

I still have one. A massive 256MB 512MB of unknown manufacture at least 5yrs old.

 

[gregrocker]

Kingston Data Traveler thumbdrive with all bootable OS installers and other tools carried in a baggie in my pocket for 7 years. Still has all 16gb available. Watching closely for that to diminish.

 

[kado897]

That must have cost a fortune 7 years ago.

 

[gregrocker]

about twice as much as now, approx $20 vs. $10 today - free shipping buy.com.

It was recently pointed out to me that it's slow, but I never really noticed or cared. I have a twisted sense of loyalty to this plastic-wrapped chip where I won't replace it til it dies or shows any sign of failure. It's gone swimming with me when I forget to stick it in the sand. I do change the baggie regularly.

 

[kado897]

Mmm. I thought the price had dropped more that that in 7 years.

According to USBDeview mines a Buffalo. I don't really use it now but I never bin anything that works.