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General discussion

Help! USB flash drive suddenly became write-protected

May 10, 2013 8:45AM PDT
Question:

Help! USB flash drive suddenly became write-protected


I have a 64GB USB flash drive that suddenly went "write-protected" (read only). It has no tiny little switch to unprotect it, but seeing as there really wasn't anything critical to be lost, I decided that a simple reformat would fix it up. Unfortunately, W7 can't format it because it's write-protected. The error message says to undo the write protection before formatting (starting to look like an old "Catch-22" scenario). I bought it on eBay from China and can't identify the manufacturer, so there is no help there.

I scoured the Internet to find what I was sure would be a simple solution. I've tried virtually every suggestion and freeware tool that numerous Google searches have proffered. My drive is still unusable and to my surprise, it turns out that there are quite a lot of us out there getting increasingly frustrated with the same problem. Short of smashing the drive with a hammer, I don't see how else to end this dilemma.

Frankly, you are my last resort. Unless some genius out there has a solution that actually works, I'll definitely resort to using a hammer. If it comes to that, I bet I will even smash it with relish. That's how frustrating this seemingly simple problem has become for me.

Anyhow, thanks in advance for any help you can hook me up with.

-- Submitted by: Norm B.

Discussion is locked

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To Format Your Drive
May 19, 2013 2:50AM PDT

If you're only just wanting to format your drive, give "HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool" a try. I believe it will do the job for you. It's simple to use, and allows you to choose between FAT32 and NTFS file systems. Try this program. If your flash drive isn't messed up in some truly strange way, it will work.

If you need to recover files from that drive before you format it, try "Partition Find And Mount." I've had tremendous success with this program, which really saved my bacon a time or two. It will show the drives of your computer. Choose the one you want and let it scan. Then follow program instructions to recover your files. Works great!

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HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool
May 19, 2013 4:00AM PDT

Been there a few times, and tried it a few times, with no joy :-}

Cheers.

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Unintended USB write protection
May 19, 2013 4:25AM PDT

I have faced this problem numerous times but I could always manage to get control using a combination of WIndows and HP format tools. But now I have one that is just plain intractable. I give up. I must say the main culprit has been and still is the software that creates bootable LINUX USB drives using a binary image. The latest offender was one of the Chromium OS images. I plan to avoid LINUX USB boot solutions in the future. CDs and DVDs are cheap these days and I have a very nice compact optical clam shell drive. USB drives should not be ROM devices.

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Window7 and permisions
May 20, 2013 11:02AM PDT

I too have had the same problem with usb drives. I am no expert and only have 30 years personal experience with experimenting with computers. I have come to believe that Win7 locks files to speed up access with write buffering and sometimes a file does not unlock right away. I have a segate usb drive I use for backup and one day it was write-protected. Everything I tried from regedit to booting up in dos would not work. I plugged it into a windows xp machine and voila it worked on the xp machine. Plugged it back into the Win7 system and it was no longer write protected. I believe that something happened during the last backup that left the drive locked by Win7. I have notice lately that after several hours of writing and compiling c++ code on a project that the exe file fails to delete with a recompile (do not have permission error) and I get a compiler error. If I wait for about 3 minutes the file finally disappears and I can then recompile. I have never had this problem with xp or linux. I think Win7 sometimes fails to release a file locked by the system. This of course is only my opinion and probably does not apply here, but there it is.

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W7 permissions
May 21, 2013 2:06AM PDT

Hey and thanks for your suggestion. I tried it on my wife's pc (she is still running XP) but no joy :-{

Someone else has also suggested that I try formatting it on a Mac but......., I don't have access to one.

Anyways, it was worth a try.

Cheers.

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Windows 7 Write Caching and removable storage
May 21, 2013 4:10AM PDT

In Windows 7 Manage - Devices - Disk drives the Policy setting allows control of Caching. Using write caching requires a certain amount of bravery for the performance benefits. I have read that the use of Write-back as it is sometimes called where disk writes are delayed in cache and then "drained" when necessary is the cause of a lot of Windows data corruption due to power loss, crash, etc that may not show up for some time after the event. We used to see this on mainframes where data on disk was different than data in cache. We called them "floaters". Anyway, according to Microsoft if "writethrough" is used, no write caching, it is OK to unplug removable storage any time as long as there is no actual transfer in progress. Many times Windows 7 tells me a device is in use and I know it is not so out it goes because I turned off write caching. One wonders if there are removable devices out there that have been corrupted by glitches while write caching is enabled. I also wonder if Windows 7 is not handling removable write caching status properly.

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bad trace on circuit board?
May 21, 2013 3:18AM PDT

It may be that the circuit board/chip was designed to also be used in a stick that DID have a write protect switch. There could be a break, or short in those traces. Guessing which ones were used for that would be difficult, and of course it means cracking it open. Since you may end up doing that anyway, you may want to see if there is an obvious place where a switch would have been attached.

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Write-protect switch?
May 24, 2013 10:20AM PDT

Some flash drives have a tiny write-protect switch.

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No sense
May 24, 2013 10:30AM PDT

"A good lesson to be learned here -- luckily for Norm, his USB flash drive didn't have any critical data on it to be lost." This comment makes no sense at all. If a flash drive becomes write protected not data is lost and all data is retrievable. This is what write protected means.

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No sense
May 26, 2013 4:23AM PDT

Huh????

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Sense
May 26, 2013 7:36AM PDT

I think he meant there was no harm in attempting a reformat.

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Sense
May 26, 2013 12:53PM PDT

Ok but why bother? I mean, as per my initial post, a reformat attempt was virtually the first thing I tried. I still don't get it however at this point, does it really matter? Cheers.

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Write-protect switch?
May 26, 2013 3:33AM PDT

My 3 days of Google research did mention the switch (a few hundred times). FYI, not all flash drives have a switch (also mentioned in the research).

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Depending on how you paid for this item,call your credit
May 24, 2013 10:29AM PDT

card company!

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Had a similiar situation, also 64GB
May 24, 2013 10:37AM PDT

Yes I know how you feel. I bought a 64GB drive from Best Buy and it was a name brand. I bought is as I wanted to move movies off my hard drive and it was on sale. I copied about 45GB to the flash drive. And I always use safe removal. Next day, I plugged the drive back in and wanted to copy a couple more movies and bam got the same write protection error. I tried everything...all the tips from forums, Microsoft and manufacture. Since it was new, took it back to Best Buy and explained it to the Geek guy. He even tried to format it on a Mac. No luck. So he wrote it off as a defect and gave me a new one which has been working flawlessly. good luck.

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Had a similiar situation, also 64GB
May 26, 2013 3:35AM PDT

Thanks for the empathy. Too bad I didn't buy it at Best Buy.

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Static spark?
May 24, 2013 11:12AM PDT

I've destroyed two thumb drives at different times by striking a static spark off them while handling or inserting. In my case, I lost everything on the drives, though it was backed up elsewhere. The drives couldn't be re-used.

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Static spark?
May 26, 2013 6:37AM PDT

Electrifying thought. Do you have shag carpets?

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usb flash
May 24, 2013 11:12AM PDT

Dang, just toss it in the trash & buy another one. No one is going to dig through your stinky garbage for a USB drive. Study up on Grandfather-Father-Son backups. You can READ the data, fuggedabout writing it again.

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usb flash
May 26, 2013 6:33AM PDT

hmmmmm...... my grandfather never got his back up over a flash drive. It's true though that my garbage can be stinky...... especially in summer during real hot days. Thanks for your input.

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A few things you can try.
May 24, 2013 11:14AM PDT

Download Easus Partition Master
http://download.cnet.com/Easeus-Partition-Master-Free-Edition/3000-2248_4-10863346.html
And then Delete the Partition on the drive (make sure you select the correct one), and write a new partition table to it.

AND/OR

Download testdisk
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download
And see if the online instructions can help you.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

OR

You can try to force a checkdisk, by opening a command prompt (Start>Run>cmd) and typing
chkdsk [The Drive Letter]: /f /x

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An old trick that may work using a welding machine.
May 24, 2013 11:17AM PDT

I am not a computer guru by any stretch but here is an old trick that we used in the shop where I worked to magnetize screwdrivers. A welding machine and cable are required. When someone is welding or air-arcing which takes a lot of juice, you will see the welding cables still on the wall move which is a sign of a powerful electrical field. Take the USB drive and slowly insert and remove it close to the cables. This should wipe the drive and perhaps remove any formatting still on the drive. Perhaps the drive will allow itself to be formatted after that kind of treatment. I have never tried this on a USB drive but if you tried everything else then there is nothing to lose. If you have a welder friend, he or she may know what I am talking about. I have never tried this on a USB drive, let me know how you made out.

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I had the same problem...
May 24, 2013 11:27AM PDT

About a year ago, I bought a 16GB HP branded flash disk. (manufactured by PNY for HP) About 2 or 3 weeks later it developed the same problem you're having. And like you, nothing seemed to work...not even the HP utility, designed to fix this very problem...

Then, I stumbled upon the partition manager app I was already using: Easus Partition Master Free. It has a built in data / partition recovery tool. Oddly, the data recovery option has a limit on the amount of data it will rescue, (unless you pay for the pro version) but using the partition recovery option has no limitation and made my entire flash disk usable again! (And I'm still using the drive with no issues since then...)

The funny part was that I had previously used the same tool (about 3 years ago) to rescue an older 8GB flash disk that had been made unusable by removing it "unsafely" from a WinXP machine...and had forgotten all about it...in that case I still received some error messages, but the drive was readable and writable.

By the way, apparently this is an issue with flash disks larger than 16GB. As I stated earlier, HP is so aware of the problem that they made a special app to fix this problem. (which didn't work for me, or some of the other readers) My research at the time, showed that it had something to do with the way these newer, larger drives are made. I have to wonder about whether it also affects SSDs...

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Easus Partition Master
May 25, 2013 3:06AM PDT

Been there....., done that...... no joy :-}

Thanks anyhow. Cheers

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USE THIS
May 24, 2013 11:29AM PDT
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Same problem...
May 24, 2013 12:05PM PDT

I had the same problem with 2 Transcend 8gb flash drives. I tried everything for several months, including multiple emails to Transcend Support (there is no support!). The only way they would replace them is if I jumped on a plane and returned them in person. The only solution to my problem was to never, ever, buy a Transcend product......... ever!!

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Formatting drives over 32GB
May 24, 2013 12:21PM PDT

While I don't know of any software to format high capacity USB drives, I did read on the SanDisk web site that high capacity USB drives (over 32GB) use exFAT by default. The site also mentions that FAT32 and NTFS will not work on 64GB USB drives.

Good luck in solving this issue.

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Recommended Tool
May 24, 2013 12:42PM PDT
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Recommended Tool
May 26, 2013 3:13AM PDT

Hey there, tried it a couple of times................. with no joy.

Thanks anyway :-{

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Formatting drives over 32GB
May 26, 2013 3:15AM PDT

Hmmmmmmmm....... and this helps me how?????