Usb Drive Protected Removal
Tommie
I installed SP1 on Windows 7 earlier this week and ran into the write protected with a sync program on all my external drives. I went into the drive properties sharing advanced sharing and fumbled around and finally got it straightened out. Sharing/permissions are a real pain on Vista and Windows 7.
USB mass storage devices that are already mounted as writeable will stay writeable until they are removed and reinserted. The same applies if you turn off read only protection while a USB mass storage device is active, it will become writable and stay that way until removed and reinserted.
There is no trace of Microsoft office on my computer and I don't think there has been for more than 5 years, but just today there appeared a drive Q labeled microsoft office click-to-run 2010 (protected). I can't remove it. All the answers on answers.microsoft seem to think that either uninstalling microsoft office will remove it or that you simply can't remove it. I'd appreciate anyone that can tell me why it's there or how to remove it.
You should be able to change its label by heading into the registry to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\DriveIcons\Q, and then editing the (Default) setting in the DefaultLabel sub key.
I ran the exe's on my win 7 comp without issues.
I also scanned them for viruses, they are clean.
That being said, they are not verified and supported by microsoft, so use at your own risk.
I am having the same issue exactly but nothing I do seems to help and no post I have found here or anywhere else has made any difference. all I have found is a bunch of problems with it. Has anyone found anything?!?
This incident raises several issues: Is the disk hardware vulnerable to failure due to heat? Is NTFS robust enough, including the WD Software? I am using Linux, so that means that the software may not be mature enough to catch some anamolies.
I installed the drive, let it do the initial backup etc without problems. The next day I went to copy a file directly to it and got the write protected message. Drive properties, security properties etc. all showed that I should be able to write to it.
I simply unplugged the external drive. when plugging it back in, the WD SmartWare will show (not the actual drive). Open this and select unlock. I set up this password when first plugging in the drive the first time. I am now able to write and delete from the files on the HD.
First of all, follow any of the five methods to unlock your USB flash drive. Then, download and install the powerful data recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard to scan and recover disappeared or erased files, such as photos, videos, and documents with three steps.
There is a Lock switch on the left side of the SD card. You need to make sure the Lock switch is slid up (unlock position). You will not be able to modify or delete the contents on the SD card if it is locked.
When you try to open a USB flash drive on your computer but receive the error message - the disk is write-protected, it means that your USB is physically locked, the operating system limits you from visiting the device, the registry entry, or the device itself is damaged. Consequently, you cannot visit or do any changes to your USB flash drive. The only way to resolve this issue is to remove its write protection.
Note that this operation may remove both the write-protection and data on your saved data from your USB flash drive. If it is so, reliable file recovery software can scan and bring your lost valuable USB data back with ease.
Don't panic when you see the disk is write-protected on your USB drive. You can fix this by either removing write protection or using another disk. This works for USB, SD cards, and internal and external hard drives.
In this section, we'll walk you through the process of disabling write protection on a hard drive or a USB drive in Windows 11/10/8/7. We'll remove write protection from a USB drive in the following example.
Note: The fixes are listed from easy to complex. Follow them one by one to remove write protection from your USB flash drive, memory card, or computer HDD/SSD by yourself. If you know little about computers, don't worry. You can resort to the manual disk repair and data recovery services from EaseUS. Our professional technical team can help you solve system-related problems, including system failure, BSOD, unbootable devices, etc.
Sometimes, people add write protection to files on a storage device from being modified or erased. However, storage devices like USB flash drives, SD cards, and internal or external hard disks may become write-protected due to the following reasons:
Sometimes, when the USB drive or the SD card physical switch is locked, the device becomes write-protected on all PCs and devices you connect. Let's see how to use the physical control to remove the protection from SD card/USB:
After this, restart your PC and check if you can access and use the saved data on your USB or hard drive again. If you prefer a video tutorial, you can watch this video to fix the disk is write protected error.
If you don't consider yourself a pro-computer user and you're not familiar with command-lines, don't worry. There are graphical-based solutions to help you remove write-protection from your hard drives, USB drives, and even SD cards.
Registry Editor also works to fix USB, SD, or internal/external HDD/SSD write-protected errors. It is an advanced-level procedure, and if you aren't sure what you're doing, you should probably not use this method. A wrong tweak to your computer's registry can cause many issues.
When BitLocker is enabled on your hard drive partition, it protects your files with its encryption feature. To make changes to a BitLocker partition, you must remove the protection first. Here are the detailed steps to disable Bitlocker encryption and unlock your disk:
Download EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard to recover any lost data during the write protection removal. This software is also suitable for hard drive recovery, SD card recovery, USB drive recovery, and more.
Regarding frustrating tech error messages, "This drive is write protected" is right up there with the infamous "PC LOAD LETTER." You're just trying to save some files, and suddenly, your USB drive is giving you an attitude?
You could grab another flash drive, especially if you have plenty of bulk USB drives. However, if you know how write protection works, you might be able to remove it! Let's learn a little about this flash drive feature and why it exists. Then, we'll show you six easy options for removing write protection on a USB.
Write protection mode is a hardware or software feature that prevents the files on a USB drive from being removed, copied or altered. It's also known as read-only mode. While the drive is in this mode, a user can access files, but can't modify them. That means no adding files, deleting files, copying files, editing files - you get the idea.
The answer depends on how the write protection on your USB drive is set up. On some drives, the write protection is configured using the mass storage controller chip firmware. At USB Memory Direct, we often add this feature at our clients' request. This write protection can't be removed, and we recommend you use another drive.
First, look for a tiny switch on the body of your drive. This is a write protection switch that puts your drive into write protect mode, and it can be easy to accidentally activate it in a pocket or backpack. All you'll need to do is flick the switch into the "off" position. Write protection switches are no longer common on new USB drives, but it's always worth checking.
In recent years, flash drive sizes have been rapidly increasing. However, on smaller units, USB drives will sometimes show up as read-only if they're running out of space. In Windows Explorer or Mac Finder, right-click the drive and look at its storage space under Properties. If the drive is almost full, try deleting some files. (You should still be able to delete files if this is the case.)
Find your USB drive by looking at the size of each volume and comparing it with your flash drive size. Type "select disk 1" or "select disk 2", etc. depending on the number Windows assigned to your USB drive. Press Enter.
Lastly, you can also try reformatting the USB drive to remove the write protection. This will delete all of the data on the drive, so make sure anything you want to save is backed up! Use our guides to learn how to format a USB on macOS or Windows 10.
They're probably formatted NTFS, which Mac OS X can read but not write. You can just reformat the drive as FAT32 (MS-DOS format in Disk Utility) and it will work just fine with both your Mac and Windows systems.
My USB will not let me click on any of them options so i am not able to erase what is already on it, i tried to verify the disk and then repair it however the repair box is also greyed out so will not let me click on it... Any ideas please?
I have the exact same issue as described above with all of the formatting options on Disk Utility grayed out. The USB used to work fine - allowing me to delete and save files - and it's the same Mac I've always used it on. No idea why/how it suddenly became write-protected/read-only!
Csound1, all of the options are grayed out - both 'Erase' and 'Erase Free Space'. On all of the tabs the only option that is available is 'Verify Disk' and even that produces no further options. The current format is MS-DOS (FAT32).
I had to finally contact the manufacturer for a restore app. So I'd suggest that once you've tried all of the forum options like Windows via the regedit, disk part, or even Mac disk utility. Or a third party restore app.
My external drive does not allow me to write or delete files to that drive.
ultra4plus NetGear RNDP400U - Netgear UltraNas 4 Plus with Firmware 6.10.3 running backup and find the external HD that I use for backup is now write-protected and I am unable to add or delete files.
How do I set it so I can manage this drive.