Most users have flash drives (usb sd, transcend, microsd, kingston, sandisk, cd, flash, qumo, microsd, apacer, verbatim, sdhc, psp), hard drive d (hdd), dvd or some other removable or local storage .

You probably use them with great regularity. They allow you to copy your media, photos and important documents.

Despite the high resistance to mechanical damage and the ability to store data for many years, like all other gadgets, they deteriorate.

One of the most common errors that can affect USB flash drives, memory cards or disks is an annoying message: the "Disk is write-protected" error.

Those who have ever had a similar problem know very well what I mean.

Not being able to copy/add/delete any files - this can lead to a frenzy.

After strenuous attempts to repair, most end up giving up on fixes and buying new ones.

What to do if the system writes the disk is write-protected? How to remove this notorious protection?

Here are some simple but effective solutions to restore a disk or flash drive to a healthy state.

Use these simple tips and simply forget about the message: "the disk is write-protected", although there is one point that I had to deal with more than once.

Sometimes damaged media (flash drive, disk) is displayed by the system as write-protected. How to revive drives

It's the microprocessor. If it fails, even partially - you can read - copy or format - no), then only a utility from the drive manufacturer can fix it, and even then not always.

Let's start unlocking disks and flash drives

You have a USB stick connected to your computer and you want to copy some files.

Here you will find a surprise “The disk is write-protected. Please remove the write protection or use another disc."

Then you say, “…fuck, how did this happen”? Don't panic - take a deep breath and stay calm.

This is just an error message. Now we will go through a few simple steps together to remove write protection on a USB flash drive. It's just technology and there's a lot we can fix.

Step 1 - Check the USB drive for viruses

Every time you plug a USB drive into your computer, you should automatically scan for viruses - especially if you've used it on computers you don't own.

Viruses often fill USB drives with their files - this can cause a message: write-protected.

Depending on the antivirus software, it can be configured to automatically scan USB drives when they are connected.

If there is no such tool, then you will have to scan manually, there is no difficulty in this.

If you find a virus, then eliminate it with antivirus programs.

Most likely, where there is one virus, there are two or more. For such work, the free utilities Doctor Web and AVG have good recommendations.

Step 2 - Check the case of the USB flash drive

Some USB flash drives are equipped with a mechanical switch that allows you to put them in the write-protect position.

It can be a very small slider switch that can switch on its own in a pocket or computer case (if it is an adapter).

If this is your situation, then simply flip the switch to the open position and try copying the files again.

Today there are not many USB drives with such locks. So there's a good chance it's not your problem.

On the other hand, if that's not the issue, then the following fixes are a bit trickier.

Step 3 - Make sure the disk is not full

If your USB drive is full, you may also receive a write error message.

So find your USB drive, right-click on it and select "Properties".

This will give you a nice pie chart of how much is being used and how much free space is available on your drive.

Step 4 - File System

Make sure you are not using a file that is write protected. Yes, you will get a different error message, but you may have jumped to conclusions and thought that the entire USB flash drive is blocked. This happens.

Right click on the file you are trying to write to and then on "properties" and the "security" tab.

You will now see several options at the bottom of this window, and one of them is read-only.

Make sure that the checkbox is unchecked or unchecked, and then click on the Apply button. You should now be able to write to this file.

Step 5 — Diskpart Command Line Utility

Have you ever worked on the Windows command line? It's not as scary as one might think, and as such it's the next logical step to unprotect.

Click on and enter the word CMD in the field: search programs and files.

Now, press the top on (black icon). You will see the following window:

Enter the command - DiskPart - into it and press Enter. Diskpart is a tool that is built into Windows and is available through a command line utility. With it, we can change the values ​​associated with your USB drive.

Make sure it's really your USB drive. Now type the command Select Disk 3, assuming your USB is the number 3, and hit Enter.

Now paste another command there - disk clear ReadOnly - and then click on Enter.

In this way, you have cleared all the "read-only" attributes that may be on this USB drive.

Now close the command prompt and try writing something to the USB drive again. If the protection continues to block access, go ahead.

Step 6 - to the registry

If none of the previous steps worked for you, then you must do something a little dangerous - enter the registry.

If you are not satisfied with the registry, you can proceed to step 7, to format the USB drive.

Or maybe you have a friend who is a computer technician and will check the registry for you.

Try it yourself - it's a pretty simple registry change and you can do it.

Click on the start menu and type regedit in the search programs and files box. You will see something like a picture in the box below.

Click on the icon at the top and the Registry Editor window will open. By clicking on the arrows next to the menu items, navigate to the branch

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies

and find the key named - WriteProtect.

If such an entry exists, right-click on it and click on Edit.

Now, you will probably find that this parameter is set to 1. 1 means "yes" and "0" means no. Now change the value to 0 and click on the OK button.

Close Registry Editor, remove the USB device, and then plug it back in. You should now be able to write to your USB drive. If not, then the disk will need to be Formatted.

Step 7 - Format the USB Drive

WARNING: Make sure you back up all files and information from your USB drive. All data after formatting will be lost.

Formatting the hard drive is the last resort. However, it must make sure that your USB is both readable and writeable.

Before formatting a USB drive, determine which file system it already has - NTFS or FAT32.

Usually the file system he already has will be the best fit for him.

Now right-click on the selected USB drive and select "Properties" - there you will see the file system.

Close the Properties window, right-click on the USB drive again and select Format.

The built-in Windows tool is described here, but sometimes it is advisable, especially if the integrated functions did not bring the desired result.

In the Formatting window, you have several options. You have already determined which file system you will format.

I suggest unchecking "Quick Format". This will do more than just erase files.

If there are bad sectors on this USB drive, the full format will give an error.

Formatting shouldn't take long. Of course, the larger the volume, the longer it will take.

Assuming you don't have a physical problem with the drive, it will be formatted and ready to read and write.

Conclusion

Sometimes the problem is simple and can be treated simply. Try the methods above as they are most often correct.

If the problem is deep and requires drastic action, make sure that this is really the case.

Now you have a lot of troubleshooting tools in your arsenal, and you should restore flash drives and drives to working order, potentially saving a tidy sum of money.

Of course, if you have any additional tips, we'd love to read them too. Good luck.

Keywords: usb sd, transcend, microsd, kingston, sandisk, cd, flash, qumo, microsd, apacer, verbatim, sdhc, psp, external, flash drive, dvd.

Floppy disks are a thing of the past after they were successfully replaced by flash drives. But a modern person, when trying to write something to such a flash drive, can sometimes encounter a situation that has been familiar since the time of using those very floppy disks (floppy disks). It happens that a removable drive is locked and cannot be used for its intended purpose, that is, to write any files. How to solve such a problem? We will consider this issue in detail in this article.
So, you are faced with a situation: you need to write some information to a removable drive, and when you try to do this, you see a message like “ The disc is write-protected, remove the protection or insert another disc to".

Such a problem can be eliminated quite quickly, and we will talk about this a little later, but now it’s worth saying a couple of words about why protection is set against writing any information to a USB flash drive.

Please note that most often such an operation is performed solely for the sole purpose of protecting the flash drive from malware (viruses), which can themselves be copied to various removable media without the user's knowledge.

Ways to remove write protection from a flash drive

There are two most important options for removing protection from a removable drive: hardware and software.

Hardware way

You need to set the lock switch, which is available on some models of USB flash drives, as well as on SD cards. Often, such a switch is located on the side edge of a drive. Therefore, you need to carefully consider from all sides the drive that you have and find on it the icon of an open and closed lock or the inscription Lock.

Please note that in fact, the protection is not difficult to remove - you just need to move the lock lever in the right direction. After such a simple maneuver, it often turns out that the write protection has already been removed. It remains only to install a removable drive (flash drive) in the appropriate slot and repeat the entire file recording operation.

Programmatic way

This method involves software interaction between the OS and the flash drive controller, which is responsible for the ability to record any information. It is possible to remove write protection using this method, using the command line, the registry editor, or the local group policy of the Windows 7/8/10 operating system. Let's now look at all of these options in more detail.

Unprotect with regedit

Removing protection with Diskpart

If it was not possible to unlock the flash drive using the registry, you can try to do this using the command interpreter diskpart. The latter makes it possible to manage disks and partitions using commands that the user enters directly at the command line.

Removing Protection Using the Local Group Policy Editor

If all the methods listed in this article did not help solve the difficulties with the impossibility of writing to a USB flash drive, you can still try to go to the official website of the manufacturer of your particular flash drive and find branded original utilities there for working with your particular drive. In addition, a situation is possible when the flash drive has already exhausted its resource (some manufacturers set a limit on the number of repeated writes, after a certain number of which the drive itself is transferred to a special read-only mode). In this case, you will have to purchase a new flash drive.

At some point, using your operating system, you may find that the file you are trying to open using the Explorer file manager opens, but you cannot edit it. Most often, users notice this when working with text documents. And the problem is the corresponding "Read-Only" attribute that has been applied to the document. In this article, we will not go into the root of the problem, we will simply explain how to remove write protection in Total Commander.

Preparatory activities

But before moving on to a detailed instruction explaining how to remove write protection in Total Commander, you should pay attention to some nuances. The fact is that this action can be performed only if the presented file manager is launched with administrator rights, otherwise nothing will work. We will now demonstrate how to do this:

1. Open the start menu.
2. Go to "All Programs" or "All Applications" (depending on your version of Windows).
3. Find the program Total Commander in the list.
4. Click on its RMB icon (right click).
5. Select the appropriate item.

After that, the application will open with administrator rights, and you can remove the write protection in Total Commander. So now let's go directly to the three withdrawal options.

Method 1: Removing protection from a file

So, we proceed directly to the consideration of the situation when, when you try to change any file, Total Commander writes to you: "Remove write protection." You need to do the following:

1. In the program workspace, go to the folder where the problematic file is located and select it.
2. Just above the toolbar is a horizontal menu. There you need to click on the "File" section.
3. The corresponding menu will appear. In it, you need to select the very first item - "Change Attributes".
4. The Edit Attributes window appears. In it, you can see that there is a checkmark next to the "Read Only" item, which is why you could not make adjustments to the file.
5. To correct the situation, click on the check mark so that it disappears.
6. After the done actions, click OK to save the changes in the program.

It's so easy to remove file write protection in Total Commander, so absolutely any user can handle it. But what if this protection is applied not to a file, but to a folder? That is what we will now consider.

Method 2: Removing protection from a folder

What should I do if there are a lot of files in one folder that require the removal of write protection? Do not perform the above manipulations with each separately. Fortunately, this is not needed, because you can remove protection from all files in the folder at once. By the way, this is done in a similar way, but so that no one has any questions left, let's look at everything in stages.

1. Run "Total Commander" as administrator. How to do this was described at the beginning of the article.
2. In the workspace of the program, find the folder you need to remove protection from.
3. Select it by clicking once with LMB.
4. On the top panel, click on the "Files" section.
5. From the drop-down menu, select "Edit Attribute".
6. The familiar Edit Attributes window will appear. Uncheck "Read Only".
7. Click OK.

After that, all files in the selected folder can be edited without problems. So you got acquainted with the second method, well, now let's move on to the conclusion.

Conclusion

This is where the article can end, since we have successfully analyzed two ways to remove write protection in the Total Commander program. Finally, I would like to highlight their distinctive features. Using the first method, you can easily and quickly change the attribute of a single file, but it is not suitable if you need to change it for several at once. In this case, it is recommended to use the second method.

How to remove write protection from a flash drive - instructions! The error "disk is write-protected" or "flash drive is write-protected" usually happens at the most inopportune moment. If you started reading this article, then you turned out to be one of those "lucky ones" who at one fine moment decided to throw something on their flash drive, and as a result received a system message that it was impossible to write data to the disk and now this very protection must be removed. A person who has encountered this for the first time reasonably appears completely bewildered. Let's try to find out the reasons why you can't write files to a USB flash drive and figure out how to fix this problem.

Content:

Causes of the error "Disk is write-protected. Remove protection or use another disk."

It is quite logical that such a problem occurs if the operating system polls the disk, but does not receive write permissions. At the same time, it is not possible to write files, although data can be read at the same time without any problems. The reasons for this behavior are different, but are clearly divided into two groups:

1. Software failure.
2. Hardware failure.

It is important to understand that both types of problems can happen both on a flash drive and on your computer.

Types of write protection

By analogy with the causes of the “media is write-protected” error, write protection methods can also be divided. A classic example of hardware protection is the presence of a special switch (on the body of a flash drive), which enables and disables the ability to write to a flash drive.

Software protection is a variety of software systems designed to prevent unauthorized use of the drive.

When deciding how to remove protection if “The disk is write-protected”, first of all check if there is a special small switch on the case. It is always present on SD cards, and is somewhat less common on conventional USB drives. Random switching is not uncommon when a flash drive is worn in a pocket.

Also, be sure to check the performance of the flash drive in other USB ports, or even better, on another computer. If you are the owner of a desktop computer with a system unit, it is preferable to check the flash drive by connecting to the ports on the back of the system unit. The problem may lie in poor contact, poor-quality wires, USB controller failures.

Software release of write protection

After making sure that there is no mechanical protection problem, we proceed to check the software.
By default, the flash drive is formatted using the FAT32 file system. A small number of users are aware of the limitation in this file system for a maximum file size of 4Gb. It turns out a twofold situation, formally there is permission to write, but a message about the impossibility of doing so appears. If you need to transfer large files, format the drive using NTFS, a system where there are no such restrictions. To do this, open "My Computer", right-click on your removable drive and select "Format". In the window that appears, in the "File system" line, select NTFS, click "Start".

Important! It's always best to use "safe removal" before removing a flash drive from a slot. Due to some features regarding flash drives formatted in NTFS, this should be a mandatory rule.

The blocking can be set in the Windows registry. The keyboard shortcut Windows + R will bring up the Run window, type regedit and click OK.

In the editor window, go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ StorageDevicePolicies section, where you will see the WriteProtect parameter on the right. Double-click on the parameter to call the parameter change dialog, set the value to 0. The StorageDevicePolicies section may be missing and you will have to create it. To create, right-click on the previous Control section, select New > Section, the name should be StorageDevicePolicies. In the empty area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe right part of the window of the newly created partition, right-click again, select New > DWORD Value in the menu, select 64 or 32 bit depth, depending on the bit depth of your system. Name the parameter WriteProtect and set the value to 0 as described above. Be sure to reboot and check the result.

Make sure that writing to removable devices is not prohibited by group policy. Similarly, with the launch of the registry editor, execute gpedit.msc, which will bring up the "Local Group Policy Editor". Go through the branches "Computer Configuration - Administrative Templates - System - Access to Removable Storage Devices". On the right, check the "Removable drives: Deny writing" option. It must be disabled or not set. If the setting is enabled, double-click on it, select "Disable" and apply the selection. Don't forget to reboot before checking.

Check the system with a good antivirus with fresh databases. There are a number of malicious programs that block the ability to work normally with connected portable storage devices.

A significant number of Windows users prefer the Total Commander file manager, which offers extensive features and ease of use. It is important to understand that Total Commander is essentially just a convenient add-on for Windows, so everything described in the article applies to it. However, there are nuances. Try copying your files in Windows Explorer, if there are no problems with copying in Explorer, open "Configuration > Settings: File Operations" and select "Automatic selection of copy method". The authors of some assemblies of this manager expose settings that cause such failures.

Remove write protection in the command line (cmd)

How to remove protection from a write-protected flash drive using the command line. The method is a little more complicated. Find the Command Prompt application in the Start menu and run it as an administrator. Next, enter the following commands in sequence, confirming each entry by pressing Enter.

Attention! All contents of the flash drive will be permanently deleted!

1. diskpart- launches the disk management utility;
2. list disk- will display all the disks connected to the system, you need to determine which one is your flash drive, for which you can navigate by the size of the disk;
3. select disk X– targets the program to a disk, instead of X specify the number of the required disk;
4. detail disk– will show detailed information about the selected drive to make sure the selection is correct;
5. attributes disk clear readonly– resets the read-only attribute;
6. clean– all volumes and partitions on the disk will be deleted;
7. create partition primary– re-creates the main partition;
8. formatfs=fat32– formats the partition using the FAT32 file system (you can select the NTFS file system with the fs=ntfs command);
9. exit- terminates the program.

Programs for removing write protection

Flash drive manufacturers take care of solving various kinds of problems that arise with their products, releasing proprietary utilities for restoring problematic devices. Do not forget that you need to run any of these utilities with administrator rights. These useful programs can be freely downloaded from the respective manufacturer's websites. Transcend calls it , Silicon Power calls it , Adata calls it , Kingston calls it . Their use is quite simple and does not cause difficulties even for beginners.

The programs listed below are designed for an advanced user and you should read the documentation before using it. Independent developers release their own universal programs that are not tied to any vendor, but have similar functionality.

Popular representatives:, AlcorMP.

The latter only works with drives on the controller of the same name, but everyone has the same task - to help restore the problem device. When faced with finding a solution on how to remove protection from a flash drive, as a last resort, you should try to reflash it. Flash Drive Information Extractor will tell you full information about the type of controller, memory used and even the date of production.

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