hackmukhamo: How to Fix Write-Protected Read-Only Disks

Note: If you have a write-protected SD card, check that the write-protect (LOCK) switch on the side of the card has not been accidentally moved to the WP position! Some USB flash drives also have a write-protect switch as does the Zaman VE200 ISO emulator HDD caddy.

If you have used a USB disk to hold a Windows 8 Windows to Go! Operating System or perhaps a Vista/Win7 OS and now you cannot access it under Windows Vista or 7 even with RMPrepUSB, or even format it under Windows, it may be because the disk has been marked as Read-Only in the Windows Registry of your system.

I had just such a USB hard disk which had been formatted as NTFS and used as a Windows 8 ToGo! boot disk. I could not copy any file to it or format it under Windows 7 or wipe it using RMPrepUSB - every time I tried I got a 'Write-Protect' error.

To clear this I used Windows 7 Diskpart as follows:

1. Start Menu - All Programs - Accessories - Command Prompt - right-click - Run as Administrator...

2. When the command console opens, type DISKPART

3. List the drives by typing LIS DIS

4. Select the USB drive by typing SEL DIS 1 (if disk 1 is your USB drive)

5. Inspect the details for that disk by typing DET DIS

Check if the disk is marked as Read-only - e.g.

DISKPART> det dis

TOSHIBA MK2559GSXP USB Device

Disk ID: EF78DCD3

Type : USB

Status : Online

Path : 0

Target : 0

LUN ID : 0

Location Path : UNAVAILABLE

Current Read-only State : Yes

Read-only : Yes

Boot Disk : No

Pagefile Disk : No

Hibernation File Disk : No

Crashdump Disk : No

Clustered Disk : No

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info

---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------

Volume 5 H RMPARTUSB NTFS Partition 232 GB Healthy

6. Type ATT DIS CLEAR READONLY to clear the ReadOnly attribute and then type DET DIS again to check it has been cleared.

(optional - if the drive still is Readonly try this) type CLEAN to erase all contents from the drive (make sure you have selected the correct drive!!!!!)

7. Finally type EXIT to quit Diskpart