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USB Stick Suddenly Write Protected?

Anonymous
2013-12-06T21:46:26+00:00

USB Stick Suddenly Write Protected?

I have had a Maxell 15 GB, FAT32 usb stick for a few years with several operating systems and it was working fine until recently.

It does NOT have a write-protection switch.

I have Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. I used it on a Windows 7 Professional machine and saved several files to it with no problem.

But then I started getting error messages about files not being writeable.

So I made sure the folder they were in and all it's contents were all set to not read only and tried again.

Then I started getting errors that the disk was write-protected and to remove write protection. It does not HAVE write-protection.

I could only save a small proportion of the files I needed.

Then I used it on the Windows 7 Home premium machine and it was still write-protected. I cannot copy anything to it and I can not delete anything from it.

Luckily, I COULD copy the data from it to my desktop.

But the thing is now unusable.

I tried Google and there are zillions of hits for this with Windows 7. Why on Earth would Windows 7 do this and make a usb stick useless?

Any suggestions?

QI

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-12-19T03:23:10+00:00

    Hello,

    Our team understands that you are facing alot of trouble with this particular USB flash drive and we will try to guide you in right direction.

    You can remove write protection from your usb flash drive using the below method:

    1. Open start menu, in the search bar type regedit and press enter. This wil open the registry editor.
    2. Navigate to the following path:

     HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies

    Note:

    If the registry key StorageDevicePolicies does not exist, you will need to create it manually.

    1. Double click the key WriteProtect in the right window and set the value to 0 in the Value

    Data Box and press OK button

    1. Restart your computer and try copying files into your USB drives.

    Important this section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs

    Hope the information helps , please revert incase of any queries.

    10 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2013-12-07T01:33:34+00:00

    The most common fault symptom for a USB stick is that it becomes read-only.  It's a characteristic of USB stick technology that it has a limited life [but predictions vary wildly from 100,000 full write cycles to a million].

    It's not Windows 7, it's just usage.

    10 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2013-12-06T22:28:29+00:00

    Try rebooting the computer into safe mode with command prompt. Insert the drive and check the drive letter assigned. Then format the drive.

    They have a very specific life limit so as the drive is a "few years" old the drive may be unusable.

    10 people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2013-12-07T01:48:50+00:00

    Try rebooting the computer into safe mode with command prompt. Insert the drive and check the drive letter assigned. Then format the drive.

    They have a very specific life limit so as the drive is a "few years" old the drive may be unusable.

    Yes, I tried that earlier and it got to 100% and said it had a trillion zillion bad sectors and no sector zero or something.

    So is it truly stuffed now?

    But if it is a dud, how could I get the data off it?

    QI

    4 people found this answer helpful.
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  5. Anonymous
    2013-12-07T01:56:29+00:00

    This is not a OS problem. Most likely your USB stick has reach its lifespan. Other things you could try to troubleshoot your USB stick are by running a scan disk to search for a possible corrupted FAT table, trying the USB stick in different Windows PCs or a trying it in Unix/Linux PCs.

    3 people found this answer helpful.
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