Can not write to any external media despite being and admin and having full access in security tab

Question

I have a new computer running Windows 11 Home. I have several external hard drives that I had been using with my old computer. I got the externals new out of the box, there is zero encryption on any of them. They are connected to this new computer and I can only read from them not write. I have administrator privileges on computer, I have full access in the security tab of each drive, I have cleared any potential ready only settings from the command line. As a test, I reformatted one of the drives ( with other computer, because I can't reformat either on the new computer) didn't work so and I wiped it to zeros and initialized it - nothing. There is another admin account on the computer, I logged in through it to see if it was any different and it does not work under that account either. My next step is to throw the computer threw the window. Please help.

Answer 1

Hello there,

If you are unable to write to external media despite being an administrator and having full access in the security tab, there might be other factors affecting your ability to write to those devices. Here are a few potential causes and troubleshooting steps you can try:

Check the write protection switch: Some external storage devices, such as USB flash drives or SD cards, have physical write protection switches. Ensure that the write protection switch on the device is in the correct position to allow writing data.

Test with different media and ports: Try using different external storage devices and connect them to different USB ports or card readers. This will help determine if the issue is specific to a particular device or port.

Check the file system format: Ensure that the file system format of the external media supports write access. Some devices might be formatted with a read-only file system such as NTFS or exFAT. If this is the case, you may need to reformat the device with a file system that supports write access, such as FAT32 (note that FAT32 has limitations on file size and partition size).

Scan for malware: Malware or security software can sometimes interfere with writing to external media. Run a thorough scan with an updated antivirus or anti-malware program to check for any malicious software that could be affecting your ability to write.

Check group policy settings: Group Policy settings configured on your system might restrict write access to external media. If your computer is part of a domain or managed by an organization, the group policy settings might be enforcing certain restrictions. Contact your system administrator or IT department to verify if any such policies are in place.

I used AI provided by ChatGPT to formulate part of this response. I have verified that the information is accurate before sharing it with you.

Hope this resolves your Query !!

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Answer 2

What is the exact error message that you are getting? Is that from the Windows explorer?

If you open a Powershell prompt with "run as admin", can you create a file? Does the disk show as readonly?

"test" | out-file D:\SomeTestFile.txt
Get-Disk | Where-Object -Property Bustype -eq usb |Format-List -Property FriendlyName, IsReadonly

If you can access the security tab, can you grant "everyone full control"?

Take a look at these posts.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/474248/how-can-i-disable-write-protected-from-my-usb-driv

Try solution 1.

https://www.diskpart.com/windows-10/the-disk-is-write-protected-windows-10-8523.html