laptop is protected and cant format/reset it

Van M 0

i have an Asus laptop that was joined to domain and also added on Defender , after sometime i disjoined the laptop and now i want to format this laptop but i cant access the USB on it it shows "Access denied" and i have tried to do Reset from Cloud its also not possible . i checked to see if any Group policy/setting is on the laptop that is disabling access of OS drive and USB which results format/reset not success but couldn't find anything . any idea how i can solve this issue ?

1 answer

Crystal-MSFT 43,721 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-04-29T01:39:01.4+00:00

@Van M , Thanks for posting in Q&A. From your description, I know there's no GPO set to block USB access. If the device is managed by Microsoft Intune, please also check if any policy applied to the device which block the USB access. You can go to Intune portal, Devices, find the affected device, click Device Configuration to verify the policy applied to the device.

If there's any update, feel free to let us know.

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Crystal-MSFT 43,721 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-05-01T05:31:57.5066667+00:00

@Van M , Hope things are going well. If there's any update, feel free to let us know.

Van M 0 Reputation points

2024-05-06T08:49:33.2533333+00:00

Hello @Crystal-ms, thank you so much for your comment! i have disjoined the device from domain and deleted the device from Intune, which should make the device free from all assigned policies by my company. with that am still unable to use the USB or reset the device

Crystal-MSFT 43,721 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-05-06T09:02:38.7033333+00:00

@Van M, Thanks for the reply. In fact, Intune settings are based on the Windows configuration service provider (CSPs). The behavior depends on the CSP. Some CSPs remove the setting, and some CSPs keep the setting, also called tattooing. For the USB setting, based on my experience, for USB setting, when the profile is removed from the device or user group, it will be tattooing.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/intune/configuration/device-profile-troubleshoot#a-profile-is-deleted-or-no-longer-applicable

In General, we will choose to change the setting value before we remove the policy to avoid blocking. But currently, I notice the device is not managed by Intune. We can remove or change the USB related registry keys to make it work.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-can-i-prevent-users-from-connecting-to-a-usb-storage-device-460ef516-8ac8-07af-e90b-0d9ac55bcd4d

https://www.action1.com/how-to-disable-usb-drives-in-windows-operating-systems/

Note: non-Microsoft link, just for the reference.

Van M 0 Reputation points

2024-05-06T12:01:47.6166667+00:00

@Crystal-MSFT Thank you ,i checked the registry keys to see if they are disabled but they were enabled and no value changed that could disable the usb access, i want to mention that the reason i need to access USB is to format the device, which idont know how to do it By bootable drive its not working,by reset didnt work also i have tried WIPE from Intune it was not successful.

Crystal-MSFT 43,721 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-05-07T02:38:05.12+00:00

@Van M, Thanks for the reply. I know the USB is enable on the above registry key. But the USB is still blocked which prevent us to format via USB. Please also check the registry under the following location to see if it is blocked there.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\RemovableStorageDevices\

Van M 0 Reputation points

2024-05-07T07:10:01.4633333+00:00

@Crystal-MSFT i checked there , its not blocked as well

Crystal-MSFT 43,721 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-05-07T07:50:38.8366667+00:00

@Van M,, Thanks for the reply. How about the following registry key?

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\default\Storage\RemovableDiskDenyWriteAccess

Meanwhile, please search "RemovableDiskDenyWriteAccess" in registry key to see if any blocking setting existing.

Van M 0 Reputation points

2024-05-07T12:09:36.8+00:00

@Crystal-MSFT thank you for assisting me to look for the solution, Unfortunately above also didnt work, it was not denied and when i searched for "RemovableDiskDenyWriteAccess"couldnt find anything helpful

Crystal-MSFT 43,721 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-05-08T02:53:50.53+00:00

@Van M, How about we search "RemovableStorageDevices"? Can we find anything may block? If still not, I suggest contact windows support to look into the issue:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/global-customer-service-phone-numbers-c0389ade-5640-e588-8b0e-28de8afeb3f2
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