One of my harddrive volumes is write protected out of the blue and i am unable to copy files to it.

Question

I am running Windows 10 Pro (version 21H1) (OS Build 19043.1237)

I use Bitlocker on all my drives, volumes, partitions!!

One of my NTFS Volumes (Bitlocker protected) is out of the blue giving me the Disk is Write-protected Error when I try to copy files to it. After checking reg-edit (Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control) & Diskpart I found read-only is not set on the volume. Please see screen shot.

I do implement STIGS and have several Local Policies enabled after following the STIGs for windows 10. Could it be a Local Computer Policy? if so why would the policy affect one NTFS Volume and not the others.

Can anyone point me in the right direction to resolve this issue?

thanks

Mathew

Answer 1

Thanks,

disk part would normally fix this, but in this case disk-part had no effect. I had a local policy in place that required bitlocker to use auto unlock or smart card login when unlocking the drive. using the password to unlock the drive made the disk read only. once I changed the bitlocker unlock method to Auto unlock the read-only issue was fixed.

Solved It!!!!!!

Answer 2

Hello @Mat ,

You should be able to remove the read-only with Diskpart:

Run DISKPAR

Type LIST DISK and press Enter

Type the command SELECT DISK <number> and press Enter.

Type ATTRIBUTES DISK CLEAR READONLY

Regarding the local policies I would focus in the ones at: >Computer Configuration >Policy > Windows Setting > Security Setting > File System, maybe there is some lock there.

Hope this helps,
Best regards,