How to remove protection from a flash drive: simple ways, step by step instructions

2024 Author: Trinity Chesterton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 08:12

If the user finds that they cannot add or delete documents on the media, it is likely that the media has write protection enabled. Sometimes the media is protected by the manufacturer, or a similar situation appears due to a malfunction of the disk itself. And then you need to know how to remove protection from a flash drive.

If the user is not prompted for a password to make changes, the lock can be unlocked using the Windows DiskPart utility. And before you remove the protection from the flash drive, as a precautionary measure, it is better to reformat the disk. This process is available on any version of Windows.

Admin account login

First you need to connect an external drive to your PC and log into the OS with an administrator account. Open "Properties" in Explorer. Select the disk file system - either NTFS or FAT32, and its capacity. Now you need to copy all the files from the media to your computer. After that, experts strongly recommend reformatting it. The operation will removeall data on a flash drive. Even if the user does not plan to reformat the media, Windows DiskPart may itself delete some files, so it is very important to back up documents first.

The sequence of operations to remove write protection on a flash drive is as follows:

1. Through the launch of the command line, typing cmd in the search, enter diskpart and Enter. DiskPart will open.
2. Specify the list of disks in the DiskPart window and then - Enter. The drives will appear and you can identify the flash drive by its size in the File Properties window.
3. Select USB followed by a space and drive number, for example, select disk 1 followed by Enter.
4. Type disk clear readonly attributes and then - Enter.

Protection should now be removed.

If it is still active, another procedure must be done:

1. Before unprotecting the microflash drive, press [Windows] and [R] at the same time to open Run.
2. Enter diskpart and click OK. The command prompt opens.
3. Wait a few seconds, then enter the command "lis dis" and confirm with the Enter key, after which all volumes will be listed.
4. Enter sel dis X.
5. Replace "X" with the displayed disk number.
6. Use create partition primary, select partition 1, format fs=FAT32 quick and "active" functions one after the other.

The flash drive is now formatted and open access.

Account permission

If the block is not lifted, there is a chancethat the user has not accessed the disk. Need to check write permission:

1. Before you can remove the write protection of a USB flash drive, you need to access its properties through the command line. After that, a pop-up window will appear - Removable Disk Property.
2. Click "Security" under "Scroll All" to check if write has been checked. There are times when the problem is related to one file. They are usually marked as read-only and will not accept any changes.
3. Before you remove the protection from the flash drive, you just need to go to the properties of this particular file and check if "Read Only" is disabled. If not, you must uncheck the box and then access.

Pre-format the drive

To format external media, type clean in the search box and press Enter. This function deletes all volumes and partitions from the disk, as well as folders and files.

Procedure of operations to remove write protection on a flash drive:

1. Enter the initial section and then Enter.
2. Format the flash drive in NTFS or FAT32 format, as it was specified earlier in the properties window. To do this, enter one of the following commands, and then press Enter: fs format: fat32 or fs format: ntfs. Progress is displayed in a window, and DiskPart will notify the user when the partition is complete. It takes about a minute to format a 1 GB drive.
3. Type exit when the volume is formatted to close the DiskPart window.
4. Now you cancopy or move data that was previously located on the disk or add new files to it.

Disc with lock

Some drives have switches between active and inactive protection. Before removing the protection from the micro SD flash drive, you need to look at the case of the device and make sure that any existing switch is set to "unlock". If the switch cannot be found, the failure is due to the software. In the Windows menu, depending on the type of mobile equipment, you can set or remove program write protection on external memory.

List of steps:

1. Open Windows Explorer and click "Computer".
2. Open the folder section, select "Properties" and find the read-only dialog box.
3. Check that the checkmark is missing, otherwise delete it. The subtlety of this process is that you can only remove the lock on the PC on which it was installed.

Unlock media in registry

If the user accidentally ejects the drive while reading and without the "safely remove hardware" function, many folders automatically switch to data write protection. In this case, you need to unlock:

1. Before removing the protection from the flash drive, formatting is carried out, and in order to save the data, it is recommended to use the Smart Data Recovery tool.
2. In the dialog box, you can try to restore the folder by clickingto "Formatting". If the system reports an error, you will have to remove protection through the registry.
3. Enter regedit in Windows search and then select "Registry Editor".
4. Select HKEY_Local Machine from the navigation bar and open subfolders by clicking on the small arrow next to the name.
5. Select System, Current Control Set and finally Control.
6. Scroll down the page to the Storage Device Policies. If this directory does not already exist, right-click to create a new folder and give it this name. Pay special attention to upper and lower cases.
7. Open folder, two files will appear on the right side.
8. Select the Write Protect entry. If the file does not exist, continue reading to step 8. In the dialog box that opens, select "Hexadecimal" on the right. Enter "0" in the field on the left - this will mean that all external storage devices are automatically unprotected.
9. Confirm the entry with OK and close the editor. If the file does not already exist, create it in the above folder and name it Write Protect. Make sure to generate a 32-bit or 64-bit file, according to which system the PC is running.
10. Restart your computer by pressing Windows and "E".

Remove write protection from exFAT card

Sometimes exFAT-formatted hard drives and flash drives become read-only after a computer crashes. As for the exFAT system, you will most likely need to remove the dirty bit from it, since this system has automatic protection.

There are several common fixes for removing blockage. Before removing protection from a USB flash drive, you first need to check if there is a lock slider on its adapter. If so, turn it off to remove protection. Next, you need to fix the existing error on the card and reset it or completely format it, and if necessary change it to a new file system.

Using CMD before unprotecting a USB flash drive:

1. Open Run. Type CMD and then Enter. Run as administrator.
2. Type chkdsk / ff: and Enter. f: This is the drive letter from the exFAT partition on the SD card. The program will find and fix the error on the map.
3. If you receive the following error message: "The operation could not be completed." You need to run this command: chkdskf: / f / r / x and then Enter, after which the dirty bit and the security attribute will be removed.

Unblock card via phone

SD is commonly used as expandable storage and is formatted in exFAT format for Android smartphones, 3DS or PS4. If it is read-only and prevents its use, such protection can be removed. Before removing write protection from a flash drive through a phone, it is better to use a special program that can be downloaded from the Internet. Experts advise AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. This is a free SD card protection remover that can solve problems caused by corrupted files and wrong systems. Can notnot only completely erase all information, but also reformat it to any bit depth.

Removing exFAT SD Card protection:

1. Before you remove the protection from the flash drive, to format it, connect the card through the adapter and make sure that it is recognized.
2. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant.
3. On the main interface, right-click on SD and select "Format".
4. In the small pop-up window, specify the partition information, i.e. edit the volume name, set the file system and select the cluster size.
5. Confirm the result, click "Run" and "Continue" to complete the procedure.

Section Manager

If the user still cannot access the drive, Ease US Partition Master Free can be used before unprotecting the flash drive.

Formatting sequence:

1. Connect card or drive to PC.
2. Start Ease US Partition Master.
3. Right-click on the device, selecting "Format Partition".
4. Specify a new label / file system and size for the formatted card. Click OK and Apply to save all changes. You can specify disk attributes using commands.
5. To remove read-only, specify the disk disk readonly attributes, or to set the read-only attribute, use readonly.
6. Then type exit to exit the program.

Boot in safe mode

User notwill be able to format the device if you try to do so after booting into Windows normally and get a message that the device is write-protected. To counter this:

1. Restart Windows, as soon as the computer turns on again, press F8. A menu will appear with BootInto Safe Mode.
2. Select this option using the arrow keys and press Enter.
3. When Windows boots up and the desktop appears, press WinKey + R and type CMD in the Run dialog to get DOS.
4. In the black window, enter the format followed by the drive letter of the removable storage. For example, if the desired drive is F, enter the format f, meaning that the input format will delete the contents of the storage device. In addition, you must specify the exact drive letter, as entering the wrong letter will completely delete the data of the corresponding storage.
5. After generating, save the files to disk.

If the save process is completed, the problem is fixed. If not, you should move on to the next troubleshooting step.

Deleting a destructive entry

Destructive write tests often solve the problem when external storage table files are corrupted. Almost all of them completely destroy the file allocation table and create a new one. However, you may need to format the drive before you can store any data on it - after testing. There are several good third party programs that can help you achieve this, such as HD Tune. The free version is enough to fix the disk, however, without restoring the old ones.data.

HD Tune Pro is a great HDD and SSD diagnostic tool. This utility allows you to compare your storage device with minimum, maximum and average transfer rates, among other useful tools. Other HD Tune features include detailed driver information, disk error scanning. Pro versions allow you to monitor the he alth status of multiple drives, offer information about folder usage, secure erase, file verification, cache and additional tests.

Change security permissions

If using diskpart as described above doesn't work to clear the USB read-only attribute, security permissions may need to be changed.

Before you remove the write protection from the sd flash drive, you need to do the following:

1. Find the flash drive in the "My Computer" list.
2. Click on the flash drive icon and select "Properties".
3. Go to the Security tab.
4. Next - "Edit" in the "Group".
5. In the "Permissions" section, click the "Everyone" entry if it's not already selected.
6. In the "Permissions for everyone" section, make sure the "Allow" box is checked for the "Edit" entry. If it is not installed, then install it.
7. Press the OK button to save the edited security permissions. If you want the flash drive to be accessible only to all users, uncheck all the boxes in the "Allow" column, except for the "Read" entry.

Protect individual files

You can always change the write protection for individual files and folders on a removable drive. If the steps below don't work for a flash drive, it may be preventing permission changes due to being blocked by some security program. In these cases, the user will not be able to make the flash drive writable until the program is closed.

Unfortunately, write protection on flash drives still causes a lot of problems. Changes are not accepted, functions are not available, USB is damaged. If none of the above instructions helped, which, unfortunately, is not an isolated case, especially on Windows 10, you can try additional tools: free LockHunter and Unlocker.