Windows 10: Back up Failed. The media is write protected. Internal and external drives?

Have not been able to do a back up for about a month now. My internal 1tb D drive is normally used for backups. I keep getting the message 'The media is write protected'. Error code 0x80070013


Today I tried it with an external 500gb drive and got the same error message.


Not sure what to do now. Looked at the solutions on here and as far as I can see my discs are set up right.

:)

 

hard drive not accessible stating "The media is write protected."

Hello,

I sent an external hard drive to a tape backup company.

The company stated that the drive is not accessible with the error message, "The media is write protected."

Any suggestions?

williamj

 

Gettign error "device is write protected" for External Hard drive in Windows 10

Hello Neil,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Community.

We understand the inconvenience you have experienced.

Are you getting the same error when you access the External Hard drive on another computers?

When you see the message "Device is Write Protected", then it indicates that you have limited set of privileges for performing operation on the Hard disk. In simple, you're not allowed to write the drive, apart from reading it. This because the drive is
write-protected. Suggest you to try with the below steps and check it they help you.

1. Right-click on Start button and select Command Prompt(Admin).

2. Type diskpart and press Enter.

3. Now type list volume and press Enter. Now see the volume number the external drive.

4. Then type select volume #, where # is the number of the drive which is showing "write-protected" error. Example,
select volume 3.

5. Type attributes disk clear readonly and press Enter.

• Executing the above command line will reset the Hard drive USB's properties by clearing the Read-Only behavior, so that it is no longer read-only.

6. Type exit and press Enter. Now check if it allows you do access the drive for writing the content.

Keep us posted if you require further assistance.

 

The Disk Is Write Protected - How To Remove Write Protection

Hi Fernanda,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

In regards to your concern, please help me with following questions:

• Is the Hard drive external or internal?

You can try following steps and check if that fixes the issue:

1. Run Virus scan on the Hard Drive.
2. Perform check disk commands on the Hard Disk to fix the Disk errors.

Refer to this article.

Note: Remove all the external devices before performing check disk.

Data Loss Disclaimer:

While performing these steps there might be a risk of data loss. You may take a backup of the data before performing the steps.

Hope it helps.

Let us know if you got the help you needed by clicking Yes or No.

Rohit Raina

Microsoft Community - Moderator