Windows 10: Hard drive is write protected

How do I remove write protection from by hard drive used for file backups?

:)

 

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.

 

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

 

How To Format A Write Protected Flash Memory ?

¿You already tried this one?...

Run CMD


1. diskpart
2. list disk

Then in the 3º step, put the correct number of disk in the list for the usb flash (if it's listed in disk 3, then you'll have to write select disk 3).

2. select disk #
3. clean
4. create partition primary
5. select partition 1
6. active
7. format fs=fat32
8. assign
9. exit

with that commands you will format the flash drive in fat32, if you have a large drive you can select also "format fs=ntfs" in step 7.

good luck!