Windows 10: USB thumb flash drives are "write protected"

Bought 4 PNY 16GB USB thumb drives and every time I try to format them, the computer kicks back that they are write protected. Have tried ALL the solutions listed and explained in the 10 forums here, and nothing works to disable the write protection on my machine. Tried diskpart, Command Prompt, and Computer Configuration and nothing resolves my problem. BTW, there's no switch on these USB drives.
Anybody know of a fix?
My machine is Dell Optiplex 960 w/6 Gb memory.
Thanks for reading my post and possibly helping me,
73s

:)

 

Can I use a Micro SD card to store a system image or repair disk for my Surface Pro 4?

More confusion. I find I can write a "recovery drive" to a USB thumb drive. But I cannot write a "recovery disc" to a USB thumb drive. What's the difference? I'm a fairly sophisticated user, and I'm confused. And why can't I write a disk image to
a USB drive. Or is there some other term for that that I haven't come across?

 

fix usb write protected

What type of USB thumb drive is it?

What is the size?

Usually write protected USB thumb drives might have a latch that switches from write protected.

Or its possible the drive might have somehow become damaged. This has happened to me a few times with new thumb drives.

 

Hello kc4raf, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

You might see if any of the options in the tutorial below may be able to help.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3...e-windows.html

 

Unfortunately when I tried those options earlier on, none solved the problem of disabling the write protection on those USB flash drives. Tomorrow I'll give it another try. BTW, when I placed those same drives into my Windows 7 machine, it would allow me to format and copy folders to the drives. But when inserting those drives into the Windows 10, it won't allow me to copy anything to those drives. It's weird and has me climbing the walls, (except for now; I'm getting ready to watch a movie and relax, lol).
Also, thanks sir for placing my post in the right forum; I failed to use my brain.lol
And thanks again for replying to my post.

edit: btw, my machine is Dell Optiplex 960 with Win. 10 Pro 64

 

Did you try PNY's USB3 Format tool? Ufix-V...the bottom one for USB3 , might have to use on your Win7 system 1st.

PNY Technologies Asia Pacific Limited

 

kc4raf,

Is the USB formatted using FAT32 or NTFS?

If NTFS, then see if formatting it with FAT32 on your Windows 7 computer may allow you to have access on any computer you connect it to afterwards. Be sure to back up what's on the USB first though.

 

After trying the possible solutions in posts 2, 4 and 5; still write protected USB sticks. If I ever come up with the solution to my dilemma, I will come back to "tenforums" to post the results. I am sure there will be others who will run across this problem and or the fix. Until then, thanks to you all for the help. Great site here for those who have Windows 10.
73s and thanks again.

 

If they all do it I would contact PNY and look into an RMA.......

I have only had this once and Patriot emailed me a low level formatting tool not available on the Net to fix it, I thought Ufix was the same type of LLF Tool.

 

Write protection is usually indication of bad or dead USB.

 

About an hour ago they replied and gave me a link to download a new firmware for the offending USBs. They had a "batch" that went through their quality control with "write-protection" enabled. Did as they requested and now all is right with my machine.
Here's the link for the firmware should anybody need it. Comes with instructions to boot:

USB Firmware Update (16GB Retract USB Model Only)

The offending USB sticks are:
PNY 16 GB flash drive 2 pack. Wal-Mart and other stores.
P-FD16GX2RTC-GE


Thanks to you guys for helping me out, many thanks
Have a great day and
73s
Roger

 

That's great news Roger. *Party

 

the USB flash drives, folders that needed to be placed in archival (on the USBs); I am here to say what a relief it is to have Windows 10 and workable media drives!!! lol
I thank you Brink, Kbird, and CountMike for posting in order to help me with that dilemma. All I can say is "tenforums" is a really great site and great members as well. Thanks guys and have a great evening,
73s, Roger