How to Format a Protected USB/Flash Drive [7 Ways]

The solutions on this page can effectively help fix the write protection error on a write protected flash drive, USB, SD card, and external hard drive/SDD.

What does the "The disk is write-protected" error mean when trying to save, modify, or delete files on a USB drive or flash drive?

Have you ever encountered the "disk is write protected" error while formatting a USB flash drive? What does it mean when you receive the "disk is write protected" error message when you try to format a flash drive, USB drive, or an SD card?

This could be due to an Administrator restriction on your Windows OS, a corrupted Registry entry, a virus infection, or a third-party encryption software that's locking your USB flash drive. When your USB is write-protected, you won't be able to format it, and you'll get the error message “The disk is write protected.”

You might be wondering, “How do I remove write protection from my USB?” In short, you need to follow the solutions in Part 1 to remove write protection from your USB drive, flash drive, SD card, external hard drive, and so on.

Then, you can format the device with a reliable disk formatter, such as Partition Master Professional, in Part 2 to make it work properly and easily again.

Part 1: Fix “The disk is write protected” Error on USB/Flash Drive

Since you can't format a write-protected device, you should first address the "disk is write-protected" error and remove the write protection from the problematic device. Here, you can try six methods to remove write protection from storage devices like USB, flash drives, etc.

Check out all the write protection removal tools you can try. Or, you can follow along with the video on the right to get your device back to normal. The video covers three common solutions for you to try: 0:46 – The Registry; 1:49 – CMD; 3:00 – File Explorer.

If the provided solutions work for you and successfully solve your USB write protection problem, do share this guide to help more people around you!

Once the issue is fixed, you can easily format a write-protected USB flash drive or pen drive following the guide in Part 2.

#1. Unlock Write Protection on a USB/Flash Drive by Flipping the Lock Switch

If you had previously locked your USB flash drive or pen drive by switching the Lock to ON, the device is locked and write-protected. This means that you cannot format the device or make any changes to it. Here's how you can unlock a write-protected USB:

Step 1: Locate the physical switch on your USB drive or flash drive.

Step 2. Flip the switch from the on position to the off position.

Now you should be able to connect the USB to your computer and access or format the device as normal.

#2. Repair Write Protected USB/Flash Drive Using Write Protection Removal Tool

With its newly developed Write Protection feature, tools Partition Master can help you easily unlock a write-protected USB drive or pen drive with just one click. Here's how:

Step 1: Download and install Partition Master, go to the toolbox, and click “Write Protection.”

Click on «Remove Write Protection».

Step 2: Select the USB drive, external USB hard drive, or SD card that you want to remove the write protection from, and click “Disable.”

Click on «Remove Write Protection»

Wait! It's so easy to remove write protection from USB drive with Partition Master? Share this good news with your friends right now:

#3. Remove any USB virus or pen drive that causes write protection

A virus infection can also cause a storage device like a USB flash drive to become write-protected or locked. The best way to resolve this issue is to run a professional antivirus program to thoroughly remove the virus and unlock the device.

Here's a list of recommended antivirus programs you can try:

• Avast Antivirus
• Norton Antivirus
• McAfee
• BitDefender
• AVG

All you need to do is install one of the recommended virus removers, connect the affected device to your computer, run it, and let the virus remover scan and delete all write-protected viruses from your USB or pen drive.

#4. Remove Write Protection from Device using CMD Command

Step 1: Type cmd in the search bar, right-click on "Command Prompt," and select "Run as administrator."

Step 2. Enter each of the following lines at a command prompt, pressing Enter after each.

Here are the translations of the Diskpart tool commands for the Windows Command Prompt into American English: 1. **diskpart**: Disk Management utility 2. **list disk**: List all disks 3. **select disk #**: Select disk # (where # represents the disk number) 4. **attributes disk clear readonly**: Clear the read-only attribute of the disk

Replace # with the number of your read-only flash drive or memory card.

Use the CMD command to remove the write protection on the device.

Run the CMD command to remove write protection from USB:

Step 3: When you're done, type exit.

Read More: [How to Format a USB Drive That Does Not Show Up](/partition-master/format-a-usb-drive-that-does-not-show-up.html)

#5. Use Regedit.exe to Remove Write Protection from USB Flash Drive/ Pen Drive

If your device is locked or the disk is write-protected, you can use the Registry Editor to change its value from 1 to 0 to unlock it.

Step 1: Type Regedit in the search box, and then click “Regedit.exe” to open the Registry Editor.

Step 2: Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies

Step 3: Double-click the “WriteProtect” value in the right-hand window.

Please make sure the Volume data field is labeled as “0”.

Step 4: Double-click it to open, change the “Value data” from “1” to “0”, and click “OK” to save the changes.

Remove USB Write Protection by Modifying Registry Key

Step 5: Exit the Registry Editor, and then restart your computer.

After that, you can plug the USB flash drive or memory stick back into your computer, and you should find that the write protection has been removed and the device is no longer read-only.

#6. How to Make Read-Only or Protected Files/Folders Normal on USB/Flash Drive

Sometimes, your drive might also be locked or write-protected if you set it to read-only. You can simply change the read-only status to remove the device's write protection.

Incidentally, this technique can also be used to revert a file's read-only status back to normal.

Step 1: Plug the USB or flash drive into your computer.

Step 2: Open File Explorer, find the write-protected file or folder on the USB drive, right-click it, and choose Properties.

Step 3: Go to the “General” tab, uncheck “Read-only,” click “Apply” and then “OK” to finish.

After removing the write protection from your USB or flash drive, you should be able to access the device easily and directly. However, if there are still some logical or internal errors with the USB or flash drive, you may need to format the device to make it recognizable again.

## Part 2: How to Format Write-Protected USB Flash Drive After Unprotecting It

Normally, Disk Management or Windows File Explorer can format a normally functioning device. But when the storage device is in some special states, like showing I/O device error, cannot complete formatting, USB not formatted, etc., you will need a professional all-in-one formatting tool.

With Partition Master, you can format your USB or pen drive, among others, to fix any such logical errors. Apart from USB flash drives, the program also lets you format a write-protected SD card after removing the write protection error.

Here is a detailed guide:

Step 1. Launch AOMEI Partition Assistant, right-click the partition of the external hard drive/USB/SD card you want to format and choose "Format Partition".

Step 2: Assign a new partition label, file system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3/EXT4/exFAT), and cluster size to the selected partition, then click OK.

Step 3: Click Yes in the warning window to continue.

Step 4. Click on the “Perform 1 Task” button on the top-left corner to review the changes and hit “Apply” to start formatting the external hard drive/USB/SD card.

Aside from USB drives, you can also use the Partition Master tool to format other types of write-protected devices. Refer to this link to find a corresponding solution:

After the formatting is complete, you will have successfully formatted your write-protected USB/flash drive. Your device should now be back to normal and ready to save and store data again.

Frequently Asked Questions About USB, Pen Drive, and SD Write Protection

This page answers the questions "How do I remove write protection from a USB drive?" and "How do I format a write protected USB flash drive?" The solutions provided in the first part and the second part will help you fix the "disk is write protected" error and successfully format your USB flash drive, pen drive, SD card, external hard drive, or even an internal hard drive after removing the write protection.

However, you might still have some questions related to write protection. Here, we've gathered some common issues found in Google search results and provided brief answers below each. Check them out right away if you have the same concerns.

How to format a read-only USB drive in Windows 10?

As mentioned earlier on this page, in order to format a read-only USB in Windows 10, you need to first remove the write protection from it, using one of the methods from Part 1.

Then, you can format the USB on Windows 10 with Partition Master or the built-in formatting tools in Windows (Disk Management, File Explorer, CMD).

2. What is the best read-only USB formatting tool?

When searching online, you might notice there aren't many professional read-only USB formatting tools available for free. This is because write protection errors are complicated, and most formatting tricks don't work.

The best way to resolve this issue is to first remove the USB write protection and then format it with a best USB formatting tool.

3. How to format a read-only USB?

When USB is read-only on your computer, you cannot format it directly as well. You should delete or fix the “read-only” error on USB first. Then, format the USB to FAT32 (usable) with Windows Disk Management, File Explorer, or formatting tools like Partition Master.

4. How to recover data from a formatted write protected SD card?

After you remove the write protection and format the SD card, you can safely save data back onto the card. As for the lost data, you can use a powerful data recovery tool to recover files from SD card. If you need a reliable one, Data Recovery Wizard can help.