Advertisement

How to remove write protection from USB drive

How to remove write protection from a write protected USB flash drive:

Six days ago, My Kingston USB Flash Drive got Write Protected, And I couldnt write files to it, nor could I delete any files, nor could I format my USB drive.
I spent hours and hours searching on google for a solution, then on a forum, I finnally found a guide that worked for me (Hurray !)
Well, this guide includes edits in windows registry, but its very easy.
Here is the guide :

• Start Menu -> Run -> type ‘regedit’ (without the quotes) -> Hit Enter !
• Now take a backup of your registry, incase something goes wrong:
  Right Click on ‘My Computer’ -> ‘Export’ > save it on the Desktop.
• Now Browse through these tabs:
  My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies
• Double click on the string ‘WriteProtect’ and change the ‘Value Data’ box to ‘0’
• On Toolbar, Click on File -> Export -> Save it anywhere with any name like ‘WriteProtection01.reg’ or anything.
• You need to repeat the step 3 - step 5 with every string on folder named ‘ControlSet***’ (* = any Digit, i.e. 001, 002) - that is, instead of currentcontrolset, repeat the steps for folders controlset***
  For Example :
  My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\StorageDevicePolicies
  - Again export it on same directory as before, named as ‘WriteProtection0**.reg’

Note : These exports are just incase you need to revert the changes in your registry, to revert, just double click on the *.reg file, and click yes when it prompts.

This method worked for me, post your results in your comments, or if you know another alternative to this method, dont forget to share it with us.

Posted by Bilal Ghouri under Misc Tutorials June 15th, 2008