How to remove the "Write Protection" on a micro sd card? I've tried the RegEdit and the"unlock" switch on the adapter but it s

Janine Calbit

Honorable
Sep 2, 2013
1
0
10,510
I had this ordinary micro sd card (which brand I still don't know) and I used an adapter everytime I connect it into a laptop. I "locked" the adapter and now I can't delete or add some files on my sd card. I've tried the RegEdit and the switching of the unlock button of the adapter but the sd card is still write protected. I'm considering of using the cmd.exe but I don't know how. Please help me.
 

phi1123

Prominent
Aug 17, 2017
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510
I went about this in a roundabout way so not sure what did it

(The 1st part may not be necessary)

but I was in same sich & fixed it

(((((((1st part :
I went to regedit
Did the known modifications mentioned above, plus these:
took a backup
Erased all entries under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\usbflags
inserted my sd
noticed the new entry
Restored Registry
went ahead and added a Dword value for WriteProtect to that entry (value=0)
Then i went here
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\usbstor
and checked out the values of Dwords within
There were these values for the dwords of different entries, 1 per entry 16, 32, 32, 128, 256
my sd was 64gb and was incorrectly identified as 32gb by windows.
so I changed one of the 32s to 64
And added a WriteProtect and a ReadOnly Dword value for good luck
rebooted
tried format.... it froze)))))))

2nd part:

tried Yumi
it worked

the answer may be as simple as using yumi program
I am not sure

I have come to this site for help before and it usually solves whatever sh#% I might find myself stuck in from poweruser level day to day MS and linux usage
and I know you guys who are either regulars or are Mods here can solve it and edit this answer.
I hope you get some of your SD cards back for doing it
I know many people will certainly get theirs back if you follow this up.

P.s. Another solution I read once was to insert it into a portable camera which uses micro SD cards and let it format it for you.

I got so far as to find a rough description the protocols used (but they seemed proprietary)
I could not find what voltages to apply to which pins to throw it back in its default state of all ones.
But it looked as if there was a simple solution going down that route as well.

could not find the voltage scheme for that

Mine was 64gb.
Not as cheap it was handy.

Thanks, tomshardware, for your great solutions/hacks.

Philip S. Bodenheimer