Bloody External Hard drives - The Media is Write Protected

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
K

Khane

Reputable
Jun 18, 2014
4
0
4,510
'The Media is Write Protected...'

So, for a while now I've had this external that just will not budge. It won't let me enter it no matter what fix I try.
This is the view of my computer (the hard drive is plugged in)
(So I can't insert pictures from my computer, rather than a site?)
Basically, nothing relating to the hard drive is shown on 'My Computer' as you would expect.

In Disk Management you cannot initialize the disk as it is 'write protected', yet I have never done such a thing. It says all the space on it is unallocated. It says it is not initialized and it Unknown.
Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated :)
 
Solution
Boogieman_WD
Well what's left is to try and get your data from the drive. Here's a link to a thread which might help with that: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html
Hopefully one of the programs will be able to detect your drive so that you can recover your data. After that try the manufacturer's diagnostic tool and if it detects the drive - run the tests to see what's going on. If it's under warranty I recommend that you contact customer support and try with RMA.
Sort by date Sort by votes
netnavi01

netnavi01

Reputable
Oct 30, 2014
143
0
4,710
you said that when you navigate through disk management youve seen your external mark as Unknown ? then the problem is the file system i think mostly corrupted drives comes with Unknown or RAW File system
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Boogieman_WD

Boogieman_WD

Judicious
Jul 31, 2014
6,050
2
35,960
Hi Khane. You could try removing the write protection via CMD or the Registry Editor. After that try to initialize the disk and format it.
Here are step by step instructions for the CMD option:
Run CMD as administrator then write the following commands and press "enter" after each one.
1. diskpart
2. list disk
3. select disk x (where x is the number of your external drive, make sure you've chosen the correct one)
4. attributes disk clear readonly
5. when the process completes close CMD
6. restart your computer and then re-connect your drive.

And the second option via the regedit:
1. Open Start Menu -> Run and type regedit and press Enter. This will open the registry editor.
2. Navigate to the following key - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies
3. Double click the key WriteProtect in the right pane and set the value to 0
4. In the Data Value Box, press OK
5. Exit Registry, restart your computer and then re-connect your drive.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
K

Khane

Reputable
Jun 18, 2014
4
0
4,510
Hi Boogieman_WD, thanks for the reply, I tried the first step which ended with a "DiskPart failed to clear disk attributes". The Second method, I do not have a "StorageDevicePolicies" entry. I have Storage with only 1 registry in it. Any other thoughts? :)

**edit** Also after selecting the external, it has now disappeared from the disk list in cmd.exe.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Boogieman_WD

Boogieman_WD

Judicious
Jul 31, 2014
6,050
2
35,960
That's a bid odd. Is that a new drive, because it is not normal for none of this to work with the write protection issue? As netnavi01 said, if it's a new drive it should already be formatted, perhaps you could call the manufacturer's customer support and see if you can RMA.
Although if it's not a new drive, do you remember what happened before the problem occurred? Any unusual sounds, or have you dropped it or anything?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
K

Khane

Reputable
Jun 18, 2014
4
0
4,510
It was not a new drive, I had it plugged into my tv while watching episodes, went out for 15mins to come back to see that my episode wasn't there. I tried to get back into the external but nothing was happening. I then found out it was the same for my computer. My computer can see it's there in devices and printers, in disk management, NOT in 'My Computer'. I just can not see the files or copy them. It is nearly as if it knows it is connected, but isn't allowing me access. It is fine with my SeaGate.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Boogieman_WD

Boogieman_WD

Judicious
Jul 31, 2014
6,050
2
35,960
Well what's left is to try and get your data from the drive. Here's a link to a thread which might help with that: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html
Hopefully one of the programs will be able to detect your drive so that you can recover your data. After that try the manufacturer's diagnostic tool and if it detects the drive - run the tests to see what's going on. If it's under warranty I recommend that you contact customer support and try with RMA.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom