Can't format write-protected SSD

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Sean_34

Sean_34

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Feb 5, 2016
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TL;DR at bottom

Long story short: Toshiba C55 failed > recovery, update rollback, reverting to past image, etc wouldn't even start without error > recovery media USB would stall out at 3% > tried advanced troubleshooting in cmd where Diskpart showed no partitions or volumes on the OS SSD (i'm pretty sure the recovery media got far enough to wipe it) > wanted to clean install from USB wouldn't stick > used this thread to create a partition for the clean install, but could not make an EFI partition because I can't convert the drive to GPT from MBR. I then got the idea to load windows onto a USB and boot this laptop from that and that's how i'm using the laptop now.

I figured the drive might have failed, so I tried a chkdsk and formatting the SSD and I keep getting told it's write only. I just tried "attributes disk clear read-only" per this website and got "The arguments specified for this command are not valid" response.

TL;DR I'm stuck. I need to remove the write-only status, so that I can format the drive and check the SSD's integrity, so that I can determine if I can clean install windows.
 
Solution
ex_bubblehead
It may not be the SSD itself. It could be something as simple as the data cable. If possible, try the drive on another system. On the other end of the spectrum it could be the motherboard.
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Sean_34

Sean_34

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I followed the article that I linked. If something is write-protected, then I imagine trying to clear a read-only status in favor of a read/write access would work. But, like I disclaimed, i'm new to troubleshooting at this level.
 
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Sean_34

Sean_34

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Did I try any what ways?
 
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ex_bubblehead

ex_bubblehead

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Try booting into whatever environment you're using to format/install, then, pull power from the drive, wait 5 seconds, reapply power. Some SSD's will go into write protect status (won't affect normal use but will prevent format) upon first access after power on and this procedure will clear that state.
 
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Sean_34

Sean_34

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Feb 5, 2016
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I seem to have cleared the write-protection, allowing me the brief ability to install steam as a test, which sort of worked, until it got hung up on updates. Now i'm getting all sorts of errors. From when I created the primary partition in my OP, I have a 300mb and 465gb partition; from minute to minute, the 300mb partition will be formatted to NTFS and now it says RAW in Diskpart. one minute Computer Management shows both partitions and then I refresh and the whole drive says unallocated, with no partitions. I'm trying to initialize the unallocated SSD and it gets an I/O error. Now that it says it's unallocated, I'm guessing that's why I don't see it in Diskpart and i can't format in compmgnt.

I guess i'm going to troubleshoot this I/O error next, any ideas? It's looking more and more like this SSD is just starting to die out.
 
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