How do I remove write protection from a USB memory stick?

[andyrew]

i bought a flashdrive and i think i have been duped, it became write protected but i was never able to put much on it, how can i take off the write protect so i can check to see if it is a fake

 

[John_VanKirk]

Hi Andy, & Welcome to Tom's Hardware!

There are several ways to remove the write protected status on a flash drive, depending on how it was write protected.

If a file is read only, not the whole flash drive, you can go to the files properties, and uncheck the read only checkbox.

If a flash drive has a small write protect switch on the side that may have been flipped inadvertantly, switch it back to unprotected. Here is an image of such a flash drive - some of them have a swtich, some don't.

Lastly, if the flash drive was software write protected, you need the program used to do that, to unprotect it.