Write protected flash drive removal software win 7

[janakamarawila]

My pen drive is write protected.

But i can't follow this path

regedit - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies

my computer hasent end folder (StorageDevicePolicies

Thanks

 

[AntiZig]

If your USB flash drive is write protected, possible solutions are as follows:

1. check that your flash drive doesn't have any mechanical switches on the outside of its casing, the switch can be fairly small, a little plastic knob, which can be easily overlooked.

2. Go to Start > Run > type in: regedit > hit enter. On the dialog box that opens up navigate to the following path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies

Find the entry named "WriteProtect" if the value is set to 0x00000001 (1), double click it and set the value to zero.

Reboot your computer and try your flash drive.

Note: if you don't have the StorageDevicePolicies folder, it might do good to create it and then create a DWORD key inside called WriteProtect and set it to zero.

3. You might have a malware/virus causing this problem. Do a thorough full system scan with a few programs that you have, if you don't have any security programs some of these might be useful:
Free anti-virus:
-avast
-AVG
-Microsoft Security Essentials

Free anti-spyware/anti-malware:
-malware bytes
-spybot search & destroy
-super anti-spyware

4. If the issue wasn't caused by a virus you might have to reformat your flash drive. The procedure is as follows:
Warning. Make sure you back up all important data from your flash drive. Formatting will cause all data to be erased

Download HP Format Utility to a folder on your desktop. With your flash drive plugged in, start the utility and select your flash drive to format. Once the reformat is done, you should be able to use your flash drive.

5. If you're still having issues try the following
Start > Run > cmd /k chkdsk :? /f > Hit OK
Replace the ? with the drive letter of your flash drive

6. If it's still not working, try formatting using this tool: Apacer Formatting Tool[/url
Unzip it to a folder on your desktop, make sure you only have the faulty flash drive plugged in, go into the folder and double click the start.bat. Make sure your flash drive stops blinking completely, after that, pull it out and plug it back in.
Try step 5 after this formatting tool as well.

If none of the above help you there could be two possibilities. The flash drive you're trying to write to was issued to be read-only type of media OR the flash drive is defective (you should return it for replacement to vendor/manufacturer).

 

[Math_Physics]

The APACER Recovery Tool worked! Beware...if it does work, you WILL LOSE EVERYTHING on the drive.

I used EaseUS Data Recovery Pro on the unreadable thumb drive to recovery all the data on it. Yep...it was actually UNREADABLE and EaseUS recovered EVERYTHING. I had to buy an EaseUS license right there and then to restore the data but it was worth it. I tried...Puran, Recuva, Final Recovery (old version), Wise, and FreeUndelete (and something else) but nothing came close to the results I got with EaseUS. EaseUS will recover from corrupt partitions whereas the other programs work better with drives that have readable partitions. Essentially, they all will recover a deleted file on a hard drive with an intact and functioning file system. EaseUS recovers files from the worst media conditions and scenarios.

By the way, the active link to the APACER software is linked below as the previous link was not valid as of July 2018.

APACER got rid of the write-only attributes on my Kingston Drive but it wiped the drive entirely. Nothing else worked. The Diskpart command didn't work nor did the Registry DWORD entry and neither did the HP Format Utility. The APACER Tool did it.

Ok, so here's my back story. The Kingston Drive is the all metal drive that looks like a keychain with a hole where you would put the keyring through. It's 8GB and USB 2.0. I bought it from a reputable eBay seller and I ran h2testw on it. It checked out as genuine. It was working fine one night until I ran Stablebit Scanner on it. Stablebit reported 4 bad sectors right off the bat. I couldn't get Stablebit to stop the surface scan on the drive at 83% (which tool 18 hours) so I just rebooted before it was finished scanning.

After a reboot, the drive was bricked and write-protected. I had something of value on the drive but Windows just kept asking to format the partition but I couldn't because of the write-protection. I used EaseUS Data Recovery and it mounted the USB drive and recovered all the data on the drive. Seriously...that program is awesome. I'm still impressed that it was even able to read the drives partition, let alone the files which I knew were still there because Stablebit is non-destructive.

So, I don't know exactly what happened and at what point it actually became write-protected but this is my story. Hopefully this will be useful. So, the take away from this is to attempt data recovery first...even if the drive appears empty or unreadable such that Windows is prompting you to format the drive, because the data IS there...it's just that the partition table is somehow corrupt. I used EaseUS Data Recovery Pro but you can use whatever you want.

Again, the APACER link above no longer works. Here is a working link as of July 2018 from Softpedia:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Miscellaneous/Apacer-USB-Flash-Drive-Repair-Tool.shtml

My opinion, about the drive...I think it was defective. The drive was 3 years old and never really seen many write cycles. So, it was essentially newish. I guess if I had written onto it more often, I would have seen signs of failure. To be honest. This whole ordeal was more of an experiment than anything because the data I thought I was going to lose was already replaced but I was determined to find a solution to the issue of restoring the drive and the data on it. I just didn't want to give up on it.

Ok, so technically, the drive is back to its original state...functioning, readable, and all original data back on it. It's now ready for the garbage after I smash it with a hammer though. I'm not trusting that thing!

Tomorrow, I'm going to a brick and mortar store to get genuine thumb drives to replace two that I bought on eBay, which work fine and passed all tests, but this was a wake up call to buying portable media on eBay. In fact...don't buy any portable storage media on eBay unless you know the seller very well. It seems like 95% of all the portable storage media on eBay is counterfeit.

Good luck and God Bless.