USB Flash Drive 101

[PHIL SPARKS]

I AM ATTEMPTING TO COPY MY DOCUMENTS TO A MEMORY STICK AND KEEP GETTING THE MESSAGE THE DISK IS WRITE PROTECTED. I HAVE TRIED SEVERAL MEMORY STICKS WITH NO SUCCESS. I HAVE TRIED THE SAME MEMORY STICKS ON ANOTHER COMPUTER AND THEY ARE FINE. COULD THIS PROBLEM BE WITH THE COMPUTER RATHER THAN THE MEMORY STICK?

 

[WyomingKnott]

Good diagnostics! Yes, the problem is likely on that computer. Possible explanations are a bad port (can you read from sticks on that port), a security policy that disallows writing to USB media (for XP, here's a quick example: http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/1536/how_to_prevent_windows_xp_users_writing_to_usb_drives/ ), or ever having inserted a CD or DVD from Sony in your machine. Have you ever been able to write to any USB device from that computer?