A Beginner's Guide to Removing Write Protection

If you're wondering how to remove write protection from a USB, micro SD card, or disk drive, you've come to the right place. This guide offers several options for fixing the issue on Windows and Mac.

Main content:

Understanding Write Protection
How to Remove Write Protection from a USB Drive
How to Remove Write Protection from an SD Card
How to Remove Write Protection from an SSD
Can I Format a Write-Protected USB, SD Card, or Hard Drive?
Troubleshooting: Specific Write Protection Errors

1. Understanding Write Protection

Write protection is a feature that prevents data from being written to or edited in a storage device. It is commonly used on removable media such as flash drives and memory cards to avoid accidental deletion or modification of data. Write protection can also be applied to hard disks and other storage devices, though this is less common. There are several ways to implement write protection, including through physical switches or software settings.

Advantages of Write Protection:
- It prevents accidental deletion or modification of data. - It helps safeguard sensitive information from tampering. - It serves as an effective security measure.

Disadvantages of Write Protection:
- It can make editing or deleting data difficult or impossible, even when you need to do so
- Accidentally enabling write protection can cause issues
- It may prevent you from using certain features, such as formatting... if you want write protection for the entire drive)

It is worth noting that write protection does not guard against malware infections or physical theft. If you are concerned about the security of your data, you should use built-in encryption or password protection, rather than rely on write protection.

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How to Remove Write Protection

While write protection is an excellent option to prevent sensitive data from being viewed or altered, there are times when an unlocked device may default to appearing as encrypted or locked. In such cases, write protection can become an annoyance, preventing you from making any changes to it.

Here are some write protection removal tools that can disable write protection on USB, SD card, and SSD drives, including physical switch, diskpart, registry, and disk utilities. Check the solutions for any operating system you use:

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How to Remove Write Protection from a USB Drive

You try to save some data on it, but an error message pops up stating that the flash drive is read-only. How did this happen? There are three ways you can remove write protection from a USB drive. On Windows, you can unlock the switch for free, run Diskpart and the Registry Editor to disable write protection. On a Mac, you can use Disk Utility to fix the USB read-only error.

Option 1: Use the Lock Switch to Remove Write Protection

You might find a physical switch on the USB device to change the write protect status. Some specific USB storage devices come with a lock switch to enable or disable the write protection.

For non-tech-savvy users, the physical switch cannot be overlooked. You can unplug the USB cable and find the switch on the side, usually adorned with one or two lock icons. If you don't see one, try Method 2 instead. It will look something like this:

The first step is to find the physical switch and flip it to the other side.

Step 2. Plug the USB drive back into your computer and try copying the data onto it again.

If it writes normally, congratulations; you've fixed the USB error! Be careful not to flip the switch the wrong way by accident. For a smooth, non-flip USB, try the other options.

Option 2: Use Diskpart to remove write protection

Using the command-line tool "Diskpart" is one effective way to resolve the "USB drive write protection removal" issue in Windows 10/11. It allows you to manage disks detected by your Windows computer. Make sure to input the commands correctly to avoid unintended data loss.

Step 1: Type “Command Prompt” in the Windows search box, and click to open it.

Step 2: Type in the command line and hit Enter.

• diskpart
• list disk (This step is to identify your device. You will see a list of disks labeled Disk 0, Disk 1, Disk 2, and so on.)
• select disk 0 (Replace "Disk 0" with the number of the USB device that has the write protection.)
• attributes disk clear readonly (Make sure there are no spaces between "clear" and "readonly".)

Step 3: Wait for the process to complete, then type "exit".

Step 4. Restart your computer and check if the write protection on your USB drive has changed.

Option 3: Turn off BitLocker to disable write protection on USB

To remove BitLocker encryption from a USB drive:

Step 1: Press "Windows + E" to open File Explorer.

Step 2. On the left, select This PC, and then under Devices and drives, click the locked USB drive. Right-click the drive icon, and then click Manage BitLocker.

Step 3. The BitLocker Drive Encryption window will display all of your drives and their status. Locate your read-only USB drive, and then select Turn Off BitLocker.

Enter your password or recovery key, and wait for the decryption to finish. After you turn off BitLocker, try adding a file to the USB drive to see if the “Write Protected” issue has been resolved.

If you lost your BitLocker recovery key, you can check out five methods to recover a lost BitLocker recovery key.

Option 4: Disable USB write protection using the Windows Registry

Experienced users familiar with the Registry may wish to disable write protection using the Windows Registry.

Note: Editing the registry disables write protection on all devices.

Step 1: Insert the USB drive into your computer. Press "Win+R," then type "Regedit" into the box that pops up. Press Enter or OK to open the Registry Editor.

< strong > Step 2. < /strong> Navigate to the following key: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies

Note: Because of the risk involved, if the StorageDevicePolicies folder is missing, we recommend that you use another method instead of creating it yourself – you could damage your computer.

Step 3: Double-click on “WriteProtect.” Change the “Value data” to 0, and select “Hexadecimal.” Click OK.

Step 4. Restart your computer and check if the drive is writable.

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Method 5: Format the write-protected USB flash drive using Disk Utility

Formatting is a good option to remove write protection. Connect the USB drive to your Mac, then open Disk Utility.

Step 1: Go to Finder > Go > Utilities, and double-click Disk Utility.

Step 2. Select the read-only USB drive from the sidebar.

Step 3: Click the “Erase” button.

Step 4: Name your USB drive, choose the format and scheme, then click the “Erase” button.

6. Method 6: Run First Aid to repair a read-only device

Open Disk Utility > Find the read-only drive > Select "First Aid," and click "Run."

How to Remove Write Protection from an SD Card

If you've ever tried to copy a file to an SD card only to receive a write-protected error, you know how frustrating it can be. The write protection is meant to prevent accidental deletion of important files, but it can also lock you out of your own SD card if you're not careful. Thankfully, there are a few ways to remove the write protection from an SD card so you can access your files again. Most of the time, all you need to do is flip a physical switch. If that doesn't work, you can try a command prompt on Windows 10/11 or changing the “Get Info” settings on a Mac as a last resort.

Option 1: Change the physical switch

Like a USB drive, some SD cards also have a physical lock that you can slide to enable or disable write protection.

Eject the SD card from your computer, and locate the physical lock. If it's in the “lock” position, slide it to the “unlock” side.

Option 2: Use Diskpart to Remove Write Protection on Windows

Insert the SD card into an SD card reader and connect it to your computer. Run Command Prompt and type in the command line. (The steps in this section are the same as the command line mentioned above. Refer to How to Use Diskpart to Remove Write Protection for more information.)

Option 3: Change the read/write status of your Mac

How to Change a Read-Only SD Card on a Mac Check the "Sharing & Permissions" settings. It allows you to decide who can add or modify files in the Finder app, and you can use it to remove the write protection from your SD card.

Step 1: Connect the SD card to your Mac using an SD card reader.

Step 2. Navigate to the SD card and then tap on the file. From the list, select “Open With.”

Step 3: Click “Sharing & Permissions,” and set the permission to “Read & Write.”

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How to Remove Write Protection on an SSD

When you try to transfer files to your SSD, you might receive an error message stating that the disk is write-protected. This can be frustrating, but luckily, there are several ways to remove the write protection and transfer your files. First, check the SSD's properties to see if there's a hardware switch preventing writes. If there is, simply flip the switch and try again. If there isn't a hardware switch, the write protection may be enabled through firmware. To disable it, connect the SSD to your computer and run some commands in Command Prompt. Once you've completed these steps, you should be able to transfer files to your SSD without any issues.

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How do I remove write protection from a file?

When a single file on a Windows computer is set to be write-protected, you can follow these steps to remove the write protection:

Step 1. Press the "Windows+E" keys on your keyboard to open File Explorer.

Step 2 Find the password-protected file. You can search for the filename to find it faster than by scrolling.

Step 3: Right-click the file, and select "Properties."

Step 4. Go to the “Attributes” tab and uncheck “Read-only.” Click “OK” to save the changes.

Can I format a write-protected USB, SD card, or disk drive?

If you've ever tried to format a protected USB drive, memory card, or hard disk, you know it can be a frustrating experience. You might see a message that the device is write-protected, or that formatting isn't supported. In most cases, this means the write protection switch on the device is enabled. You'll need to lock it before formatting.

Formatting cannot remove the write protection. Of course, your locked USB won't let you format it. You can use a tool like tools Partition Master Free to format the device.

Step 1: Select the USB drive you want to format.

Plug your USB drive or flash drive into your computer. Download and launch a partitioning tool. Right-click the USB drive that you want to format, then click “Format.”

Step 2: Assign the USB drive letter and file system

Assign a new partition label, file system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3/EXT4/exFAT), and cluster size for the selected partition, then hit OK.

Step 3: Click on “Yes” to proceed with the formatting of your USB device.

If you see any warning windows, click Yes. Back up your data beforehand if you have important data stored on it.

Step 4: Apply the changes.

First, click “Run 1 Task,” and then click “Format USB Drive” to format the drive.

Troubleshooting: Specific write protection errors

1. The disk check could not be performed on this volume because it is write protected.

"You receive the error message 'Windows cannot run disk checking on this volume. This indicates that the Windows operating system is unable to modify files on your computer's hard drive. To resolve this issue, you'll need to remove the write protection from the hard drive using CMD, Diskpart, and the Registry Editor."

2. SD card is read-only

Can't write to SD card? One of the most frustrating things that can happen when using a camera is encountering the "SD card is read-only" error. This typically occurs when you attempt to save files to the SD card, only to find that it's unable to save due to the card being set to read-only mode. There are several reasons why this might happen, with the most common being that the SD card is damaged. You can resolve the issue by formatting the SD card using third-party read-only removal software.

Related Solutions - SD card mounted as read only

3. USB is currently in read-only mode: Yes

"Current Read-Only State: Yes" on a USB or SD card means the disk is in read-only status. This usually happens when the disk is damaged or infected by viruses. If you encounter this error, you will be unable to write data to the disk. To fix this issue, you need to clear the read-only status in Disk Management.

4. Media is set to read-only

In Windows, the "The media is write protected" error can be caused by several factors. A common reason is damage or corruption to the file system. When the file system is compromised, the computer cannot read the files on the disk correctly. You can fix this issue by checking the integrity of your system files.

The media is write protected

You can fix this by checking for system file corruption – open the CMD and type SFC /scannow to check the disk. Wait for the scan to finish.

Run the SFC (System File Checker) to scan the disk.

Clean up the mess

There's no need to panic when you find your SD card or USB drive is write-protected, as we introduce some great solutions in this article. There are several different ways to remove the write protection from a disk. One useful method is to use the physical switch on the drive itself. Another approach is to use software to remove the write protection, which can be achieved by changing the drive's permissions or using Diskpart and the Registry Editor. Once the disk is unlocked, you're free to reformat the drive with a disk formatter.