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Thread: Disk is write protected

  1. #1
    Friend of Staff fancyf's Avatar
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    Exclamation Disk is write protected

    Hi guys!

    I'm going crazy on this. Started a while ago on USB keys... where everything was write protected. I did a bunch of commands, DOS and modified the registry etc... it worked for the usb keys. Was able to format and use them again. Now I'm at it again with an external USB drive. Trying to format the ext. HDD doesn't work. Not in Windows or AOMEI.

    If I plug it in another computer there's no problem.

    My login changed too a little while ago... where I only had my main account... now it has administrator... not sure if it's related but sure seems like it.

    Any thoughts?

    Thanks, merci *S*

    ~ƒ~
    Anti-wrinkle cream there may be, but anti-b astard cream there is not..

  2. #2
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    Try this:

    1. Click Start, type cmd, right-click the "cmd.exe" that appears and select "Run as administrator"

    2. At the cmd prompt, type diskpart and press [Enter].

    3. At the diskpart prompt, type list disk and press [Enter].

    4. Type select disk #, where the # is the number of the disk that's giving you the "write-protected" error. For example select disk 3

    5. Type attributes disk clear readonly and press [Enter].

    6. Type exit and press [Enter] to exit diskpart.

    7. Then type exit and press [Enter] to exit cmd.

    That's it, You should now have write access to the drive.

    If not, there are other things you might try here: https://www.easeus.com/storage-media...ws-10-8-7.html

  3. #3
    Friend of Staff fancyf's Avatar
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    Hi SpywareDr, thanks for the answer. But unfortunately that still doesn't remove the write protection... As for the registry part, I had done it for the usb keys and that too never worked (only way I was able to fix it is formatting it with AOMEI but that doesn't work on this hdd) I guess I don't have to do it again for the external hdd as I already modified that key... ?

    I'm at a loss there... something tells me that when that admin account appeared on my logon screen something changed.
    Not sure what to try next. My account is set on "Standard user" and I can't change it to Administrator. Is that normal? (see image)
    Thanks
    usracc.jpg
    Last edited by fancyf; 12-17-2018 at 05:56 PM.
    Anti-wrinkle cream there may be, but anti-b astard cream there is not..

  4. #4
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    You might try this: Press [WindowsLogoKey]+[R], type in netplwiz and press [Enter]. Select the user account and click "Properties". Click the Group Membership tab, choose "Administrator", click Apply > OK.

  5. #5
    Friend of Staff fancyf's Avatar
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    Hi again... I was able to set it to Administrator with that but it's still set to Standard in the user accounts (for my account) & the disk is still write protected...
    hmm this is messed up :/ that drive is basically new too, darn.

    Well thanks for trying *S*
    Anti-wrinkle cream there may be, but anti-b astard cream there is not..

  6. #6
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    Wow, sorry to hear nothing is working for you. As far as getting into that drive, you might give it a try after booting and running a different Operating System from a Live CD/USB.

    A Live CD/DVD or USB flash drive contains a complete bootable computer operating system (OS). When you boot a computer from it, the OS loads into, and then runs from memory instead of a hard drive. This allows you to run an OS without installing it or making any changes to a computer's current configuration.

    To create one, download an ISO file containing the OS you want to use, (such as Ubuntu, Slax or Zorin), then use something like ISO Recorder to burn it to a CD/DVD or USB key.

    Boot your computer from this disc/key and your computer will be running that OS instead of the one on its hard drive.

    Now see if you have access to the problem drive.

    When you're done testing, simply reboot your PC from the HDD/SSD like you normally would.

    If the problem persists even when running a different OS, the issue is probably hardware related.

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