How To Remove Write Protection
The write protection feature is a great way to secure your files, folders and documents etc. But it can also cause problems if you need to change things or remove files. To remove the write protection is usually very easy, but sometimes errors, settings and other related problems can occur and it can seem impossible to remove the write protection. Write protection problems don’t happen so often to computers, it usually happens to USB drives and other external devices such as hard disks and SD cards etc.
Remove Write Protection From A USB Flash Drive!
1. To disable the write protection from a USB flash drive is easy. Backup your files and documents and then follow these steps: Right click on the computer icon – click on Manage – Click On The Disk Management link – Choose the USB drive you want to remove the write protection from, right click on it and click on the format link. It will now format your USB drive and hopefully it will fix the write protection problem. This is not bulletproof but usually works. Don’t forget to backup the files you have on your USB drive before you format it.
2. If you still have problems with removing the write protection, you can try to fix it by removing the write protection on a USB key. Click Start – Acessories – Run – Type in “regedit” and hit enter – Click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE- SYSTEM – CurrentControlSet – And then Control – Storage. There should be a file inside the Storage folder called default or something similar, click on the file and set the value number to “0″ (zero). Now go back to your USB drive and try to delete or change some files, hopefully the write protection is gone. Don’t try this if you’re not comfortable with changing system settings.
3. An easy way to erase and destroy all data on a USB drive or a hard disk, is to use KillDisk. It’s a free tool and you can upgrade to a premium version but the freeware is enough for removing data and format USB drives. To completely erase a USB drive will also remove the write protection problem. KillDisk is an advanced tool and you can use it for more tasks than just erasing data. You can create bootable USB drives and DVD’s and erase your main Windows disk, a good choice if your Windows system is infected with a hard to kill virus.
Write protected USB drives can be a very annoying problem, if you want to backup files or just copy files to it. The best thing to do is to backup your USB drive on your computer disk, and then erase and reformat it. This will in most cases fix your write protection problem. There are two format versions: FAT32 and NTFS. NTFS doesn’t work on some devices such as stereos with USB plugins etc. Use FAT32 when you format your USB drives and you can play music and watch movies on old devices too. I hope you like my guide, and if you do, please share it with your friends.
