Receive error "the disk is write protected" when trying to format a removable disk (such as USB flash drive, SD card, CD or pen drive)? The disk is write protected error in Windows 10/8/7 stops operation of formatting, writing data, i.e. copy & paste files to the generic USB stick. It's imperative to remove write protection on the drive. Learn the how-to guide step by step to fix the "disk is write protected, remove the write-protection or use another disk, removable disk" now.
How to fix USB flash, SD memory card, CD disc & Pen drive write-protected error?
We use removable storage devices a lot on a Windows computer, and some of you should at least once encounter the issue of the disk malfunction, which is mostly about "the disk is write protected". When Windows starts to write protect your disk, for example, a SanDisk 4GB USB flash drive, you can no longer use it any more until remove the write protection. And the fix methods are as follows.
Method 1. diskpart command
Step 1. Open administrative Command Prompt.
Step 2. Type these commands one by one and press Enter key after each:
diskpart
list disk
select disk # (# is the number of USB drive with which you're getting write-protected error and is plugged in, see screenshot below)
attributes disk clear readonly
Step 3. You may now close Command Prompt and re-plug the USB drive and check if the issue is resolved, by dragging a file to the drive or trying to format in Windows Disk Management or EaseUS Partition Master coming in later part.
Method 2. Regedit.exe
Step 1. Press Windows Key + R keys simultaneously, type regedit in Run dialog box and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.
Step 2. In the left pane, navigate here: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
Step 3. In the left pane of this location, right click Control key and select New -> Key. Name the new sub-key so created as StorageDevicePolicies. Now come to the right pane of this sub-key i.e. StorageDevicePolicies, right click and select New -> DWORD Value. Name the newly created DWORD as WriteProtect. In some cases, you might find that this DWORD under the sub-key already exists and the DWORD has a Value set to 1. Double click on the DWORD to modify its Value data.
Step 4. In the above shown box, change the Value data to 0 from 1. Click OK. Close the Registry Editor and check if the issue is resolved by dragging a file to the drive or trying to format in Windows Disk Management or EaseUS Partition Master coming in later part.
How to format write-protected generic USB stick?
Once removed write protection from generic USB drives, it'll now work in a normal state, and no "disk is write protected removable disk" error will occur during the formatting procedure. To format a write-protected generic USB stick in an easy way, we recommend EaseUS partition magic software, which is a powerful yet user-friendly alternative for Windows 10/8/7 disk management program.
Guide: format a write-protected USB drive with EaseUS Partition Master
Step 1. Right-click the write-protected USB or generic device you want to format and choose "Format partition" option.
Step 2. Configure the label you want in the Partition Label box.
Step 3. Select the file system type to be created from the "File System" drop-down list. (FAT/FAT32, NTFS, EXT2/EXT3). If the USB drive is larger than 4GB, you can only choose FAT32, NTFS or EXT2/EXT3; and if the partition is smaller than 4GB, you can choose FAT, FAT32, NTFS or EXT2/EXT3.
Step 4. Choose the Cluster Size (512 bytes, 1, 2, 4...64KB) from drop-down list and click "OK" to apply the format operation.
Note: Smaller cluster size makes less wasting of disk space. The smaller cluster size is, the bigger file allocation table (FAT) will be. The bigger the FAT is, the slower the operation system works with the disk.
Step 5. Click "Apply" to confirm to format the write-protected USB flash drive or other removable storage devices.
