How To Remove Write Protected Error For The Flash Drive

Some USB Errors Shown:
Cannot copy files and folders, drive is write protected
Cannot format the drive, drive is write protected
The disk is write protected
Remove write protection or use another disk
Media is write protected

Some times USB drive becomes write protected and deleting/Copying files or Folders on the USB drive is not Possible.

Let’s now see how to remove write protection on your portable devices like pen drives, memory cards, iPod and other USB mass storage devices.

What Actually causes This Problem?

Write Protection on any portable USB Device can be applied by the physical lock provided on the card adjuster or some times provided on the pen drives, so make sure to make your drive not write protectedby moving the lock in right direction.

But even after moving the physical lock for write protection the problem can happen due to some virus action. This happens when some virus or script which applies the registry hack to make any drive write protect when connected to the computer, In that case follow the procedure below to remove write protection from your pen drive.


1. Open Start Menu –> Run, type regedit and press Enter, this will open the registry editor.

2. Navigate to the following path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies

Note: If the registry key StorageDevicePolicies key does not exist, you will need to create it

3. Double click the key WriteProtect in the right pane and set the value to 0 in the Value Data Box andpress OK button

4. Exit Registry, restart your computer and then again re-connect your USB pen drive on your computer.