Welcome Reader. If you’re currently reading this post, then you must be looking for how to format a write-protected drive. Drive here might be a flash drive or an external. hard drive or any other storage media
Now, before we proceed, we should know the definition of Write-protection.
WRITE PROTECTION:
To break this down, write-protection is used to protect a storage device or any other device from modification. For example, if a storage device, such as a drive, is write-protected, you may not have the ability and privileges to add files, modify, or format the drive. Now, to remove the write-protection feature, you should make sure that the write-protection feature you are tackling was not activated with software.
How to Format a write-protected drive Using Diskpart.exe (WINDOWS OS)
- Insert the drive into an available USB slot. You can make use of any available USB slot for this, and if your USB drive can’t be detected, make sure to check that your USB/Mass- Storage driver is present and up-to-date.
- Search for CMD in the Windows search bar and run it as administrator.
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- Type in diskpart or diskpart.exe into the Run dialogue box and click the Enter key. This action opens up the DiskPart control sector in the Command Prompt. This will help us to format a write-protected drive
- Type in “list disk” and click on the “Enter” key. After you tap on the enter key, a list of all the drives on the computer system, including your drive, should appear. The Drive is labelled using the “Disk (Number)” format, and each number that is attached is unique to that drive. Now, identifying your disk drive from the list is very easy. Now, if your USB drive is of 64 GB capacity, it should show 32 GB or 29 GB, which is still close to the original volume of your USB drive in the command prompt interface.
- Type in “select disk #” and press the “Enter” key just once. Now, you are to replace the # with the volume of the drive (e.g., select disk 1), and this should mark the particular drive as active.
- Type in “attributes disk clear readonly” and press the “Enter” key and this should erase the write protection which is present on the drive.
- Type in “clean” and press the “Enter” key. This command removes data from the drive, and once it’s removed, you will then be able to set up your drive for use.
- Type in “create partition primary” and press the “Enter” key. This command creates a new and clean partition on the USB drive that has been marked as active.
- Type “format fs=fat32” or “format fs=ntfs” and press the “Enter” key. Now, don’t be scared, as this command formats the drive in a universally readable format that is readable and usable on any operating system. Now, for the above command, please you have to note that if the USB drive storage is smaller than 32GB, you should make use of the “format fs=fat32” command, but if the drive is greater than 32GB, then you have to make use of the “format fs=ntfs” command.
- Type in “exit” and press the “Enter” key. This particular command returns you to the standard command prompt.
Once you have done this correctly, your drive should be available for data storage and other uses.
That’s all on how to format a write-protected drive.
If you have any questions, use the comment section, and I will get back to you ASAP.
Source: NaijTecho
