I want to remove the write protection on a WD external hard drive. I think the problem started when a particular letter was assigned to the that drive. Another person had a similar problem and he solved it by changing the drive properties to USB enumerator. However, I can't figure out how to do that.
Can someone explain what this is and how to change the drive properties to USB enumerator? Or else how to unassign the drive letter for this hard drive?
Re: How to remove write protection on a WD external drive
Hi, I get lots of requests for help on this one, particularly with WD hdd. There appears not to be a definitive answer as the problem has several causes , if permissions don't work it is usually fixed by running a chkdsk on the drive, open a cmd as admin go to start search and type:- cmd, right click on the returned cmd.exe and select "run as administrator"
Enter the cmd:- chkdsk X:/f (press enter) where x is the drive letter.
Re: How to remove write protection on a WD external drive
Thanks, Jenae. I did exactly what you said, but it still doesn't work. I got the message : Windows cannot run disk checking on this volume because it is write protected.
The WD hard drive works fine on my PC and Toshiba notebook. That's why I think that assigning the letter to the drive has something to do with it. Do you have any other ideas? (Also other external hard drives work fine on this computer--but they don't have an assigned drive letter.)
Re: How to remove write protection on a WD external drive
Hi Jenae,
I ran the chkdsk on a computer that the drive works on. The report is "Windows has checked the file system and found not problems."
However, the disk is still write-protected on the Toshiba laptop.
I tried the following below. I got up to Storage Device Policies which doesn't exist on my computer (Windows 7 os). So I closed that option.
Insert the flash drive into a USB slot on your computer. Click on "Start" and type in "regedit" into the search bar. Press "Enter" and click "Yes." The registry editor window will appear.
Navigate to the following registry entry by double-clicking the values located in the left window pane: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies Locate the "WriteProtect" value in the right window pane. Right-click it and select "Modify." Input "1" for the "Value data." Click "OK" and close the registry editor. Restart your computer.
Re: How to remove write protection on a WD external drive
Hi, go to start search and type cmd, right click on the returned cmd.exe and select "run as administrator" an elevated cmd prompt will open.
This is an example that I did on my computer, make sure the external hdd is plugged in, then run these cmds (we are using diskpart) , you will need to recognize your external hdd in this case it was disk 5.
Code:
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6000]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\windows\system32>diskpart
Microsoft DiskPart version 6.0.6000
Copyright (C) 1999-2007 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: VISTATEST
DISKPART> list disk
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ---------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 233 GB 1177 KB
Disk 1 No Media 0 B 0 B
Disk 2 No Media 0 B 0 B
Disk 3 No Media 0 B 0 B
Disk 4 No Media 0 B 0 B
Disk 5 Online 298 GB 2000 KB
DISKPART> select disk 5
Disk 5 is now the selected disk.
DISKPART> list volume
Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 I Removable 0 B No Media
Volume 1 H Removable 0 B No Media
Volume 2 F Removable 0 B No Media
Volume 3 D DVD-ROM 0 B No Media
Volume 4 J New Volume NTFS Partition 298 GB Healthy
Volume 5 G Removable 0 B No Media
Volume 6 C NTFS Partition 233 GB Healthy System
DISKPART> select volume 4
Volume 4 is the selected volume.
DISKPART> attr disk clear readonly
Microsoft DiskPart version 6.0.6000 [B]NOTE[/B]:- you might simply receive here a message:- Disk attributes cleared successfully (this is fine)
VOLUME - Manipulate volume attributes.
DISKPART> attr volume clear readonly
Volume attributes cleared successfully.
DISKPART> detail disk
TOSHIBA MK3265GSX USB Device
Disk ID: E9BE1B1F
Type : USB
Bus : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 4 J New Volume NTFS Partition 298 GB Healthy
DISKPART> detail volume
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ---------- ------- ------- --- ---
* Disk 5 Online 298 GB 2000 KB
Read-only : No
Hidden : No
No Default Drive Letter: No
Shadow Copy : No
Dismounted : No
BitLocker Encrypted : No
Volume Capacity : 298 GB
Volume Free Space : 35 GB
DISKPART> exit
Re: How to remove write protection on a WD external drive
Bless you, Jenae. It worked! I tried it on the PC (where it worked anyway) and got a message "The arguments specified for this command are not valid." Then I tried it on the Toshiba laptop where the problem exists and lo and behold, it worked! I couldn't believe it. I have spent hours on tech support, looking for answers on the internet, etc.
Thank you so much. I have learned some computer stuff in the process.:flowers:
Big thanks jenae!!!!. you saved my day. In my case, accidentally I formatted the hard disk of my laptop TOSHIBA SATELLITE C45 - ASP4201KL, so I lost the recovery partition of win8 and searching into the toshiba site; they would offer a recovery cd but it would take time to arrive to my country. that option was not possible. my other option was to downgrade to windows 7, but when I tried to install into the hard disk of the laptop, a write-protection message appeared. therefore I couldn't install it. I spent hours and hours trying to find the solution to this. up to I found this thread and your solution did the work. I used same commands that you used (diskpart). now I can install windows 7 with no problem. thank you very much bro. best regards
Re: How to remove write protection on a WD external drive
Hi Jenae, thanks a ton. I had the same problem with WD - Win 10. really thanks.
PS WD support very poor...
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