Disk is write protected

[Richyhx1]

I was trying to help my mum backup pictures from her laptop with a usb drive. I think she has had it some time. She managed to back up some without me but then got stuck.
When I went round the drive wasnt allowing me to copy to it saying it was write protected.
I tried to format it firstly, but it wouldn't format due to the write protection. I then tried using formatting using the diskpart CMD tool. But still wouldn't format. Am I missing something or is it just faulty?

[XD_3VIL_M0NKEY]

Have you tried removing the readonly attribute using Diskpart?

Select the disk in diskpart then try this:
attirbutes disk clear readonly

else, some other options here:
https://www.easeus.com/partition-mas...ash-drive.html

[Richyhx1]

Yep sorry, tried that too. It was that page I was using to guide me hehe.

Sounds like maybe I'm outta luck?

[kompukare]

How about trying to boot off a Linux live disk?
Our even these days, a live Windows PE disk?

[Richyhx1]

How about trying to boot off a Linux live disk?
Our even these days, a live Windows PE disk?

I'll have a Google and see how I go about it. Thank you

[ik9000]

does it have OEM software that it needs to unlock the drive? Maxtor, Iomega et al all used to come with it.

[BobF64]

It could be the flash is dead, I dont know about USB drives, but certainly SSDs can go read only.

[ik9000]

doubt it's that, as it sounds like they can still read from it

[BobF64]

Exactly. SSDs stop being writeable sometimes, due to flash failure, and you can only read from them.

[bowepa]

I am afraid your drive is readable only. It happened to my SD CARD. Every Flash drive has limited number of writing cycles. It can be like 5,000 or 10,000 or even 100,000.
You will be able to read it , but never delete / format / write . Time to find new drive and claim warranty on this.
I did that on my Lexmark micro sd card. Lexmark asked me to destroy the card and refunded .I had to fill the form, that I destroyed it.

[ik9000]

eh is that so?! Wow I'd always assumed when it died that was it - puff of smoke, all gone. That's really interesting.

[BobF64]

I think they did originally, an SSD just died without warning, but more recent ones can keep reading because its the cell write that stops working and the firmware does its best to let you at your data.

[kalniel]

SSDs have always promised read capability at end of life - that was touted as one of their key advantages over mechanical disks even when they were first introduced. In practice however that didn't always work.