How to Remove Write Protection from a Disk

If you’re trying to save files to a USB or external disk and see a message saying the disk is write-protected, it may be due to settings, a physical switch, or file system errors. This guide will walk you through how to fix this issue and regain write access to your disk.

Check for a Physical Write Protection Switch

Some USB drives and memory cards have a physical switch to enable write protection. If your device has this switch, ensure it’s set to allow writing. This switch is usually labeled as Lock or Protection and is often located on the side of the device.

Using Command Prompt

If there is no physical switch, try removing write protection using Command Prompt. Type diskpart in the Windows search bar, right-click it, and select Run as administrator. Then follow these steps:

  1. Type diskpart and press Enter.
  2. Type list disk and locate the number of the disk you need.
  3. Enter select disk [disk number].
  4. Next, type attributes disk clear readonly.
  5. Type exit to close the command prompt.

After completing these steps, try saving data to your disk again.

Modifying the Windows Registry

If the diskpart command didn’t work, you can try removing write protection by editing the Windows Registry:

  1. Press Win + R, type regedit, and hit Enter.
  2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies.
  3. Look for WriteProtect and change its value to 0. If it doesn’t exist, create it.
  4. Close the registry editor and restart your computer.

Formatting the Disk

If nothing else has worked, the problem may be due to a corrupted file system. In this case, try formatting the disk:

  • Open This PC (or My Computer).
  • Right-click on the disk and select Format.
  • Select a file system (NTFS, exFAT, or FAT32) and uncheck Quick Format for a deeper clean.

Note: Formatting will erase all data on the disk, so back up any important files beforehand if possible.