How To Format Write-Protected USB Drive and SD Card

How to format USB drives and memory cards which are write protected. You cannot delete contents or make any new files on right protected USB drives and SD Cards. But there is a way to format USB drives which are right-protected. Let see how:

How to Remove Write-Protection of USB Using System Registry (regedit.exe)

• Select “Start” then “RUN”, write “regedit.exe” and press Enter.
• Click “Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\”
• Then select “CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies”
• Search “WriteProtect value” in the right-hand windows of Regedit.exe.
• Double-click on it and change the Value data from 1 to 0
• Click OK
• Close regedit.exe and restart your computer

Now connect your USB drive and format the drive as it’s no longer write protected. To format the drive, right-clicking on it and select Format option. There may be a situation when you will not find “StorageDevicePolicies” in regedit.exe. Create the “StorageDevicePolicies” key. To create a new key, right-click in the white space and choose New > Key entering the name “StorageDevicePolicies” and restart your system.

How to Remove Write-Protection of USB Using Command Prompt (CMD)

• Plug in your USB to your PC
• Launch command prompt (in Windows XP, select “Start” then open “RUN”, write CMD and press Enter. In Windows 8 PC, select Start menu and search cmd.exe)
• Once your CMD screen is open and ready to use.

Type the following commands (please press Enter key after your write each command)

diskpart
list disk
select disk x (x is the number of USB flash drive)
attributes disk clear readonly
clean
create partition primary
format fs=fat32

And you are done.
If you get an “access is denied” error message, run Command Prompt (cmd.exe) with administrator rights. To open Command Prompt (cmd.exe) with administrator rights, right-click on the CMD shortcut and choose Run as administrator (Windows XP).