How to remove write protection from a disk, SD card or USB flash drive. How to format a memory card with write protection Format a disk with write protection

Sometimes there are cases when it is impossible to format a USB flash drive or SD card, transfer or write data to them. Windows displays the error message " The disc is write protected. Remove protection or use another drive". Many devices come with a locking lever on the flash drive itself. Make sure that the lever itself on the SD card or flash drive is set to " unlocked"Unfortunately, in some cases, devices may be physically damaged, which will lead to the purchase of a new one. If you are sure that everything is in order: the lever is unlocked, the device has not been subjected to physical shock, then we will consider ways to resuscitate drives and try to remove the protection from recording from flash drives and SD memory cards.

How to remove write protection from an SD card, flash drive or disk

An error when an SD card, flash drive or disk is write-protected may be technical and nothing will help. But there are many cases when malware can change settings in the registry and thereby block the formatting of a flash drive. We will also use special utilities from flash drive manufacturers that will help fix the error if it is a regular software failure.

Note:If there is a physical formatting blocker, then first check the lever on the flash drive or SD memory card, most likely it is blocked.

1. Using the registry

Press a combination of buttons Win+R and enter regedit to enter the Registry Editor.


Follow the path:

  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies

If you don't have a parameter StorageDevicePolicies, then create a partition named StorageDevicePolicies by right-clicking on the folder Contorl. If there is a value, then see below what parameters should be.

Go to the created StorageDevicePolicies folder, select it, and right-click on the empty field with the right mouse button and Create > DWORD value (32 bits). Give the new parameter a name WriteProtect, then double-click on it with the mouse to open properties and assign a value 0 . Restart your PC and check if it gives you the error that the disk is write protected. If this method does not help, then move on.

2. Using CMD

Insert the flash drive or SD memory card into the computer's USB port and run Command Prompt as administrator.

Enter the following commands:

  • diskpart- launching a tool for working with disks.
  • list disk- shows which drives are connected to the computer. The flash drive in my case is located Disc 1 size 7640 MB.
  • select disk 1- Where 1 this is the disk number shown above. Disc 1 in my case this flash drive.
  • attributes disk clear readonly- clear the attributes of the flash drive.
  • clean- clean the flash drive.
  • create partition primary- create a section.
  • format fs=fat32- format it in FAT32. (You can change fat32 on ntfs, if you use a flash drive only on Windows systems.)

3. Using Group Policy

Click win+r and type in the line gpedit.msc.

Navigate to the following paths: Computer configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Access to removable storage devices. On the right, find the items " Removable drives" And turn off by double-clicking on the desired line - write, read, execute, if enabled.

When working with flash drives, certain difficulties sometimes arise. For example, often the system, when attempting to copy any information to a medium or format it, suddenly displays a message that the disk is write-protected. As a result, you can neither transfer files to a removable drive, nor delete or change them. What to do in such a situation? And most importantly, how to format a write-protected flash drive and return it to its usual working state?

First, we recommend that you take a close look at the media itself. Some USB flash drives and memory cards have a special switch. It has two positions: one activates the write lock, and the other removes it.

This means that all you have to do is move the lever to remove the protection. At the same time, it will be possible to write any information onto the flash drive again. True, you first need to format the drive using standard Windows tools.

If there is no switch on the flash drive, then just check it with antivirus software. The removable drive may be infected with malware, which forces it to be write-protected and prevents it from being formatted.

For reference! If you use a card reader, it's worth checking that too. Sometimes, due to a malfunction of this device, the system writes that “the disk is write protected.”

Removing protection from a disk using the Diskpart utility

Operating systems (OS) starting with Windows XP have a console utility. It's called diskpart. So, using this tool you can manage various disks. Including gaining access to the “problem” media. Working with the utility is easy:


After all the manipulations, the write-protected flash drive should change the file system. In addition, it will again be possible to upload any information to it.

However, please note that there are different write protection systems. Not everything can be removed using the diskpart utility. Therefore, if the procedure does not give the desired result, then try another method. We'll talk about it further.

Removing write protection of a flash drive through the Group Policy Editor

Another method that allows you to format a flash drive even if it is write-protected. It is based on using the capabilities of the Local Group Policy Editor:


How to remove protection from a memory card using the diskmgmt.msc utility?

There is another standard Windows component for disk management. It is called the diskmgmt.msc utility. To use this OS tool to remove write protection, you must:

  1. Press the combination Win+R. Enter “diskmgmt.msc” and click the “Enter” button.
  2. Next, you need to wait a little while the system displays the disk configuration.
  3. Then we find the flash drive and right-click on it.
  4. Select the “Delete Volume” operation. The partition will be defined as “not allocated”.
  5. Next, right-click on it. Click on “Create Volume”.
  6. The system will launch the New Volume Wizard application. Click “Next” several times, leaving all the default settings.
  7. At the end, click “Done”. We are waiting for the flash drive formatting process to complete.

Is it possible to format a write-protected flash drive using third-party programs?

Sometimes standard Windows tools do not help solve a problem related to the operation of removable media. Therefore, you should not neglect special utilities. They are specifically designed for restoring and formatting USB flash drives, SD cards, etc. So you can use:

  1. Special proprietary software produced directly by the manufacturer itself. For example, for Transcend products this is the JetFlash Recovery program.
  2. If for some reason it is impossible to use proprietary utilities, then download and try other formatting programs. There are a lot of them. Some of the most popular and convenient are Hp disk format tool, HDD low level format, Recuva, SDFormatter, etc.

What else can help remove write protection on files?

  • By changing Windows registry settings, in some cases it is possible to remove protection. To do this, open the “Run” line. Enter "regedit". In the menu that launches on the left, go to the StorageDevicePolicies folder. You can find it at the following path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control. Here we are interested in the “WriteProtect” parameter in the right panel. Double click on it. Then we change the number 1 in the “Value” field to 0. All that remains is to connect the flash drive and format it.
  • Sometimes you can remove write and format protection by updating the drive firmware. This can be done in different ways. We recommend using CheckUDisk, UsbIDCheck, USBDeview or ChipGenius. Through them you will find out the VID and PID codes, which are necessary to determine the chip model of your flash drive. After which you can easily find and download the latest firmware for the media from the network. If you suddenly encounter difficulties at this stage, then use the FlashBoot.ru website.
  • If it is impossible to copy information or save any files to the card, then try removing the protection in this way. Go to "My Computer". Find the flash drive you need there. Click on it with the secondary mouse button. Select the "Properties" line. Then go to the "Access" tab. Next, click on “Advanced settings”. Check the box next to "Share".
  • It also happens that the problem associated with the inability to write or format removable media is caused by incorrect installation or incorrect configuration of programs for creating virtual drives. For example, Alcohol 120%, DAEMON Tools, Virtual CD, etc. Therefore, you should try to remove this software. Perhaps it somehow blocks work with the memory card.

If you have tried all the methods described above, but the flash drive still does not format, then most likely it has failed. This happens quite often. Taking the drive to a service center is not the most rational solution. Repairing a flash drive usually costs more than buying it. Therefore, it is best to purchase new removable media.

I think many of you have encountered the fact that The flash drive is write protected and it is also impossible to format it. In this article we will look at a way to solve this problem.

A USB flash drive with 32 gigabytes of space just sits on your office desk, ironically taking up space. Why? Because you can't write anything to it. The flash drive is write protected, and you can't format it! Or can you still do it? Many people ask us how to format write-protected USB flash drives.

First, make sure this is what you need to do. Maybe your USB port is simply broken? Or is the flash drive itself damaged? Well, or uninstalled drivers for the host controller?

So let's get started. Can you remove write protection? Let's assume you've followed all the instructions in our article on fixing write errors on a USB flash drive. Then there was one more method left, accidentally missed in that publication.

Removing write protection using the Diskpart command at the command line

Click the button Start" and type cmd into the search bar. In chapter " Programs" one result should appear. Right-click on it and select " ».

A command line should appear on your screen that looks something like this:

Enter the command DISKPART and press Enter. Diskpart is a disk partitioning tool built into Windows. It can be accessed via the command line. Using it, we can change the settings associated with your USB drive.

Now enter LIST DISK and press Enter again. You will see a table similar to the one shown in the screenshot below. It shows that there are two drives available: a hard drive (HDD) called Disk 0 and a USB flash drive called Disk 1. We know that the flash drive is Disk 1, since it is much smaller than Disk 0 (7441 MB versus 298 GB). From now on, be extremely careful. If you start working with the wrong disk, you will quickly create unnecessary problems for yourself.

Next enter SELECT DISK 1 and press Enter. The screen will display a message that Disk 1 is now selected. Enter ATTRIBUTES DISK, and Diskpart will tell you everything you need to know about your flash drive. We are interested in the first line " Current read-only status: Yes" Now we know for sure that the disk is write protected.

To remove write protection using Diskpart, enter the command. If it works, you will see a message indicating that the disk attributes were successfully cleared.

Double-check this by trying to copy a small file to a USB drive. If it works, great! If you still receive an error, it's time to use specialized utilities.

Testing disk formatting methods

The test environment for these utilities will be a computer running a Kingston DataTraveler DT101 G2 8GB USB 2.0 flash drive. memory.

Before each test, we place a file on the disk and write-protect the drive using the Diskpart tool. We then disconnect the flash drive from the computer and reconnect it so that the system reads the new attributes. Skipping this step in some cases resulted in Windows Explorer not seeing the flash drive.

We then check the attributes of the flash drive using Diskpart and try to copy another file to it. If the copy fails, it is safe to assume that the write protection is working.

After this, we format the disk using one of the utilities. If the operation is successful, we check whether our file remains on the flash drive. If it disappears, then the application actually managed to format the USB drive.

To understand if it has disappeared write protection After formatting, we again try to copy the file to the flash drive. If copying is completed successfully, the write protection has been removed. If not, we check the USB drive's attributes through Diskpart to see if the computer has access to the drive and if protection is active.

We will only talk about utilities that successfully completed their task applicable to the tested flash drive. Other programs can also help you, especially if they are developed by the manufacturer of your USB drive. If such a utility does not work for you, go to the store where you purchased the flash drive, or contact the manufacturer. Your drive must be replaced or repaired.

USB formatting utilities

Apacer USB 3.0 Repair tool has two functions: format and repair. No frills.

As you might have guessed, formatting will delete all data from the USB drive, and restoring it will make it work again. The recovery function performs low-level formatting. This completely wipes the flash drive and returns it to factory settings.

Formatting worked on the test disk, however write protection remained untouched. Recovery also successfully cleaned the flash drive and renamed it to PUBLIC, but did nothing with the protection.

If none of these functions work on your Apacer USB drive, you will have to follow the recommendation on the Apacer official website which suggests contacting the authorized dealer or distributor from whom you purchased the product to obtain a replacement if the flash drive is beyond repair.

Immediately after launch, the program identified the disk and its current file system.

Formatting went very quickly, but the drive's protection again remained intact. Like the Apacer utility, the program changed the name of the USB drive, but not to Public, but to Kingston. We were not surprised by this result. After all, the test disc is a Kingston product.

Results

Only these programs were able to successfully format the tested flash drive. It is quite possible that they will help you too. However, the apps failed to remove write protection, which was our ultimate goal.

As mentioned earlier, look for specific applications on the official website of your device manufacturer. Or find out if the drive can be replaced or repaired. If all this does not help, the only thing you can do is go to the nearest store and buy a new flash drive.

If you have discovered another way to format a write-protected USB flash drive and remove the protection, please share it in the comments.

The era of floppy disks is long gone, but sometimes when trying to write to a flash drive, the user may encounter a situation known since the days of using floppy disks - the removable disk is locked and cannot be used to write files.

We will look at how to solve this problem in detail in our article today.

So, you need to write some information to a flash drive, you insert it into the connector and receive a message like “The disk is write-protected, remove the protection or use another disk.”

This problem can be solved quite quickly, and we will talk about this a little later, but now we should say a few words about the purpose of installing write protection on a flash drive.

Note! As a rule, this operation is performed for only one purpose - to protect the flash drive from viruses that can spontaneously be copied to removable media without the user’s knowledge.

Methods for removing write protection from a flash drive

There are 2 key ways to remove protection from a flash drive: hardware and software.

The hardware method is to install a lock switch, which is present in some models of USB flash drives, as well as SD cards. As a rule, the switch is located on the side edge of the drive.

Carefully inspect your existing drive and look for an open/closed lock icon or the word Lock on it.

Note! Removing the protection is very simple - you just need to move the locking lever in the opposite direction. Write protection has been removed. Insert the flash drive into the appropriate slot and repeat the file writing operation again.

The software method involves software interaction between the operating system and the flash drive controller, which is responsible for the ability to record information.

You can remove write protection programmatically using the command line, registry editor, or local group policy in Windows 7/8. Let's take a closer look at all of the above methods.

Removing protection using regedit

Step 1.“Start”, in the search field enter the name of the Windows registry editor - regedit. Right-click (RMB) on the program and in the context menu go to the “Run as administrator” item.

Step 2. Let's go to the StorageDevicePolicies section:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies

Important! If there is no such section, you need to create it. To do this, right-click on the section Control - New - Section. We name the section “StorageDevicePolicies” without quotes.

Create (RMB in the right column of the registry) a DWORD value (32 bits) in the created registry branch. For convenience, let's call the created element WriteProtect.

Step 3. You need to make sure that the value of the WriteProtect parameter is 0. Right-click on WriteProtect and select “Change”. If the value is “1” you need to change it to “0” and click “Ok”.

Step 4. Close the registry editor, remove the flash drive and restart the computer. Insert the flash drive. Now the flash drive works as usual, allowing you to write files.

Removing protection using Diskpart

If the flash drive could not be unlocked using the registry, let's try to do it using the Diskpart command interpreter, which allows you to manage disks and partitions using commands that the user enters at the command line.

Step 1.“Start”, in the search field enter the name of the Windows command line - cmd. Right-click in the program and select “Run as administrator” in the context menu.

Step 2. Now you need to enter the commands: diskpart and list disk, and after entering each of them, press the Enter key.

Step 3. In the list above, you need to determine what serial number in the name the flash drive has.

This can be done based on the specified size, in our case an 8 GB flash drive, presented in the table as “Disk 1” with a capacity of 7441 MB.

Step 4. We select the disk with the “select” command, clear the attributes that allow only reading “attributes disk clear readonly”.

If the flash drive needs to be formatted, you should enter the following commands “clean”, create a partition “create partition primary”, format it to NTFS “format fs = ntfs” or FAT “format fs = fat”.

Removing protection using the Local Group Policy Editor

Step 1. Open the editor by pressing the Win + R key combination, after which you should enter the command gpedit.msc and press “OK” or Enter.

Step 2. In the editor, open the branch: Computer Configuration - Administrative Templates - System - Access to Removable Storage Devices. And look at the status of the “Removable drives: Deny reading” parameter.

If the parameter is enabled, you must disable it.

Step 3. To disable recording restrictions, double-click on the parameter and in the window that appears, select “Disable”, “OK”.

If all the methods described above did not help solve the recording problem, you can try going to the official website of the flash drive manufacturer and looking for proprietary utilities for working with the drive.

It is also possible that the flash drive has exhausted its resource (there is a limit on the number of rewrites, after which the drive is switched to read-only mode) and the only way out of the situation is to buy a new flash drive.

Having a problem with a write-protected flash drive? Don't know how to unlock a flash drive and make it readable? You are trying to write some file to a USB drive or SD card, and in response you receive a message: “The flash drive is write-protected.” If you urgently need to copy files to a disk or flash drive, I will show you how to remove protection and format (or clean) the storage medium - for further work, familiar and correct.

We use programs to format memory cards and USB flash drives

Some flash drives come with proprietary software. It works better than standard Windows formatting tools. These programs - not always, but nevertheless - will help remove protection. The downside of this approach is that you lose all the data on the media. So if this is unacceptable to you, move on to the next chapter.

2. A more universal way to force format a USB flash drive / SD card is to use formatting utilities like the Hp Disk Format Tool. You can select the file system and formatting type.

Restoring access to a flash drive through the Registry

The method of removing write protection is quite simple, but requires minimal skill and careful handling of the registry editor. If you are not 100% sure of your actions, make a backup copy of the Windows Registry using the RegOrganizer program.

1. Open the Registry Editor (Start – regedit).

2. Go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ directory. If there is no StorageDevicePolicies folder inside this directory, create it. For this:

3. Right-click on the current directory Control

4. From the menu, select New - Partition and name it StorageDevicePolicies.

5. Right-click on StorageDevicePolicies and select a new value for the DWORD(32-bit) parameter for a 32-bit OS or DWORD(64-bit) for a 64-bit OS, respectively.

6. Rename the dword parameter to WriteProtect, double-click on the line, specify the value 0 (HEX).

7. Safely remove the flash drive and restart your computer.

8. Connect the USB flash drive. If necessary, format it.

Video version of the instructions:

Another solution to remove protection from a disk: use the diskpart utility

diskpart is a console utility included in Windows XP and higher, which allows you to flexibly manage hard drives, file volumes and partitions at an advanced access level.

We will try to access the problematic flash drive via the console, and then format the write-protected flash drive.

1. Open a command prompt (cmd.exe). Type "diskpart" to open the utility.

2. Type "list disk" to display a list of available disks on the system.

3. Determine where your USB drive is in the list. Enter "SELECT DISK n", where n is your USB flash drive with a write-protected disk.

Be very careful! Selecting the wrong media will result in you losing all data on the selected drive.

4. Type "clean" (you may have to repeat this command twice or three times). If nothing works, try other ways to unlock the flash drive.

5. Enter "create partition primary" to create a new partition on the USB flash drive.

6. Enter "select partition" to select a partition on the disk

7. Type "active" to make the drive active

8. Enter "format fs=ntfs" to format to NTFS (before formatting the flash drive, make sure you have selected the correct storage medium!).

By the way, the diskpart option is one of the best methods to format a write-protected flash drive without resorting to third-party tools.

Another way to remove protection from a memory card/flash drive. Diskmgmt.msc utility

The protection removal method is suitable for both SD memory cards and USB flash drives. To implement it, we will need a standard Windows component for disk management - diskmgmt.msc.

  1. Start – Run. Type diskmgmt.msc into the text line and press Enter
  2. Right button on the partition you want to format (the letter and partition will help you determine)
  3. Select "Delete volume..." and confirm the operation
  4. In the context menu, select the "Create Volume" command
  5. Select primary partition
  6. Leave all parameters as default
  7. Click ok

Removing protection from a flash drive through the Windows Group Policy Editor

In some cases, access to a flash drive is limited by local Windows Group Policy rights. We tell you how to remove protection in such a situation:

  1. Start – Run – .
  2. In the panel that opens, go to the following section: “Computer Configuration - Administrative Templates - System - Access to Removable Storage Devices.”
  3. Next, you need to deactivate the “Removable drives: Deny read” option by switching to the “Disable” state.

Other working methods for removing file write protection

If none of the above recipes helped, well, other methods on how to remove protection from a flash drive will probably work (the list will grow over time).

  1. Check your flash drive for viruses. Some malicious applications establish their own control over files; as a result, the flash drive is protected from writing data belonging to viruses. How to remove protection in this case? We recommend using the best antivirus software for scanning.
  2. Check if the flash drive has a hardware button that allows you to physically unlock it (there is a switch on the side that needs to be moved towards the open lock). However, today such USB flash drives and SD cards are very rare - these are mostly old device models.
  3. Update the firmware of the flash drive, you can find the exact model on Google by chip vendor and chip vendor model, see Device Manager.

Conclusion. Although it is not always possible to determine why a flash drive is write-protected, of the many methods described, at least one works. If none of the methods for removing protection from a flash drive helped you, all that remains is to replace the USB drive - in other words, buy a new one.

However, ask questions on the topic - you can do this through the sidebar on our website. We'll try to help.

The media is write protected: what to do? Questions and Answers

32 GB flash drive WANSENDA when formatted. When you try to delete a file, it asks you to remove write protection from the disk or use another one. What to do, how to remove write protection? I can’t delete or transfer files to a flash drive.

Answer. Try removing protection from your flash drive through the Registry, using the diskpart or diskmgmt.msc utilities (included in Windows). Format the flash drive with special programs - Low level format or Disk format tool (see the beginning of the guide).

All my formatting attempts produce the same result: remove the protection, the card is write-protected. I removed the protection in every possible way, but it comes back, I can’t do anything. The phone displays information about a card malfunction and cannot format it in any way. The computer and laptop accept it, but formatting fails.

Can you tell me what to do, how to remove protection from the SD card? Other phones and a digital camera did not help.

Answer. Try resetting the protection using the methods described in the article and immediately format the memory card to FAT32. Check if there is a switch on the SD card (it may be set in the wrong position, so the memory card is write protected).

I can’t format a SONY 64GB flash drive, copy or delete files to it. The system says that the disk is write protected. What to do? I tried everything you have. Does not help. I bought Flash from Mvideo about 3 months ago, it worked fine before.

Answer. Some users can remove protection using the proprietary JetFlash Recovery utility. It allows you to format a flash drive at a low access level. If that doesn't help, try removing write protection from the disk through the registry or command line. After this, restart your computer.

I have a Samsung S3600 phone, it has stopped writing files to the card. The most interesting thing is that there are two photos and one video left on the card - there is NO way to delete them at all. They are deleted from the computer, but then they appear again on the map. I can’t write anything on the card - at first it’s as if everything is there, but on the phone there’s nothing... like nothing. I didn’t drop the phone, I didn’t drown it, the card just suddenly stopped working, and in such a weird way. He sees the card, but does not write anything to it and does not delete anything from it... How to remove write protection on a flash drive?

Answer. You can remove write protection on a flash drive through forced formatting. This can be done through the console utility diskpart for Windows or various graphical utilities like SDFormatter or Hp disk format tool.

It is possible that files are not deleted due to errors in reading the sectors on which the files that cannot be deleted are written. You can check the flash drive for errors via Properties - Tools - Check in Explorer.

After navigating with ADRplayer, I can’t delete files (including write-protected ones) from the SD card. In Windows it is recognized as a 118 MB disk with the ADRplayer program on it. The files are all played by this program. Formatting is not possible in Windows.

Answer. Since the SD card's disk is write-protected, you need to format it to NTFS via the command line (using the diskpart utility) or using the diskmgmt.msc system utility. In addition, there is a wonderful program for SD cards called SDFormatter - it removes write protection.

It’s not clear what happened to the flash card, when you connect the card to the computer it says “To use the disk in drive J, first format it.” You start formatting in fat32 format without quick cleaning and tried with quick cleaning, it says the disk is write protected. I tried the described ones the options didn't help.

The method via diskmgmt.msc after right-clicking on the flash drive does not allow “delete volume” and other actions are simply not active. The file system of the flash card is Raw, and the system says that it is working. What to do, how to remove write protection from a flash drive and revive it?

Answer. In addition to diskmgmt.msc, try removing write protection on the flash drive through the Registry or using the console utility diskpart. For formatting, use not standard Windows tools, but, for example, Low level format. If after these manipulations the disk is still write-protected, try opening the flash drive in another operating system, use third-party software to manage disks on the flash drive - say, Acronis Disk Director.

I bought a mini sd for a 128gig SanDisk phone. I insert it into my Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016), it works for a while and then it blocks recording to it. No matter what I did: I formatted it via a PC, and via a phone - it was all to no avail, it would work for a while and then it would block the recording again. How to format a protected flash drive?

Answer. The file table on the memory card may be damaged, making it impossible to write new data. In such cases, it is recommended to check the disk for errors using the standard chkdsk tool (Start - Run - chkdsk). If that doesn't help, format the SD card using the sd formatter desktop application. Judging by the reviews, the utility has helped many users when formatting a flash drive. You can also format the SD card through the Recovery menu by rebooting the phone in the appropriate mode and selecting the Wipe cache partition option.

I ordered a USB flash memory from the Internet. I initially formatted it, but I didn’t like that she didn’t read or see all the formats. I decided to format it completely, without a check mark, just (table of contents). Now a laptop with Windows 10 OS sees it, but requires formatting it. I format it, but the flash drive is not formatted - the disk is write-protected. I have already tried to do something (download programs), but I don’t understand, I’m still far from it.

Answer. In your case, it is advisable to format a USB flash drive not using standard Windows tools, but using specialized software - fortunately, the choice is wide. First of all, look for programs specifically for your flash drive on the manufacturer’s website. If not found, use HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool or any disk manager like Acronis Disk Director. Specify NTFS or exFAT as the file system.

1) Sandisk ultra USB 3.0 flash drive 16 GB. I tried everything, from renaming the letter to cleaning the registry. As soon as you start formatting (including through partition management), a message pops up that Windows cannot do this and the flash drive disappears from view. I also tried HDD Low Level Format Tool v4.40 Final - the same thing happens as described above. How to format a write-protected flash drive?

2) I can't format the micro SD card. Writes: “Windows was unable to complete the formatting.” I’ve already tried with different programs and the command line. It still doesn’t format. I can’t even delete the files. I click “delete,” removed the flash drive and put it back. The file that was deleted is there again I can neither delete nor format.

Answer. Try other formatting programs: SDFormatter or software available on the developer’s website (sometimes you can use them to format a flash drive to bypass system errors). In addition to Disk Management, you can use any disk manager like Partition Magic or Acronis Disk Director.

You can also assume that the problem is related to Windows or the computer configuration. Try formatting the flash drive on another computer or in a different OS environment (Windows/Mac OS/Linux).