# Can't format my USB stick, says it's write protected.



## CaptainCool (Aug 26, 2012)

I recently got an 8 gig USB drive for free after filling out a small survey at a computer store.
Yesterday I wanted to format it.  However, every formatting tool that I tried gives me an error saying that the drive can't be formatted because it is write protected.
I can't access the drive either. I plug it in, windows wants to format it, nothing happens.

Since they were giving away these drives for free I'm just gonna assume that it is ultra cheap and probably broke. And since it was free I'm also not _that_ pissed about it.
But still, I would appreciate it if someone could give me pointers on how to fix this^^ I have already searched around the web and none of the tips that I have found have helped.


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## Lobar (Aug 26, 2012)

It may have a lock feature, though those are usually on SD cards and not flash drives.  Look for a switch physically somewhere on the flash drive itself.

Otherwise, I think there's a reghack to make Windows ignore write protection.


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## CaptainCool (Aug 26, 2012)

Lobar said:


> It may have a lock feature, though those are usually on SD cards and not flash drives.  Look for a switch physically somewhere on the flash drive itself.
> 
> Otherwise, I think there's a reghack to make Windows ignore write protection.



That's the first thing I looked for but it changed to be write protected while it was still plugged in  It doesn't have a switch, it happened all by itself.
I also haven't found any ways to make it ignore the write protection so far.


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## kayfox (Aug 26, 2012)

Lobar said:


> Otherwise, I think there's a reghack to make Windows ignore write protection.



You cant ignore write protection, its a controller level function.


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## Lobar (Aug 26, 2012)

kayfox said:


> You cant ignore write protection, its a controller level function.



It was just something I'd heard, but not really looked into.  They must have been mistaken.

What can be done then, or is it essentially bricked?


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## CaptainCool (Aug 27, 2012)

Lobar said:


> It was just something I'd heard, but not really looked into.  They must have been mistaken.
> 
> What can be done then, or is it essentially bricked?



From what I have seen around the web it is essentially bricked. In most cases that got resolved they were still able to access the stick but in cases similar to mine no one was able to help 
I just hoped someone here would know something^^ As I said, the stick was free so it isn't THAT big a deal for me but still, it would be a shame to throw it away.


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## Kairuk (Sep 1, 2012)

Did you fuck around with the card at all?
If not, it could just be the company you did the survey for giving you a cheap ass USB.


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## CaptainCool (Sep 1, 2012)

Kairuk said:


> Did you fuck around with the card at all?
> If not, it could just be the company you did the survey for giving you a cheap ass USB.



Flash drives are dirt cheap these days anyway.
I didn't fuck with it at all. I was just copying some larger files onto it but cancelled the process because it was slow. I then wanted to use it on my PS3 instead and tried to format it in FAT32. That was when it stopped working.
That's all I did  Putting the files onto it was freaking slow so I just stopped it. But I did wait for the process to be cancelled properly.


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