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Jul 27th, 2008
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USB External Suddenly Becomes "Write Protected"

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My external Western Digital Elements 500GB USB drive occasionally sets itself to "Write Protected" and I can't alter any of the files on the drive until I reboot and the write protection is reset. This usually happens after a day or so, and rebooting is the only way of unlocking the drive again. Why does it do this and how can I stop it?

I've run a full surface scan using Western Digital's own diagnostic software, and it completed successfully without any errors, as did the "quick scan" option.

I'm using Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 x64. I have no idea why the drive is doing this, so I'm not sure what information may be required from me besides my operating system, so feel free to ask!

Cheers!
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Paddy is offline Offline
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Aug 1st, 2008
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Re: USB External Suddenly Becomes "Write Protected"

Your registery might have been modified so that the writing on the usb device is disabled.

Try this :
Enable/Disable USBWrite
gtd
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Aug 1st, 2008
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Re: USB External Suddenly Becomes "Write Protected"

Click to Expand / Collapse  Quote originally posted by gtd ...
Your registery might have been modified so that the writing on the usb device is disabled.

Try this :
Enable/Disable USBWrite
Interesting! I haven't had the problem since I posted here (it happened several times over the course of a week prior to my original post), but I'll bookmark your URL and check to see if the registry changes when the problem happens, and if I can change it back if it does. I'll report back if/when the problem occurs again.

Cheers!
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Aug 6th, 2008
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Re: USB External Suddenly Becomes "Write Protected"

Following the instructions given in the URL you provided didn't help the problem when it arose again.

Any other ideas? haha

I have a few other bits of info that might help identify the problem:

When I open a text document on the drive and make a change to it, then try to save it, I get this error - "The media is write protected".

When I try to run ChkDsk on the drive I get this error - "The disk is write protected".

I think the issue is with Windows rather than the drive, because if I reboot the problem stops, but if I unplug the drive's power cable then plug it back in, Windows finds it again, and the write protection is still active.
Last edited by Paddy; Aug 6th, 2008 at 9:22 am.
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Aug 6th, 2008
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Re: USB External Suddenly Becomes "Write Protected"

Update: The drive now remains write protected even after several reboots, and even when I boot into Safe Mode.

Please tell me this isn't a hardware fault haha, I already had to get my last drive replaced because it went tits-up (that problem completely different, however).
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Aug 7th, 2008
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Re: USB External Suddenly Becomes "Write Protected"

I am sorry, I can't help you, since I don't know the USB device very well, but you don't seem to be the only one experiencing this problem...

I know this is not of any help but at least it might mean that this is not a problem related to YOUR hard drive in particular.

EDIT : have you browsed the FAQ concerning your product on the official WD website ?
Last edited by gtd; Aug 7th, 2008 at 5:33 am.
gtd
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Aug 7th, 2008
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Re: USB External Suddenly Becomes "Write Protected"

Click to Expand / Collapse  Quote originally posted by gtd ...
I am sorry, I can't help you, since I don't know the USB device very well, but you don't seem to be the only one experiencing this problem...

I know this is not of any help but at least it might mean that this is not a problem related to YOUR hard drive in particular.

EDIT : have you browsed the FAQ concerning your product on the official WD website ?
Hello again,

I've read through the Western Digital website's support pages (nothing relevant was there) and I also contacted them through their website about the problem. So, let's see what they have to say about it!

Thanks mate.
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Aug 7th, 2008
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Re: USB External Suddenly Becomes "Write Protected"

I'm an idiot...here's why:

I found a tool called "Thumbscrew" that switches storage devices' write protection on or off. When I read their website they said that the only thing they do is change this value:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies\WriteProtect

1 for "on" and 0 for "off". I tried that, then rebooted, and it has apparently unlocked the drive again. I double-checked the URL you sent me and I realised that (partly owing to a typo on the part of the author) the instructions were exactly the same, but I mistakenly used the "on" value instead of "off".

All this aside, I still haven't figured out why my drive sets itself to write protected to begin with. But hopefully this Thumbscrew tool will help out in the meantime.

Cheers mate!
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Aug 7th, 2008
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Re: USB External Suddenly Becomes "Write Protected"

You're welcome, I was a bit surprised when you said that it didn't solve your problem since it really seemed to be closely linked.

Et voila ;-) !
gtd
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Aug 20th, 2008
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Re: USB External Suddenly Becomes "Write Protected"

I've read that the problem may be caused by the fact that I'm using a hard drive that was formatted in XP with Vista. If this is the case, is there any way to correct this problem without actually reformatting it?

Thanks!
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