How to Format Write Protected USB Flash Drive?

I. What should I do if the U disk is write-protected and cannot be formatted?

When the U disk is write-protected, we will not be able to format it or delete data, and the prompt “This disk is write-protected” will appear. If you also encounter similar problems, please refer to the method below to remove the write protection of the USB flash drive, and then format it.

1. Turn off the write protection switch of the U disk

Some U disks have a write-protect switch. When you find that the U disk cannot be copied, modified or stored in new data, you can try to turn off the U disk write-protect switch. If the write protection switch is turned off, but the USB flash drive is still in the write-protected state, it may be that the operating system has protected the USB flash drive, and you can try the following methods to remove it.

2. Use the Diskpart command to clear the read-only attribute of the U disk

Step 1: Connect the U disk to the computer, enter (cmd) in the search box, right-click (command prompt), and select (run as administrator).

Step 2: Please enter the following commands in sequence, and press the (Enter) key once for each line of command input:

diskpart

list disk (will list all disks in the computer)

select disk 1 (1 indicates the disk number of the U disk, which can be judged according to the capacity and modified accordingly)

attributes disk clear readonly (clear the read-only attribute of the disk)

exit (exit)

3. Remove the write protection of the U disk in the registry

There are write-protected settings in the registry, which can prevent all mobile devices from writing any data. The following are the steps to remove the write protection of the U disk in the registry:

Step 1: Press the (Windows+R) key at the same time, enter (regedit) and click (OK).

Step 2: Locate the WriteProtect value in the registry at the following path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies

Step 3: Double-click WriteProtect and change its value from 1 to 0 to remove the write protection. After the modification is complete, please restart the computer.

II. How to format the U disk?

1. Format the U disk in Disk Management

Step 1: Insert the U disk into the computer, right-click the start menu, and select (Disk Management).

Step 2: Right-click on the USB flash drive and select (Format).

Step 3: Set the volume label, file system and unit size of the U disk, check (Execute quick format), and click (OK). Click here to view an introduction to the file system format.

2. Format the U disk in the file explorer

Step 1: Open the file explorer, select (This Computer), right-click the connected USB flash drive, and select (Format).

Step 2: Set the file system, unit size and volume label of the U disk, check (Quick Format), and finally click (Start).

The above are two common formatting methods. If you cannot complete the operation smoothly, you can try to format through the command prompt. The following are the specific steps.

3. Force format the U disk through the command prompt

Step 1: Search (Command Prompt) in the search bar, right-click (Run as administrator), and open the Command Prompt window.

Step 2: Enter the (Format F:/x) command in the opened command prompt window (where F is the drive letter of the U disk, which can be entered according to your own situation), and press the (Enter) key to run, and then the format will start your USB drive.

III. After formatting, how to restore the data in the USB flash drive?

If important files are found to be lost after formatting the U disk, it is recommended not to save new data to the U disk, and then use data recovery software to scan and repair the U disk immediately. The following will introduce a very practical data recovery software – Renee Undeleter , which has multiple scanning modes and supports Windows and Mac systems.

1. What is Renee Undeleter?

Rene.E Laboratory ™ data recovery software It is a software specially used to restore system data files. When you accidentally delete important files, empty the recycle bin, or format the disk/storage, you can use this tool to retrieve the lost data. The software covers four functional modules, including file recovery, format recovery, partition recovery and image creation, which can help you solve all data loss problems in an all-round way.

2. How to use Renee Undeleter to recover data from U disk?

As a professional data recovery software, Renee Undeleter not only has comprehensive functions, but also has a very simple operation process. The specific operation steps are as follows:

Step 1: Connect the U disk to the computer, download and install Renee Undeleter on the computer, and run Renee Undeleter. Select the (Format Recovery) option on the main interface.

Notice : Do not install Renee Undeleter in the USB flash drive where the data is lost to avoid data overwriting.

Step 2: Next select the U disk partition. After the selection is complete, click (Next).

Step 3: Then wait for the scan, the scan time will depend on the size of the U disk. During the scanning process, you can double-click to preview the file. If you have found the file you need to recover, you can check it and click the (Recover) button. At this time, the scan will be terminated to start recovering the file. You can also wait for the scan to finish, check the files to be recovered from the scan results, and then click the (Recover) button.

Notice: It is recommended to save the recovered files in other partitions instead of the original U disk to avoid data overwriting.