How to Format A Write-Protected USB Flash Drive/Pen Drive

Tracy King updated on Sep 12, 2019 to Partition Master | How-to Articles

Cannot format your USB pen drive because it is write-protected? Get "The disk is write protected" error message while trying to format the flash drive, pen drive or SD card? Some removable storage devices like USB flash drives or pen drive have write protection which is designed to help users prevent unexpected data loss by refusing to delete or format. If you’re stuck with a write-protected USB drive that can’t be formatted with "The disk is write protected" error, please don’t worry! Here is a simple way you can try to remove the write protection and format the USB flash drive and pen drive with no hassle. 

1. Remove write protection on USB flash drive/pen drive using Regedit.exe

  1. 1. Click "Start", type: Regedit in the search box, click "Regedit.exe" to open the Registry editor when you see it is displayed at the top of the list.
  2. 2. Then navigate to the following key: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies
  3. 3. Double-click on the "WriteProtect" value in the right-hand pane of Regedit.exe.
  4. 4. Change the "Value" data from "1" to "0" and click "OK" to save the change.
  5. 5. Close Regedit and restart your computer. Connect your USB flash drive or pen drive again, and you should find the write protection is removed and the device is no longer write protected.




Step 1: DOWDLOAD and install EaseUS Tools M for free.

Step 2: Run EaseUS Tools M on your PC, choose "Write Protection" mode.


Remove Write Protection from storage devices.

After that, you can recover data from SD card with powerful data recovery software and format the drive as normal by following Method 2.

2. Format a USB flash drive or pen drive after removing write protection with EaseUS partition software

EaseUS partition software, a powerful third-party disk partition management tool which works well to format USB flash drive or pen drive after removing write protection. Besides USB flash drive, the program also allows you to format a write-protected SD card when the write protection is removed. Here is the detailed guide.

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 Windows 10 is supported



Format Hard Drive Partition - Step 1


Format Hard Drive Partition - Step 2


Format Hard Drive Partition - Step 3


Format Hard Drive Partition - Step 4

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