Unable to reformat my 16gb flash drive
@chubbychubchub (90)
Philippines
October 20, 2012 3:30am CST
I got this kingston 16gb flash drive 2..
and i keep on trying to reformat it but it keeps on saying that the drive is write protected.
i already tried to use the command prompt changing the 1 to 0 to disable the write protection but it doesn't work.
i even safe mode my pc and access it in command prompt so i can reformat it but it only make my PC freeze.
i also tried to delete the drive in the disk management but still no effect.
now what will i do?
10 responses
@dollar3235 (2062)
• India
20 Oct 12
I would suggest you following:
1. Try to format the thumb drive on a different computer. Or
2. Try to format it on a different computer with an OS other than Windows. Or
3. If nothing works, consider buying a new thumb drive. 
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
20 Oct 12
I like this idea because it is quite feasible that the issue may be related to the computer and not the flash drive.
An easy option would be to download a copy of Ubuntu and after burning the image to a disk boot into a live session. You can then try to format the flash drive with Gparted.
@dollar3235 (2062)
• India
21 Oct 12
Perfect, I was about to give you the same suggestion of downloading and installing Ubuntu. You can install Ubuntu on Windows just like any other program and once it's installed, you can reboot the computer to find Ubuntu as one of the boot option. That'll give you an idea if it's because of OS or computer hardware or the Thumb drive itself..
@Sir_bobby88 (8231)
• Singapore
20 Oct 12
Just wondering if you still can copy and paste things in your flash drive ? If yes, i believe some setting might have gone wrong, if no then most likely your flash drive is a gone case already.
@chubbychubchub (90)
• Philippines
20 Oct 12
no.. i cant even access my flash drive.. it will freeze my pc
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
20 Oct 12
You appear to have already tried the main approaches. I would check that the flash drive does not have a small switch to manually add write protection, which some flash drives do possess.
I assume that you used Diskpart in command prompt, and the quick way would be tp select the drive and type simply "clean" to remove everything and start again.
If this fails then you also try the Windows registry to check that windows itself is not write protecting the drive. Run regedit from the Run dialogue box and look for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies which is where the information would be. Any reference to write protection should either be absent or marked as 0, otherwise you should set it to 1 or just delete the entry.
@chubbychubchub (90)
• Philippines
20 Oct 12
nope.. it doesn't have a switch... yep i also tried to access it in the registry.. everytime i'm accessing that drive it will freeze the pc.
thanks for the response ^^
@celticrogue (450)
• United States
21 Oct 12
Why are you trying to re-format the drive?
The manufacturer has placed a small file on the drive that helps keep track of the files written to the flash memory. This small file is not removable. If you have files that you no longer want, delete them. You can delete all of your data files, then start over.
Truthfully, the flash drives are digital memory chips similar to the RAM boards in your computer. They are not a magnetic disc that does require formating prior to use.
So, if your flash drive contains files you no longer want, just delete them and if they were in their own folder, delete the folder also.
I have heard of small apps that would write zeroes to each memory address on digital memory drives, but have never tried them. c|net.com is a good place to start to research those apps.
@jeanneyvonne (5501)
• Philippines
20 Oct 12
Have you tried to remove the write protect? Here are some helpful links.
http://www.ehow.com/how_4924168_remove-write-protection-usb-drive.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_4923294_remove-write-protection-usb-stick.html
Get back to us if you tried these tips.
@chubbychubchub (90)
• Philippines
20 Oct 12
thanks for the tips.. but yes I already read that article/s and tried it but it doesn't help also..
@liznedrks4u (2)
•
20 Oct 12
1. uncheck write protection option.
2. uncheck read-only option.
3. uninstall if any manufacturer software installed.
4. now try to format and change file system to ntfs...
Good luck...!
@chubbychubchub (90)
• Philippines
20 Oct 12
i already tried that.. nothing has change.. i think its permanently damage.. and every time im trying to access it my pc keeps on crashing..
thanks anyway ^^
@thanks1961 (7035)
• India
20 Oct 12
I think your flash drive got corrupted and it will not work anymore! If it is a China made kingston drive, it is hard to run and if you purchased the drive with a genuine dealer with bill, you may get a replacement, if provided the details of purchase. However, once you get such messages, it is too hard to get it rectified. Try either of it.
@natliegleb (5175)
• India
20 Oct 12
just dry to back up all the contents and link it up with the harddrive and reformat it,you will get a option in pc if you have a tool called formaticon
@GauthamDS7 (96)
• India
20 Oct 12
If you don't need the data in your drive,if you're having warranty than exchange it.
