How to Format a Write Protected USB | Easy Steps to Format

USB stands for the universal series bus. USB is used all wide for faster and better data transfer and other purposes. But USB drives are mainly used to transfer data from one device to another device. The reason behind the widest use of the USB drive is that using this we can collect and store information from outside sources. It is a very fast method to copy or transfer information from one computer to another. In this article, we’ll discuss how to format a write-protected USB.

Sometimes, people like to lock their data in a USB flash drive or pen drive. This kind of lock becomes important for some reasons. So, for this formatting, a write-protected USB is necessary sometimes. A write-protection on USB drive helps to prevent data from being overwritten or erased accidentally. If you have a write-protected USB flash drive or a pen drive, you won’t have any risk of deleting or damaging your data. This writes protection on the USB drive allows you to read the data unchanged without any accidental occurrences.

There are some ways to make your USB drive write-protected. It can be possible by the USB protection switch or by changing the read-only settings. You can also Format write protection on your USB drive by changing security permission in USB properties.

Why Need to Write Protection on USB

Sometimes, we store data on the USB drive from sometimes. When we move data in our devices using a USB drive, the data can be hampered in some way. The data can be fully or partially damaged. It will disturb the information and for this, the data may come to us in another way. So, if we want to keep the data protected or even if we don’t want anyone to change the information, then formating a write-protected USB is very important.

A write protection on USB is needed for unexpected data loss. This data loss occurs due to deleting or formatting the content unconsciously, or by ransomware attacks. Sometimes, there happens hand pressure of us on the keyboard and for this, the content is being damaged or destroyed.

 Even, if it is allowed to re-write on the content or there is no write protection on the USB flash drive then, some people can take negative advantage of it. They can change the information or publish the content by their manes just changing some syntax of the content. This will be very harmful to the ower of the content. That’s why for some cases we need a write-protected USB drive to keep the content unchanged.

How to Format a Write-Protected USB in Windows 10

Formatting a write-protected USB is not such a difficult thing. It can be easily done by following some method. Some people don’t want to write protection on the USB drive. But some people want to keep the data unchanged by formatting a write-protected USB. There are commonly three methods to format a write-protected USB flash drive. The methods are given below:

Method 1

• First of all, you have to remove the write-protection of the USB drive. It is not possible to formate a write-protected USB without removing the write-protection. So, the first step of formatting write-protected USB is to remove the protection.
• Then, you have to restore data due to the removal of the write-protection of the USB. For removing the write protection, the data in the USB drive can be lost. So, it is very important to restore the data from the USB drive.
• Once you remove the write protection and restore the data of the USB drive, you have to open the Run box.
• After that, you have to type diskmgmt.msc and click Enter.

• You have to locate and right-click on the USB drive in the disk management.
• Then, you have to choose Format.
• You have to reset the file system of the USB.
• Finally, you have to click Ok.

Method 2

• First, you have to toggle the switch of the USB drive. If there is a write-protection switch on,  you have to toggle the switch.
• You have to insert the USB drive in your laptop and open it.
• You have to go to the Start menu in the lower-left corner of the computer.
• You have to click Run from the lower part of the menu.
• You have to type “diskpart” and have to press “Enter”.
• You have to type ”list disk” and click “Enter”.
• Then, type “Select Disk #” and press “Enter”.
• You have to type “attributes disk clear readonly” and press “Enter”.
• You have to type “clean” and press “Enter”.
• You have to type “Creat partition primary” and press “Enter”.
• You have to type format fs=fat32 or format fs=ntfs and press Enter.
• Finally, you have to type Exit and press Enter.

Method 3

• First, you have to toggle the switch of the USB drive.
• Then, you have to open the windows registry editor from the computer.
• Once you do so, you have to open the control folder.
• If there exists a StoragedevicePolicies folder,  then click it.
• In the right column, you have to double click the “write protect”.
• You have to enter “0” as the value data and press Enter.
• You have to close the Registry Editor and restart your computer.
• You have to connect the pen drive to the computer and open file explorer.
• You have to right-click the pen drive and select Format.
• Finally, click Start.

How to Format a Write-Protected USB on Mac

You can format a write-protected USB from your Mac. For this, you have to follow some steps. The steps are given below:

• First, you have to toggle the switch of the USB drive.
• On your Mac, you have to insert the write-protected USB in a USB slot.
• You have to open a Finder that is at the left bottom of the screen.
• From the left panel, you have to click the Applications folder.
• You have to double- click the Utility folder from the right panel.
• Then, you have to double-click the Disk Utility.
• You have to select the USB drive on the left panel.
• You have to click the Erase tab in the right panel.
• You can enter the name of the drive if you want so.
• From the format menu, you have to select the file system type.
• Finally, you have to click the Erase button.

Conclusion

Formatting a write-protected USB is a little lengthy process. But the methods are very simple. You can format the USB drive manually. But for this, you have to remove the write protection from the USB first. Then, the windows will allow you to format the USB drive. After formatting the USB drive, you can able to make it write protected again.