I'm trying to access a disk that's protected by BitLocker, and while I can unlock the volume successfully, it remains mounted as read-only. Both disk and volume attributes show as not read-only, but I've cleared those attributes just to be safe. The NTFS permissions seem fine, yet attempts to change them also result in the same "disk is mounted read-only" message. I've checked Group Policy settings and disabled anything that might enforce write protection on unprotected volumes. I've even ensured that the SAN policy is correctly set to OnlineAll. Despite inputting my password when the VM starts and using the AD-stored password, the volume stays read-only. Any tips on what I might be missing? I'm really grateful for any insights!
6 Answers
Try running this command in an elevated command prompt to disable write protection, then restart your computer:
REG ADD "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlStorageDevicePolicies" /v "WriteProtect" /t REG_DWORD /d 0x00000000 /f
Once that’s done, check again if you can mount it writeable.
If you're comfortable with PowerShell, there's a few commands that can either enable or disable write protection. It’s a bit tricky since the OS has different concepts for disks, volumes, and partitions. Make sure to check the documentation for the right cmdlets.
Gotcha, it's confusing for sure! I’ll dive into the documentation.
It might sound silly, but have you tried running a chkdsk on it? It could be an issue that prevents writes until that's fixed.
I can't run chkdsk since it's still read-only. I liked that idea, though!
Check if you have any DLP software in place that could be blocking write access to external drives. Also, ensure your VMware settings aren't set to hotplug by adjusting devices.hotplug = FALSE.
Nope, I don’t have any DLP software. My VM is clean of those policies, just a few BitLocker settings.
Have you tried completely decrypting the BitLocker and then turning it back on? Sometimes that's a good way to reset any issues. Also, if you're accessing it from a remote machine, remember you can use the recovery key as well.
I did that, but the disk is still write-protected. I'm at the console for the VM, not remote.
That sounds familiar! Sometimes a feature just needs to be toggled off and on again, right? It could do the trick.
Maybe the nuclear option is to suspend BitLocker, restart the machine, then re-enable it? Sometimes that clears out any weird restrictions.
I tried that too, but the write protection persists even without BitLocker.
Thanks for that! The key didn’t exist before, but I just created it, and now the disk isn't write protected anymore! I appreciate the help!