Can I remove the permanent write protection from this USB drive?
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MellowCedar42
My university gave me a USB drive for a class, and I finished the course about a year ago. We were allowed to keep the drive, but it is permanently write-protected even though there is no physical lock switch. I would like to reuse it instead of throwing it away. The device appears to contain a Micron 2450 512GB NVMe drive and two Wilk USB 3.2 Gen 1 devices. Is there a safe way to determine whether the NVMe drive itself is locked, or whether the USB controller is enforcing read-only mode?
Answers
First check Disk Management and the drive’s reported attributes to see whether the disk itself is read-only or whether only the file system has a problem. If it is a standard M.2 NVMe SSD, testing it with another NVMe-to-USB enclosure is probably the simplest next step. Avoid forcing a format until you know which component is imposing the restriction.
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Some USB controllers switch a drive into permanent read-only mode when they detect failing NAND or other storage problems. In that situation, there may be no normal operating-system setting that can remove the protection. Copy off anything important, then identify the exact USB controller, VID/PID, and model before considering a manufacturer-specific repair tool. Random unlock utilities can be unsafe and may contain malware, so do not run them without a backup and a trustworthy source.
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If the NVMe drive is a standard removable M.2 module, the write protection may be coming from the USB adapter rather than the SSD. You could remove the M.2 drive and test it in a different NVMe-to-USB enclosure or directly in a compatible computer. If it works there, the original USB controller is responsible and the SSD can still be reused.
MellowCedar42: Do you mean physically separating the M.2 drive from the USB electronics? I’m not very experienced with hardware, so I want to make sure I understand before opening it.
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SilverOrbit31: It’s also a good idea to have a backup of the computer before testing unknown controller utilities. A tool that claims to unlock the drive could damage the data or be malicious.