Hey everyone! I'm having a problem with a thumb drive at work. I need to reformat it, but I'm getting a "write-protected" message. I tried using the Terminal command "attributes disk clear readonly," but it didn't help. There's nothing on the drive that I need to keep, so I'm fine with wiping it completely. I'd like to avoid any sketchy software if possible. Does anyone have suggestions? Is my drive totally shot?
5 Answers
It sounds like your drive is toast and it might be time to replace it.
USB drives don’t really have a write protect mode. When they fail, they often go into a read-only mode, which might just make it seem like they're write-protected. You probably have a dead drive on your hands.
It’s likely not corrupted, but more like worn out. USB drives can switch to read-only when they hit a certain number of bad sectors. I’d say if this drive is new, it might be a manufacturing defect.
If you didn’t know, USB drives can write-protect themselves to prevent data loss when they start failing. It sounds like yours is just giving up.
Sometimes, drives come with a physical write protect switch. But more often than not, if it's stuck in read-only mode, it’s just dead. You might need to get a new one.
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