# Unable to remove write protection from usb drive



## Vignesh B (Sep 22, 2013)

A friend's usb drive is infected by a some malware which is preventing the drive to be formatted or for that case to do anything with any of the files except open them. A scan with defender shows the malware but it is unable to clean it. Even unlocker is unable to delete those files. I have even tried to create a registry entry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies named "WriteProtect" & set the value to 0 but in vain.


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## baiju (Sep 22, 2013)

Try it on another pc with updated antivirus. Also try a linux bootable disk and format.


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## Vignesh B (Sep 22, 2013)

^^ 
1. Done. But in vain.
2. Downloading the iso now.


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## dashing.sujay (Sep 22, 2013)

If you get one solution, do tell.


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## SaiyanGoku (Sep 22, 2013)

try formatting it using rufus.
Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way


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## Vignesh B (Sep 23, 2013)

baiju said:


> Also try a linux bootable disk and format.


Did, but yet the same error message that the disk is write protected.



Luffy said:


> try formatting it using rufus.
> Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way


Same error with this one too.



dashing.sujay said:


> If you get one solution, do tell.


Sure.




I have tried removing with various different antiviruses, but none of them are able to clean it. Also tried using boot-time scans of avast & avg rescue cd.


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## whitestar_999 (Sep 23, 2013)

if even linux boot cd can't format/delete the files on usb drive then most likely its hardware is damaged & you can't do anything about it except buying a new one.


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## Vignesh B (Sep 23, 2013)

^^ Can the hardware be damaged by malware? Or is it independent of it?


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## whitestar_999 (Sep 23, 2013)

in case of pen drives it is possible under certain circumstances.e.g.if a malware was writing continuously to pen drive resulting in no response from safely remove pen drive option & you then take it out suddenly & this happened multiple times then it may result in corrupted hardware.


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## Vignesh B (Sep 23, 2013)

^ Probably that might be the case.


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## dashing.sujay (Sep 24, 2013)

I also have a brand new moserbaer 8gb pd lying useless with the same problem. There's a movie folder and the corresponding file,  plus some gibberish named files ranging in several GBs (false). I tried everything available on internet, and they failed.

The system apparently had no malware.


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## root.king (Sep 25, 2013)

make a bootable hiren iso cd unplug system hdd for safety , then do clear mbr record to 0


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