Flash drive write protection

[Josiah23]

Hello! I recently tried to format my flash drive and it gave me an error saying "This device is write protected" even though it was working and I had stuff on it a few minutes before trying to format it. Any help?

 

[xandros9]

My suspicion is that it had just failed.

I'd want more opinions though, not just mine.

 

[RumoredNow]

I was just thinking maybe an operation got interrupted and it's causing this error.

Try right clicking on the drive in file explorer > properties > hardware tab > highlight the device > properties > events tab... Look for anything unusual today.

Safely eject and reinsert. Try again and if not, then it just became scrap,

 

[hotphil]

Isolate the issue - try formatting it in a different machine.

 

[Josiah23]

RumoredNow nothing looks unusual it all looks normal. hotphil I currently have no other place to use this flash drive except the pc I'm using.

 

[Josiah23]

I have MiniTool Partition Wizard, will it help if I wipe the disk/partition?

Edited: Partition Wizard says the flash drive is FAT32, but my other one is also FAT32 and is working properly.

 

[hotphil]

I've successfully recovered files from failed USB drives using DiskDigger in the past. If you don't need the files, you could try partitioning it. But it's probably knackered. I'd certainly not trust it again. Nip out and buy a new one.