External drives are write-protected

[ailurophile]

I have a Pavilion Slimline s3700f that I bought in January. I'm running Windows Vista (32-bit). All of a sudden it sees the flash/USB drives as write-protected. In all my years of computing, I've never seen this before. It started the first week of April. Here are the symptoms and what I've done to try to correct this:

• Portable Drives are seen as write-protected

• Try to delete files, and Del key does not work. Right-click, Del not on menu. Under File, Delete is grayed out.

• Cannot format portable drives, because they are write-protected.

• SanDisk Cruzr's U3 app not opening; error message indicates that it's corrupted and needs to be formatted, but I can't - see above
  

• Card doesn't read from on-board SD slot

• Cannot delete files from phone when connected via USB

• Rolled back to two Restore Points (April 4, April 1); no change

• AVG Scan performed April 4 nothing found (as I expected).

• Cannot Delete from Media Card while it's in phone via BlackBerry Media Manager, but can copy from card

It sounds like a driver or software conflict. The Device Manager sees no problems with the USB ports or their drivers. Maybe my Cruzr is corrupted, and it infected my computer. Does that sound plausible? I'm looking for suggestions. 

[ErnyWhite]

Try this

1.Run Registry Editor (regedit).  (do a backup of the registery before making any changes)
2.Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
3.Go into StorageDevicePolicies.
4.Highlight StorageDevicePolicies, and then delete the current dword
32 bit and ceate a New DWORD (32-bit) Value no name it leave it as is.

OR  Double click the key WriteProtect in the right pane and set the value to 0 in the Value Data Box and press OK button

Ok?---------------- If the registry key StorageDevicePolicies key does not exist, you will need to create it  Fun we can tell  you how to create a registery key if you need too

[ailurophile]

Okay, thanks. I've done regedits before, but it's nice to have the specific keys I need handy. I'll try it within the week and let you know.

[ailurophile]

Yes! That worked! Thank you oh so very much!

[ErnyWhite]

Your welcome, please mark my post as accepted solution so anyone else can easily find the answer.

[ailurophile]

I'd be happy to do that for you; how do I do that? I did not see that option on this page.

[storr66]

Hi,

I'm having a similar sort of problem with a simplesave sd500a can you please provide the instructions on how to create the registry key as it is not appearing on my system, thank you

[Universe2010]

How do you set up a storage device under control?

[markgaydes]

We can try this tool to solve this problem
<a href="http://longpathtool.com/">long path tool</a>