Step 9: Open “This PC” (Windows 10) or “My Computer” (Windows Vista/XP), and refresh it 5 times without doing anything to your USB drive, and properly eject the flash drive. Step 8: Close RegEdit by clicking the “X” icon. Step 7: Double click the WriteProtect folder, change the Value data: into “0” and Base to “Hexadecimal”, click “OK.” Step 6: Now rename the New Value #1 folder into WriteProtect. Hint: see this Microsoft article to check whether your computer is running a 32-bit version or 64-bit version.
Step 5: Right-click on StorageDevicePolicies folder, select New, and QWORD (64-bit) Value if your PC is running with a 64-bit version, or DWORD (32-bit) Value if it’s with 32-bit. Step 4: Now rename the New Key #1 folder into StorageDevicePolicies. Step 3: Right-click Control folder, select New > Key. Step 2: In Registry Editor, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control. Step 1: In the search bar, type “regedit” and click the regedit app icon to run it. If you’re on Windows 8.1, 7, Vista, or XP, they will look slightly different.
Note: our PC is running Windows 10 thus all the screenshots below are taken Windows 10.
How to Format USB When Windows Says Disk is Write Protected If this doesn’t work out, use the command line to initiate the drive.
5.2 HP USB Format Tool Permission Denied.5.1 Fix HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool Not Working Accordingly.5 Fix HP USB Format Tool Failed Format Device Accordingly.4.4 Procedure to format on Windows PC, for 8GB/16GB/32GB model*.4.1 Procedure to format on Windows PC, for 16GB/32GB model*.1.3 How to Format USB When Windows Says Disk is Write Protected.1.2 How to Fix It When Windows Was Unable to Complete the Format.1.1 Typical Errors When Windows Can’t Format USB.1 How to Fix “Windows Was Unable to Complete the Format” Error.