You can then create and format a partition: create partition primary First, ensure you select the disk: select disk 1 You can now format the drive using Diskpart’s clean command.

If successful, confirmation of the step will be displayed with the message «Disk attributes cleared successfully.» Just type this command: attributes disk clear readonly Note that in our case, it’s set to No as write protection is disabled on our flash drive!īut you can easily remove the write protection from your USB drive. If you cannot write to the disk or reformat it, then Current Read-only State will be set to Yes. Next, request attributes: attributes disk This will be confirmed with the message that Disk 1 is now the selected disk. In our example, that means entering: select disk 1 Once you’re certain, it’s time to select the disk. Making the effort to be totally certain at this stage is vital to the integrity of the data on your computer. Also, note that USB flash drives can be as high as 1TB in capacity (like the PNY Pro Elite) at the time of writing, which could be larger than your computer’s HDD. Select the Right Disk!īefore proceeding further, be certain that you have identified the USB pen drive. If not, you’ll be able to confirm it in Windows Explorer. You should be able to check the capacity on the device itself, as this is usually printed on a drive’s casing. Therefore, Disk 1 is the USB flash drive. In the image above, while Disk 0 is 931GB, Disk 1 is 57GB. With a USB flash device connected (which will be Disk 1 or higher), you should be able to identify it by its comparatively low capacity. Note that the size is displayed for each disk. If you have multiple partitions, these will be sequentially numbered. This is the one that Windows is installed on. But which is your USB drive?ĭisk 0 will be your computer’s system drive. The resulting table will list the currently available devices. It’s time to see which disks are attached to your computer: list disk At the prompt, enter this: diskpartĪ new command line window will open with a new DISKPART prompt. You should now see CMD, the command-line tool. User Access Control will prompt you to confirm the action. You can open this by hitting Windows key + R, entering cmd, then hitting Enter. Windows has a built-in disk partition management tool called Diskpart. How to Remove USB Write Protection With Diskpartīefore starting, insert your pen drive into your computer’s USB port. Jump to the next section and try out Diskpart. But if it still doesn’t work, don’t lose hope. Reinsert your USB drive and see if you’re able to format it. Slide it off if your USB drive has one too. Many USB flash drives have a switch, usually at the sides, by which you can turn on/off the write protection from the outside.

How to format your flash drive