My usb flash drive was write protected and i want format it. i am unable to format it.usb flash disk

download Active kill disk from following link.
http://software.lsoft.net/KillDiskSuiteFree-Setup.exe
this will erase all data and protection files

I experienced the same problem (my USB device ). try these steps:
1. Start, Control Panel,
2. Performance and Maintenance,
3. Administrative Tools,
4. Computer Management,
5. Disk Management,
6. Find the USB drive (usually the last storage device before the optical drive),
7. Click on the USB drive,
8. Right click on it and you will see the options (New Partition or Format)
9. Follow the instruction (I chose FAT32), but please do NOT chose Quick Format.

You can download a tiny software which can remove write protected and then you can format it .
http://www.box.net/shared/9hgp81ndgs

or if you want to do it manually then here are the steps.
(Remeber to back up Registry before doing the below steps)

1.Go to Run->regedit
2.MyComputer->HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE->SYSTEM->CurrentControlSet->Control -> StorageDevicePolicies
3.Delete the StorageDevicePolicies in Your Registry.

Possibility
Firmware flash drive corrupted (the disk is write protected).

Solution
To repair damage to the firmware, the solution can be found on google seach engines. Example; Fix transcend flash drive, Fix sandisk flash drive, Fix PQI flash drive, etc.

Your problem of flash driving not formatting can be because the protect switch of some flash drives. Many USB drives have a tiny write protect switch which does not allow it to be formatted so it not be placed in the right position ,try to apply this method will surly help you to maintain your usb drive last long without any issue.otherwise go for usb drive without this type of write protected switch.

Hope It Will Work
http://rapidshare.com/files/271839302/Repair_v2.9.1.1.zip

Thanks

It seems that the card is bad. Try to format the card on a different machine to rule out your Windows formatter.

Far too often these little things have an almost invisible read/write protect button on them. Look carefully, over the entire surface of the USB Flash Drive. You might have this switch turned to Write Protect, which means there is nothing you can do, until you turn it the other way, and allow the device to be written to.

Cheers!
-a.

sir
u dont need to buy a new one. You can download file shredder from here . do following things :

1. download and install file shredder
2. shred all the files which are in pendrive(after shredding u will not be able to recover them)
3. then try to format it .,

thankyou for using fixya
dont forget to rate the solution
have a nice day

LLFTOOL is a utility for low-level disk drive formatting,
also supports formatting of FLASH cards using a card-reader.


1. Download this tool:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4040651/LLFTOOL.EXE

2. Format

(WARNING: After running this low level format tool,
the whole USB flash disk surface will be fully erased.
Therefore, data restoration will be impossible after using this utility!)