USB drive in read only mode

Hardware & Gaming PC Builds, Modding & Overclocking
1

As as topic says, I have a 64GB Kingston Traveller pendrive which got stuck into read only mode while trying to install proxmox installer using balenaEtcher. I am unable to format it either through GUI, diskpart (I/O error), Disk Genius, HDDGuru LLF tool or even using linux tools like hdparm or parted.

The drive shows up in device manager and even in file explorer. Disk Management shows the pendrive as 57 GB, it shows up in diskpart at 58 GB, and in linux as 61.9 GB. It even shows up in properties → Volumes (after populating) as shown in the image below:

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Its been barely used pen drive and mostly kept in drawer safely, so no chance of physical damage.

Has anyone dealth with something like this? Any help to remove read only mode would be great.

2

Your USB drive may be in read-only mode due to a physical lock switch, file system corruption or incorrect permissions. Check if there is a physical lock switch.

3

I checked, there is no switch.

4

Look for manufacturer pen driver recovery (not data recovery) tool, something of the sorts of firmware flasher, don’t remember exactly.

I remember using such tools to successfully revive my pen drives back in early 2010s for Transcend and Strontium pen drives.

5

A common myth, depending on environment conditions such a “safely” kept usb drive can also suffer internal physical damage.

Leaving aside the above, pen drives are not really known for their reliability & it is not unusual to see such failures. Best case scenario, your pen drive locked itself to read only mode to prevent further damage & there is still some hope of recovery. Worst case scenario, it is gone permanently.

1 Like
6

Old one, but should work.

7

I would have believed that if it went bad randomly. It became read only while using balenaEtcher where the flashing failed and the drive got stuck.

8

Thanks, I have tried the steps given here, but round other things to try in this thread. Will try them out tonight.

If these don’t work, then its time to chuck it away and go the m.2 enclosure way for my ventoy drive. USB drives are too erratic.

9

Same situation , Stuck when was cancelling formatting the drive in MacOS . Stuck in read only . Windows also shows as read only . No 3rd party tools have been able to format

Sandisk has a support page on this using Diskpart My sandisk ultra usb 3.0 is write protected what to do? - #4 by shatch11 - All other USB Flash Drives - SanDisk Forums

I tried , worked , tried formatting to NTFS as was in FAT32 . It again became Read Only

Didnt work 2nd time

10

Your drive is dying

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11

Yeah, loads of such stories online. Given how much I tinker with systems, this is not reliable or viable. Ventoy on a ssd is the way forward for me now.

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Screenshot 2025-09-16 095409
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Screenshot 2025-09-16 095122
Screenshot 2025-09-16 095122695Ă—317 11.8 KB

Screenshot 2025-09-16 095305
Screenshot 2025-09-16 095305480Ă—526 45.1 KB

Tried 3 different apps , none works

13

This is worth a try.

14

I tried this as well. Didn’t work though it showed more info about the drive than others.

15

@kuduku I also have a Kingston drive in a similar condition which was being formatted in mac . Now it shows as read only and windows keep asking to format the same but gives error.
Tried reformatting in Mac also. Doesn’t work

No fix yet.

16

Same no fix . Tried all apps and new steps today again

1 Like
17

I/O error is highly likely a Hw fault.

but still..

Try easus partition master free version. give it a try to delete and format. :crossed_fingers:
I hope there isn’t any data you’re trying to recover.

1 Like
18

The issue is that Pendrive were perfectly fine but stopped working after stopped/interrupted formatting in a non WIN OS

The OS have only killed it

19

Already tried did not work

20

Use MiniTool Partition Wizard to wipe the drive or partition : https://www.partitionwizard.com/