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  1. Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    21,244
    #1
    I bought a new HP 8gb flash drive. I tried to install password protection (MasterVoyager), but something went wrong while installing. Now it's write protected. I can't format it because it's write protected. Tried low level formatting, but always get some error messages.

    Can I still save my USB flash drive?

  2. Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    29,354
    #2
    You could try using with Windows auto-run disabled.

    The encryption system automatically runs when you plug-in the USB drive. Since the software is active, it may prevent formating of the USB drive.

    Disabling auto-run would prevent the software from launching and hopefully give you access to your USB drive, including formatting it.

  3. Join Date
    May 2006
    Posts
    3,722
    #3
    What's the simplest way to disable auto-run for external devices?

    I only got to disable my cd-rom

  4. Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Posts
    2,053
    #4
    You may also want to try mounting the thumbdrive to a foreign OS like Linux or Mac.
    If the software protection does not kick in, you should be able to format.

  5. Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    21,244
    #5
    Quote Originally Posted by ghosthunter View Post
    You could try using with Windows auto-run disabled.

    The encryption system automatically runs when you plug-in the USB drive. Since the software is active, it may prevent formating of the USB drive.

    Disabling auto-run would prevent the software from launching and hopefully give you access to your USB drive, including formatting it.
    How to do that?

  6. Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    29,354

  7. Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Posts
    631
    #7
    Some thumbdrives come with their own proprietary formatting software. You may have a copy of that, or if not, a copy may possibly be download from the manufacturer's site.

  8. Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    21,244
    #8
    Tried everything, still can't format the flash drive. It always says disk is write protected

  9. Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    29,354
    #9
    Say bye bye to it and visit your nearest CDR-KING branch for a replacement USB flash drive. They even have 32gb flash drives...

  10. Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    2,716
    #10
    If you're comfortable with linux and you have access to a linux box try this:

    try plugging it in a linux box, see if it will detect it, if it does, do an fdisk -l to check if it's either /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, etc. etc. once you've found out which device represents your flash drive, do an fdisk on it to totally erase it.

    Note: you have to do this as "root" (obviously) and if the flash drive auto-mounted when you plug it in, unmount it first before doing an fdisk on it.

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How to recover my USB flash drive?