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USB Flash drives are one of luminous and disparate invention to store thousands of files in one convenient location. There are myriad of reasons to use USB flash drives over CD and DVDs. They are portable, fast and easy to use and carry. But after using it for few times, you might need to erase data from USB flash drive to make some more room to store new data or sell it.
A simple deletion will not really erase everything from the USB flash drive securely since any advanced computer user can easily recover them in no time using any data recovery software. You will be amused to see how easy it is to get back all the deleted data in no time. So, if you have any sensitive information stored from company or client information then you must erase them using some third party software to make sure all data are securely deleted and can never be restored using any data recovery software whatsoever. So most people choose to wipe data on computer or wipe Mac clean before selling.
In this guide, we will introduce you to two methods that helps to erase data on USB flash drive permanently. Both are free to implement and can get the job done as quickly as possible to give you the best user experience.
Method #1: Wipe USB Flash Drive by Using In-built Format Option
All Windows and Mac computers comes with an in-built format disk option to erase everything from a USB flash drive. We will show you how to use this feature as your advantage to make sure everything is deleted permanently.
Step 1. Insert the USB flash drive to the computer and let the PC detect it.
Step 2. Open 'My Computer' and right-click on the flash drive disk name.
Step 3. Find 'Format' from the option and make a left click on it with the help of your mouse.
Step 4. You will be able to see a window with the following option.
It will show you the storage capacity and file system. By default, it can be either NTFS or FAT32 and the volume label just indicates the name of the flash drive. Watch microsoft movies on ipad. Just leave it to the default settings and click on 'Start'.
Step 5. Wait for few minutes until the formatting process is finished. It may take several minutes depending on the size of the USB Flash drive. Make sure to keep it connected while the process is taking place.
Step 6. After you see the 'Format Successful' pop up messages, you can eject the flash drive.
Warning: This should delete all the files from the flash drive. But as we mentioned earlier, a simple deletion and formatting doesn't really permanently delete everything from the USB drive, they're still be easily recovered by some data recovery softweare. . If the files are not important then you can use this simple deletion option but if you do have confidential company and client information stored in it then you might have to use a professional external tool to erase everything permanently.
Method #2: How to Completely Wipe USB Flash Drive with SafeWiper for Disk
To reduce the risk that someone might recover sensitive data from your USB flash drive, you need to use eraser software to securely erase data from removable USB disk.
SafeWiper for Disk is a professional data deletion tool that erases everything from a drive disk permanently. This little tool deletes data from a disk drive as it never existed on the first place. So, if you are erasing confidential and sensitive data from your USB flash drive then it is assured that the data deletion is beyond recovery. No data recovery has succeeded to recover data from any drive after being deleted using SafeWiper. It is easy to use but to use advanced deletion techniques, you will have to pay a small fee to enjoy the full benefits of this software.
Safewiper for Disk - Permanently Wipe Your USB Drive
- Wipe data and hard drives permanently beyond recovery.
- Permanently wipes data on partitions and disk volumes with advanced wiping algorithm which overwrites your data up to 35 times.
- Uses advanced algorithms (Dod 5220-22.M, US Army, Peter Guttman) to 100% completely wipe data.
- Supports all popular Windows file systems, NTFS, Fat, Fat32.
Step 1 Download and Install Program, Insert Your USB Drive to PC
Download SafeWiper for Disk on your computer, install and run it. SafeWiper for Disk offers to complete hard drives or logical hard drives. So you either completely remove everything from a hard disk or only the hierarchical partitions created from the hard disk. Choose the USB flash drive disk and click on 'Next'.
Step 4 Choose Wiping Algorithm
Click the Setting on the proram, you will see four wiping method in the list. You can use the featured high level deletion techniques including Peter Guttmann Secure Deletion, North Atlantic Treaty Organization_NATO standard, Guttmann Method and so on. The more advnaced wiping algorithm you choose, the more time it will take.
Step 5 Start Deleting Files from Computer (Mac/Windows)
After choosing the wiping method, simply click on 'Wipe' and the program will automatically start erasing everything from the USB flash drive. Wait for few minutes until the data are securely removed from the disk drive.
Now, you can audit the USB flash drive and everything will be permanently erased.
Note: Realize that the data deleted using this software is permanent and there's no going back after this. So, make sure to generate a full back up before using this software.
Summary:
It is recommended to use professional external software like SafeWiper Data Wiper to permanently delete everything from a USB flash drive if it contains any classified and private data to make sure nobody can steal it. Any computer genius can easily recover deleted data from your USB flash drive if you use the simple deletion technique. You must take a step further to maintain the safety and privacy of the data. Hopefully, you guys enjoyed and found this article useful.
Dec 21, 2020 • Filed to: USB Recovery • Proven solutions
How do I remove write protection from a SanDisk flash drive?
Flash Drive Memory Sizes
What Is a Read-Only Flash Drive?
Once you get similar messages like the following ones when using the SanDisk flash drive, it means the pen drive becomes read-only and write-protected. You're unable to edit data, delete files, or save information on this drive, unless you find the fixes.
- The common error of 'The disk is write-protected' will occur when you trying to format an external disk such as (USB flash drive, SD memory card, or pen drive).
- If you start to copy or modify the files on the drive, the pop-up window show you 'The disk is write-protected. Remove this write-protection or use another disk'.
- A read-only flash drive won't allow you to copy the file. When you want to do that, a message might appear - 'You cannot copy files to the volume'.
Why Is My USB Drive Read Only?
Formating the file system of the flash drive can cause the write protection. Usually, a pen drive uses the NTFS file system on a Windows computer. You can keep writing and reading data stored inside it. However, sometimes you might want to use it on a Mac computer. So you format the flash memory stick to make it compatible with the Mac computer. The file system is indeed readable and the stored data is accessible on a Mac computer due to the Mac feature. However, writing data is not available. The write protection is added on the USB flash drive by default.
How do I disable write protection on a flash drive? Here, we offer both Windows and Mac solutions to help you fix write-protected flash drives easily and quickly.
How to Remove Write Protection from USB Flash Drive on Windows
If your USB disk gets this error on Windows computer, you may think the USB drive is broken and unable to use. The flash drive becomes a read-only situation, and you cannot manage data on it, like copying, deleting or writing the files on the disk. How to remove the write protection from a read-only flash drive? On the next guide, we will show you how to disable write protection from flash drive, SD card or pen drive in Windows 10/8/7.
Solution 1: Diskpart Command
- Step 1. Connect your flash drive to the computer, and launch a command prompt by searching for cmd.exe or 'Command Prompt' in the Start menu.
- Step 2. Type the following and press Enter after each command: diskpart, list disk, select disk #(# means the name of your write-protected disk), attributes disk clear readonly, clean, create partition primary, format fs=ntfs.
- Step 3. Exit the Command Prompt.
After this, your USB flash drive should now work well. If it doesn't work, you can also follow the next steps to fix write-protected USB drive with Regedit.exe.
Solution 2: Regedit.exe
- Step 1. Press key of Windows Key + R and type regedit in Run dislog box and Enter.
- Step 2. On the pop-up window Registry Editor, go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlStorageDevicePolicies.
- Step 3. Double click the WriteProtect value in the right pane.
- Step 4. You can change the value data from 1 to 0, then click OK to save the change, and close the Regedit window.
- Step 5. Restart your computer and connect the USB drive to it. Check if the drive is working well and no longer write-protected. If it isn't read-only now, you can continue using the USB flash drive.
Solution 3: Open Windows Explorer
- Step 1. Plug in the write-protected disk.
- Step 2. Press 'Windows+E' and right-click on the drive.
- Step 3. By right-clicking on the disk, you can choose 'Properties', and then select 'Security'.
- Step 4. To Edit the permissions, you should now select 'Everyone' from 'Group or user names'.
- Step 5. Select 'Edit' and go to 'Permissions'
- Step 6. Check all the boxes labeled as 'Allow'
- Step 7. Click 'Apply' and exit. Your disk's write protection has now been removed.
Solution 4. Check and Unlock USB Flash Drive
- Check the switch on the drive: some external USB flash drives and pen drives have a mechanical switch which is used to lock or unlock the drive. If your drive gets the switch, check whether the switch is locked or not. If yes, move it.
- You also can check the USB flash drive if it got the virus-infected and attacked. You need to download anti-virus software and scan your flash drive. Once the virus is found, and kill it at once to remove write protection from a read-only flash drive.
How to Remove Write Protection from USB Pen Drive on Mac
If you're working on a Mac computer, you also will receive the 'Read Only' error on the external drive. On the following steps, we will show you how to disable write protection disk on Mac.
Usb Flash Drive Memory Stick
Solution 1: Format Write-Protected Pen Drive on Mac
To disable the write-protected disk on Mac, you can follow the next steps to format the drive on macOS:
- Step 1. Open the Disk Utility, and the application window will open.
- Step 2. Click on your USB flash drive on the left pane of Disk Utility.
- Step 3. Click on the Erase tab, then select the format type. Select either 'MS-DOS File System' or 'exFAT' both working well on Windows and Mac.
- Step 4. Then click on the 'Erase' option to start formatting the USB flash drive.
Solution 2: Fix and Repair Permissions
Check if the drive's permissions are corrupted or not. You can fix the error using Disk Utility. Follow the steps below to remove write protection from Read-only USB drive on Mac.
- Step 1. Go to the Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.
- Step 2. Select the device which is ready-only need to remove write protection.
- Step 3. Click on the First Aid and the OS will start to scan your drive.
We hope those solutions could help you fix and remove write protection from USB drive on Windows and Mac. If it still fails to fix out the problem, you should buy a new USB flash drive. Also, if you need to get all USB data back, you can download Recoverit Data Recovery, powerful USB data recovery software, to help you out. Follow the guide to recover files from USB drive easily.
USB Topic
- Recover USB Drive
- Format USB Drive
- Fix/Repair USB Drive
- Know USB Drive
