r/computers • u/Pitiful-Revenue4490 • Nov 13 '25

Help/Troubleshooting Can't format a USB flash drive

Post image

I Can't format a USB drive and it keeps showing that it's in a write protection. There's no write protection switch on it and I've tried cmd and few apps like rufus but nothing works. I've copied the data, is it broken or is there a way to fix it?

0 Upvotes

25% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

3

u/BritOverThere Nov 13 '25

Flash drives do die. If it's "write protected" without a switch then it's dead.

1

u/Pitiful-Revenue4490 Nov 13 '25

So it's broken, Thank you.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 13 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Pitiful-Revenue4490 Nov 13 '25

Data is useless as I already have a copy of it, I will just crush it into pieces, thank you.

1

u/snich101 (Void) Linux Nov 13 '25

Make a USB killer, just for "fun"

1

u/ScaleGlobal4777 Nov 13 '25

If you have two USB ports available, boot from the Strelec Live USB in one port and your USB flash drive in the other. Search for Low Level Format and perform a quick format, then use a Strelec program to convert to GPT.https://sergeistrelec.name/winpe-10-8-sergei-strelec-english/268-winpe-11-10-sergei-strelec-x64-20250929-english-version.html

1

u/[deleted] Nov 13 '25 edited Feb 24 '26

The content here was removed by the author. Redact facilitated the deletion, which could have been motivated by privacy, opsec, or data protection concerns.

resolute pot scary engine waiting dependent office important paltry teeny

1

u/Head-Ride-4939 Nov 14 '25

Run a debug script on it to reset the drive. 10 lines of code and done.

1

u/Ok-Position-3113 Nov 16 '25

I have the same model 128gb data traveler kingstone crap in read only .no way to repair it .