Somehow, one of my flash drives, SanDisk Micro Cruzer-1GB, got write protected on my main computer. Any time I try to copy something into it, I receive a pop-up,“Error 19-The media is write protected.” No problem copying out from it the files that are already on it. On other computers, the flash drives works properly. How do I remove the write protection? Using XP Pro/SP2. Thank you.
Since your drive works on other computers properly, it’s likely something set incorrectly on your main computer. You can try changing a registry value to attempt to fix the problem.
Go into notepad and create a file. Type or copy/paste the following:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies]
"WriteProtect"=dword:00000000
Click save as, change the file type to be saved to ‘All Files.’ Name the file something like: WriteFix.reg
The file name doesn’t matter, but you need the .reg file extension.
Save the file. Then right click it and select ‘Merge.’ Reboot and check to see if it worked.
This will add a line to your registry (or edit one that exists) that should lift the write restriction on the drive. It’s nothing that should mess up your registry, but I still suggest backing it up before you perform the merger.