"Write protected" flash drive

Torqay

So I have this Sandisk Cruzer Blade 16GB USB stick and it became mysteriously "write protected".

Obviously I can't write to the drive, but I can't format or delete the partition (FAT32) either.

I have edited the registry (regarding the write protection of removable storage devices), the option to delete the partion is not available in the Disk management console. The usual USB formatting tools have failed. Ditto KillDisk and low level formatting.

On the Linux side I have tried gparted and DBAN, all to no avail.

It's properly locked.

I ran some tests and the drive comes up clear, at least as far as reading is concerned.

Edit: The stick is not U3 protected and of course there is no physical write protection switch.

The problem is not unheard of, yet I have not come across a solution. Maybe someone here has a magic trick up their sleeve?

SeanW

Have you tried it in another machine? If you do and it still fails, it's "get a refund" time.

Torqay

Yep, same on any machine I have tried.

As for refund, it's not even mine and I doubt it's worth the hassle, they sell for $15 on ebay or so.

Just baffled by the mystery if you know what I mean.

SeanW

I think flash memory has a limit to the number of rewrite cycles it can go through.

If it's been rewritten extensively over its lifetime, or some of the internal circutry has detected weak cells, it could have put itself into read-only mode to protect the data. That's my guess anyway.

Torqay

SeanW wrote: »

I think flash memory has a limit to the number of rewrite cycles it can go through.

If it's been rewritten extensively over its lifetime, or some of the internal circutry has detected weak cells, it could have put itself into read-only mode to protect the data. That's my guess anyway.

While you can never rule out faulty cells, I don't think that's the cause. It's only a few weeks old. As I said, the problem is not uncommon, if you google 'sandisk cruzer blade write protected', you'll see there are a couple of threads at the Sandisk forum, but no solution has yet emerged.

Bosh

Had an issue with a 32gb Sandisk stick recently. If it was formatted NTFS it would work fine for a day or two then would stop working, giving 'disk needs formatting' message when inserted.

Contacted Sandisk, very helpful, tried a few tests & then received a RMA.

Posted it back, new stick delivered by UPS week later.

Can't argue with that service!

livEwirE

Hey OP, sorry to say I had the exact same problem as you with a Sandisk Cruzer 16gb only last week, tried everything, have now contacted Sandisk and am in the process of an RMA(to be fair they were incredibly good to deal with), the drive was only bought in December 2011. I didn't bother going back to the oringinal vendor(Eason) as I knew I'd just be fobbed off as I have no receipt. Hopefully will get the replacement drive sent out soon:rolleyes: I think a refund/exchange from the original vendor or a Sandisk RMA are your only options. Will not be buying Sandisk in future:mad:

yoyo

Be very careful buying flash memory on ebay, many items are fake and can quite quickly corrupt and loose data, not only that but many fake usb keys are "faked" to display advertising capacity, and contain considerably less space when trying to fill it up.

Nick

unkel

yoyo wrote: »

Be very careful buying flash memory on ebay, many items are fake

+1

Reminds me of the cheap external hard disks that were for sale there a while a go. Were looking good:



But they seem to have all sorts of problems, didn't hold much data either. Then someone opened one of them up:



:pac:

SeanW

Bosh wrote: »

Had an issue with a 32gb Sandisk stick recently. If it was formatted NTFS it would work fine for a day or two then would stop working, giving 'disk needs formatting' message when inserted.

Contacted Sandisk, very helpful, tried a few tests & then received a RMA.

Posted it back, new stick delivered by UPS week later.

Can't argue with that service!

Many, many years ago I had a Sandisk flash drive, small by todays standards, but I formatted it with NTFS (had to hack my computer a little for it to format), and then it died af few days later. Now I leave the defauly FS on new USB keys and memory cards.

Torqay

Actually, they cam frome Amazon UK... and its going back for a refund.

SeanW

yoyo

unkel wrote: »

+1

Reminds me of the cheap external hard disks that were for sale there a while a go. Were looking good:



But they seem to have all sorts of problems, didn't hold much data either. Then someone opened one of them up:



:pac:

Lmao Unkel, I'd say a fairly "silent" hard drive it was :P

Nick