In my Windows-10 PC (Windows 10 Home, AMD Ryzen 5 3600, 16 GB RAM, GTX1070) I have multiple drives installed, of which one is a 120GB Kingston (SV300S37A120G). The disk is not used for the OS, but merely for some fast-access files and programs. Yesterday I noticed that I am not able to write or change any file on the disk. I cannot create new files or delete files. These options don't even show up on context menus when right-clicking items in explorer. When checking the properties of any folder or file on the disk, I noticed they are all read-only.
Since the complete disk is read-only, I cannot use the disk, but I also cannot change the read-only mode to write-enabled, because whichever method I use, I always get the error message 'The drive is write-protected'. I.e., the drive must be write-enabled to allow me to change the drive to write-enabled, it seems.
I've used every method I could find online to disable the 'read-only' mode of the disk, but to no avail. Every time the message 'can't change the property, since the drive is read-only' (in dutch). I cannot even format the disk. There is no physical switch on the drive to enable/disable read-only.
How can I access my drive?
01 Answer
The disk may be dead.
First, make sure that your backups are up to date and restorable.
Then check if the disk is writable in Linux. You can use Ubuntu, it boots from USB without the need for installation. If it's not writable, then it's time to replace it. If it works, you can use GParted (still under Linux) to create a new partition table and format it blank.
