How do I remove "read only" on an external hard drive under "Disk Management"?
Hello, I have an old laptop hard drive that I have put into an external enclosure in an attempt to reformat it and use it as an external drive. When i look at this drive under Disk Management, it is listed as "read only". I am unable to use format from the cmd prompt as i get a "Cannot format. This volume is write protected." message. How can I reformat this drive with these permissions?
John
Can you remove all the partitions on this drive with Disk Management? If no, does the drive possibly have a password on it? (My hard drives all have passwords and are inaccessible to anyone but me). ... Thinkpads_User
ASKER
Since the drive is being detected as 'read only', all the actions are greyed out...including delete the partition. I believe there might be a password on the file on the drive since i am unable to browse the documents and settings for the users. But, i just want to reformat the entire drive.
Just had this issue today:-
Right click on drive in disk management > click explore > control a to select all contents > right click on them and click properties > select security tab > click advanced > click on the tab owner > take ownership > apply.
redo the whole process above and and rather taking ownership this time, add yourself or everyone in the security tab > click apply > then click ok
repeat the above process on all partitions and then disconnect and reconnect and then you should be able delete or reformat.
If it gives you any error during the above process applying permissions simply press and hold enter.
Hope it helps.
Right click on drive in disk management > click explore > control a to select all contents > right click on them and click properties > select security tab > click advanced > click on the tab owner > take ownership > apply.
redo the whole process above and and rather taking ownership this time, add yourself or everyone in the security tab > click apply > then click ok
repeat the above process on all partitions and then disconnect and reconnect and then you should be able delete or reformat.
If it gives you any error during the above process applying permissions simply press and hold enter.
Hope it helps.
ASKER
I have tried all this and no matter what I do, I get a pop up message saying "Media is write protected".
There remains the possiblity that the drive is password protected (not the folders, but the drive itself). Otherwise, the drive (being old, you say) could have suffered some damage in some way and is not a good drive anymore. ... Thinkpads_User
ASKER
Is there anyway to reset the password if it is set on the drive itself?
In general, no. It requires a clean room and costs a pantload full of money. Unless the drive has very valuable information on it, it is usually not worth the effort. They are so tricky on Thinkpads, I have only been able to reset the passwords on the machine that set the password. ... Thinkpads_User
You may want try updating the firmware for this hdd which may overwrite the password.
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ASKER
Running 'diskpart' and clearing the READONLY attributes worked like a charm!
ASKER
Running 'diskpart' and clearing the READONLY attributes worked like a charm!
I am happy it woked for you!