No write access to media

[nads1978]

Hi, I'm not sure if this is a Windows or T420 specific issue, so I'm sorry if it is in the wrong section!

My T420 originally ran Win 7 pro 32bit - worked fine for months, then lost ability to write to DVD/SD/memory-stick/external-HDD I always get the message "The disk is write protected".
I recently upgraded to Win 7 Pro 64bit, fresh install with new SSHD, more RAM. All was fine, until a couple of weeks ago. I have now lost "write" ability to any media again (except the internal HDD). I find myself sending files to another machine via Skype/etc to write to the media. Obviously this is frustrating!

All the media works fine on other machines, I bought a new USB (SD) card reader, that is the same situation, read only!
The problem same in both Admin accounts on this machine. No group policies.
I have tried making a registry entry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies - but no difference.

(image of) Installed software:
https://ibb.co/iBzGsb

tldr; "The disk is write protected" on all media except internal HDD.

[RealBlackStuff]

To remove the write protection, run CMD as administrator and then run diskpart.
Type these commands (without the -) followed by hit Enter:
- diskpart
- list disk
- select disk {number} [# of your OS-drive, e.g.: select disk 1]
- list volume
- select volume {number} [# of "locked" drive]
- attr disk clear readonly
- attr volume clear readonly [does not always work, that's OK]
- detail disk [to check: Readonly = No]
- detail volume [to check: Readonly = No]
- exit
Repeat for every locked drive.

You may also want to check your registry if it has:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies
"WriteProtect" :00000001 <<-- 1=protected
If so, change to: 00000000 <<-- 0=NOT protected

[nads1978]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

The "diskpart" suggestion didn't do anything for the external (USB) HDD and external (USB) card reader.

I already had the following entry, but was set to "1" (thanks to somewhere else on the internet!):

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies
"WriteProtect" :00000001 <<-- 1=protected
If so, change to: 00000000 <<-- 0=NOT protected

As suggested, I changed to "0" and managed to rectify external (USB) HDD and external (USB) SD card reader

The internal card reader is still the same, but I can live with that. Not tested DVD/CD writer yet.

Many thanks

[RealBlackStuff]

Here's a possible solution: bad hardware in your internal SD-card reader: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/11414 ... -protected
Scroll down to entry: frr Feb 16, 2007, 6:27 PM

[nads1978]

That looks very feasible, I'll live with just the external card reader.
It's always a challenge when a problem lies with 2 separate yet similar faults!