Seagate HDD Suddenly reading as "Write Protected"

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ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Honestly, I don't know what happened. I've been using this 1 TB USB 2.0 powered HDD since about the summer. But now, I can't move files onto it or delete the files currently on it. It's apparently become "write protected" out of nowhere. Which is weird because I moved files over to it just a few days ago.

I googled some information on fixing it, but it doesn't seem to help. One suggested included a registry edit, with a folder titled "storagedevicepolicies" but it's not in my list.

At this point, I'm thinking of just saying screw it, buy a new one (been thinking of getting a 1.5 TB anyway) and copy everything over to the new one. Unless anyone has a suggestion that could fix it.
 
strawman

strawman

First, copy everything off.

Second, reformat it. If you can't, repartition it (control panel --> Administrative tools --> computer management --> disk management) and see if that fixes the problem.

You can also try downloading the seagate drive utility and checking the drive with that.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

The OS can mark a drive as write-protected if the directory becomes to damaged to navigate. It is definitely time to back up.

--Patrick
 
strawman

strawman

ThatNickGuy said:
My laptop doesn't have the space to copy everything off of it. :( Will I lose everything if I repartition it?
Click to expand...
Yes, but as Patrick points out, it's likely that this is the first sign of a failing drive. Buy a new one to replace it, and put everything on the new one. Then see if you can resurrect the old one.

Don't format or partition until you've got everything stored safely somewhere else.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Okay, so follow-up question: if I do go get a new HDD tomorrow and copy all my files over to that new one, will this error carry over as well?

Sorry, I'm kind of an idiot when it comes to this.
 
strawman

strawman

It should not. Since I don't know the exact nature of the error, it's impossible to say, but this type of problem isn't a file problem, so copying the files over won't move it to the new drive.

If it's caused by a virus there could be issues, but I've never seen a virus do this.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

You will probably be able to copy over all files the drive can still locate. Most likely, this should be all of them, but there is still the possibility that some files may not make it over (or may make it to the new drive but in corrupted form), so it would be best to check any critical files after the migration to make sure they made it successfully.

--Patrick
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Welp, bought me a new HDD today. 1.5 TB for the win! I'm now copying everything over from the old one.

...still got about 11 hours to go. Oy.
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

I can't believe that my 1TB HDD is already full. I had to uninstall games just to download new ones from the steam holiday sale. I picked up Rage, for some ungodly reason and that things, like 23GB.
 
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