Windows 11 External Hard Drive Write-Protected

[ark8991]

I am trying to use my external hard drive on my Windows 11 machine, but it says it is write-protected now all of a sudden. I tried some of the fixes online (uncheck read-only in properties, regedit, diskpart, sfc scan, & chdisk), but they didn't work. Any USB I plug in is also write-protected as well. I have been trying to fix this for a week so any help is appreciated.





"detail disk" command in diskpart says that the disk is not Read-Only but when I try to add files to the disk it says its write-protected.

 

[Neemobeer]

Does the enclosure have a write blocker switch on it?
Do you have write permissions to the location you're trying to add files to at the file system level?

 

[ark8991]

Does the enclosure have a write blocker switch on it?
Do you have write permissions to the location you're trying to add files to at the file system level?

There is no block switch on my external hard drive and USB stick. My user is the owner of the disk so I do have write permission. Here are what my permissions look like:

Auth User: Modify, Read & Exec, List folder contents, Read, Write
System: Modify, Read & Exec, List folder contents, Read, Write
Admin: Modify, Read & Exec, List folder contents, Read, Write
Users: Modify, Read & Exec, List folder contents, Read

I also tried using my admin account to write to disk but it didn't work.

 

[Neemobeer]

What edition of Windows? Home, Pro?

 

[ark8991]

What edition of Windows? Home, Pro?

Windows 11 Home. This is the erorr:

 

[Neemobeer]

Have you checked for any GPOs applied via regedit here
HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\RemovableStorageDevices or
HKU\Same path

There are also policies that prevent write unless you are using Bitlocker which are also under the \Policies\ path

 

[ark8991]

Have you checked for any GPOs applied via regedit here
HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\RemovableStorageDevices or
HKU\Same path

There are also policies that prevent write unless you are using Bitlocker which are also under the \Policies\ path

Both those paths don't exist in my registry. I don't think Bitlocker is available for Home Edition.