Do you know that a disc be made read-only? Which means that you can alter the disc in such a way that users will only be able to access a particular file and not make any changes to it. How can I avoid unintentionally formatting a disc? All the issues will be provided solutions for in this post. And the gppd thing is, you won’t require any additional software to do so. We will demonstrate how to set or remove a certain disk’s read-only mode on Windows 11/10/8.1/7.
Why do you need to set a Disk as a Read-Only Mode?
Make the drive or partition containing your vital data read-only if you share your computer, external hard drive, or USB flash drive with friends or coworkers. You or another person won’t be able to remove or format any volume or drive once the read-only or write protect settings have been applied. This helps to safeguard your data and ensure that even a virus won’t touch it by setting your storage device to read-only. The file on the hard disc, USB device, or partition can be accessed and read by anyone.
We will touch on the following topics in this risewindows article:-
- How to Set a Disk Read-Only or Write Protect in Windows 11 / 10 / 8 / 7?
- How to Remove Read-Only or Write Protect Mode from a Disk in Windows 11 / 10 / 8 / 7?
How to Set a Disk Read-Only or Write-Protect in Windows 11 / 10 / 8 / 7?
Use the following steps to set a Disk as read-only or write-protect on Windows computer:-
Step 1: First, open the elevated Command Prompt on your computer.
Press
If the User Account Control (UAC) dialogue box appears, select Yes to proceed.
Step 2: Type the following in the Command Prompt Window and press
diskpart
Step 3: Now, type the following in the DISKPART prompt window and press
list disk
When you run the aforementioned command, all of the internal and external discs connected to your computer will be listed.
Step 4: Write down the disc number that you want to mark as read-only or write protected. Now, type the following command into the keyboard and press
select disk disk-number
Note: In the above command, replace the “disk-number” with your own disk number, which you want to make write protect or read-only. For instance, we are going to make write protect or read-only to disk 1. Hence, here command will be “select disk 1.”
Step 5: To make it write-protected or read-only, input the following and press
attributes disk set readonly
Step 6: Now a message will show up on your screen that says “Disk attributes set successfully.”
You won’t be able to remove or change any files on that volume after completing the aforementioned steps. You cannot format them even. You will encounter the “The disc is write-protected” problem if you attempt to format that disc.
How to Remove Read-Only or Write Protect Mode from a Disk in Windows 11 / 10 / 8 / 7?
Use the following steps to remove read-only or write-protection from a disk in Windows computer:-
Step 1: First, open the elevated Command Prompt on your computer.
Press
If the User Account Control (UAC) dialogue box appears, select Yes to proceed.
Step 2: Type the following in the Command Prompt Window and press
diskpart
Step 3: Now, type the following in the DISKPART prompt window and press
list disk
When you run the aforementioned command, all of the internal and external discs connected to your computer will be listed.
Step 4: Write down the disc number that you want to mark as read-only or write protected. Now, type the following command into the keyboard and press
select disk disk-number
Note: To create a disc number write protected or read-only, substitute your own disc number for “disk-number” in the script above. For instance, we’ll make disc 1 read-only or write protected. I shall thus issue the command “select disc 1.”
Step 5: To remove or clear its write-protection or read-only, type the following and press Enter on the keyboard. –
attributes disk clear readonly
Step 6: “Disk characteristics removed successfully” will be displayed on the DISKPART.
The selected external hard drive or USB flash drive will no longer be in read-only or write protection mode once you’ve finished the above procedures. You can edit, remove, or format the external disc as necessary.
That is it
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