If drives are "mounted", no changes are possible to make, and Gparted will show these as "locked". With a right click
on the drive bar, you can unlock the drive by choosing "unmount", and then it should be possible to set flags, format, etc. If a
drive or partition is "auto-mounted" when inserted, this drive or partition would automatically show up as "locked" in
Gparted. If this is the case, do an internet search for a "U3 unlocker", as this feature is present on many USB drives these days.
Reading your original message again, you only say it's a flash drive. Does this
mean USB, Compact Flash, or SD?
Also, if you have a system that can boot from that particular type of drive,
try doing that, as the drive then will be handled as a HDD with different
results in the mentioned utils.
If this util doesn't work, there's also QTparted (depending of the CD you use),
which has a few different features. If it's Knoppix, the 5.3.1 DVD is highly
recommendable. though it takes some time to boot.
No need to step down the daddo ladder yet :) There's still plenty of tricks
available, like Testdisk, etc. If everything fails, there's always an IDE
adapter available for almost any interface. I use a handfull of these for
different media myself, as this often is the shortest way to get complete
control of the media.
If it's an USB pen that has been write protected via use of a USB-to-IDE
adapter, you'll have to alter it using a system that can handle the thing in a
similar manner to be able to zero out the drive, including MBR's, and then
FAT32 format it back to normal.
Right now, I'd try one the utils from IBM/Hitachi that can give you a quite
precise drive diagnostics (and do some zeroing, too), if you have a system that
can specifically boot from a USB device (still assuming that you're talking
about a USB pen).
If nothing of this works, consider buying an identical thingy for your son - I
know, last way out ;)
HTH.
FORC5 wrote:
was a good try but was able to notice that this time it is not two partitions
but is seen as two drives and Gparted says physically write protected check
jumpers.
Must be locked by the manufacturer. Are no jumpers.
need program, me like 8-)
thanks
fp
At 02:50 PM 9/3/2010, Soren Poked the stick with:
Mr. Fred, maybe using one of the so called "live-distros", e.g. knoppix.org,
would help?
The util Gparted will tell u which properties the drive has, including write
protection. Enable/disable is then just a flag away.
HTH.
FORC5 wrote:
Have a flash drive my son got at ASU, has the school manual on it. Copied that
off. Can not use the drive because it is write protected.
There is no switch on the unit
Diskpart does not see it. have nothing with fdisk on it anymore (do not think
anyway)
drive management will not let me delete the partition.
Partition magic (8) does not see it. pretty sure done with sw, anybody have a
clue.
This will move me up a step on the daddo ladder :-D , son is a Computer
Engineer student ( freshman)
thanks
still looking
fp
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