I'm trying to erase a write-protected USB flash drive. This drive was distributed with Autodesk software on it; the write protection was intentional.
I've tried formatting and deleting, which of course doesn't work; I've tried to set the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/StorageDevicePolices/WriteProtect to 0 using regedit, which hasn't changed a thing; somebody recommended I change the drive letter, which it won't let me do. Here is the output of Flash Drive Information Extractor:
Volume: E:
Controller: Phison 2303 (2251-03)
Possible Memory Chip(s):
Toshiba TH58TEG7DCJBA4C
Toshiba TC58TEG7DC4JBA4C
Memory Type: MLC
Flash ID: 98DE8493 72D7
Chip F/W: 01.05.10
Firmware Date: 2013-01-18
ID_BLK Ver.: 1.2.34.0
MP Ver.: MPALL v3.64.0E
VID: 0930
PID: 1400
Manufacturer: TOSHIBA
Product: TOSHIBA USB DRV
Query Vendor ID: TOSHIBA
Query Product ID: TOSHIBA USB DRV
Query Product Revision: PMAP
Physical Disk Capacity: 15846080512 Bytes
Windows Disk Capacity: 12586057216 Bytes
Internal Tags: 2Q2K-S72K
File System: NTFS
USB Version: 3.00
Declared Power: 504 mA
ContMeas ID: 1381-01-00
Microsoft Windows 8 x64
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http://www.antspec.com/usbflashinfo/
Program Version: 7.9.0.548
I'm using a Toshiba laptop, so I think that most of the Toshiba info has to do with internal hardware.
Edit:
Turns out the drive is made by Toshiba, so the above may not be true.
Does anyone have any ideas for what I should try next? My laptop runs Windows 8.1, but I have access to a XP machine and a Raspberry Pi with Raspbian, if those would be helpful.
Note: I see that there are a lot of similar questions on this site, but I do not think that mine is a duplicate because the write-protection was intentional and the items listed above, many of which came from similar questions, failed.
Best Answer
There is a very long set of instructions in this forum post -- too long to re-post here (sorry, flaggers) -- which specifically focuses on breaking the write protection on Autodesk-distributed media to repurpose the devices.
Note that it requires a USB 3.0 port, and installation and usage of some low level vendor-specific utilities to disable write protection on the device.
The write protection is vendor-specific and implemented at the controller level. You will not find a physical switch and there is nothing you can do at the file-system / data level to change it.