How to Unwrite & Protect a Flash Drive

USB flash drives may be protected to prevent writing to the drive. To prevent unauthorized files such as viruses and Trojans from saving or replicating to the drive, write-protection may be applied to the flash device in two ways. First, many USB flash drives are equipped with a write-protection switch on the case of the drive. Simply set the switch to the "Lock" mode to prevent saving of additional data to the drive. The second method involves applying write-protection software to the device to protect the drive from unauthorized files.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computer with Internet access

1. Open a Web browser and enter the URL for the Pen Protector software site (See Resources).

2. Purchase and download the Pen Protector application. The cost of the program is approximately $5.

3. Insert the USB flash drive into a USB port on the computer.

4. Copy the Pen Protector application onto the USB flash drive.

5. Right-click on the Windows "Start" button and select the "Explore" option to open Windows Explorer.

6. Go to the USB flash drive.

7. Double-click on the Pen Protector executable (exe) file. A DOS window will open and text will appear indicating that the flash drive (pen drive) is now write-protected.

8. To disable write-protection on the pen drive, re-run the executable Pen Protector application on the USB flash drive.

Tips & Warnings

• The Pen Protector software must be copied onto each USB flash drive or SD card in order for the device to be write-protected.
• USB Flash drives are also called pen drives or thumb drives.

Resources

• Pen Protector