How to write protect your USB Flash drive

 

Many a time, it becomes necessary for us to write protect USB flash drive us to protect it from viruses and other malicious programs. Because flash drives are so popular and most widely used for moving data between computers is the primary objective of the invaders as a way to get infections spread around the world. Also, since the USB drive is not read-only memory (ROM), the data inside can be easily modified or deleted by malicious programs.

But, unfortunately, most new drives flash does not come with a feature such as switch manufacturers to reduce production costs. Therefore, the only way to write protect your USB flash drive is to turn this feature on your own computer.

This can be done by adding a small entry in the Windows registry, which acts as a switch that can be activated to use the write-protected or disabled to allow write access. Simply follow these steps:

1. open the Registry Editor (open "Run" dialog regedit , type and hit "Enter").

2. navigate to following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\

3. create a new key named StorageDevicePoliciesas. To do this right-click the controland click new-> key and name the StorageDevicePoliciesas.

4. Now right-click StorageDevicePolicies and create a new->(32-bit representation), DWORD and name the WriteProtectas.

 

 

 

 

 

5. double-click WriteProtect in and set the value data in 1.

Now, the right to protection for USB drives on your computer is enabled (requires restart) and thus would not be possible for anyone or any program for adding/deleting contents from USB flash drive. Any attempt to copy or download of files on the USB drive will cause the following error message appears.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To go back and remove the write-protection, all you have to do is simply changing the value data for WriteProtect (step 5) 1 back to 0. write access to all USB devices are now re-enabled.

Sometimes it may seem difficult to remember and follow the steps above every time you want to enable/disable the write-protection. Therefore, as an alternative way, there are many tools available to automatically enable/disable write-protected. One of my favorite tool is USB write protect by Naresh Manadhar. Using this tool you can restrict write access to your USB drives with a click of a button. You can download this tool from the following link:

Popularity: 2% [?]

Read also visitors who read this post:

1. How to protect your computer against Keyloggers

2. How to change the background for the logon screen in Windows 7

3. How to modify the Windows product Id

4. 10 tips to avoid Adware

  By using this site you agree to our following/legal disclaimer