A lot of users have reported issues with their removable storage  devices such as an SD card or a pen drive, they cannot delete files and  deleted files keep coming back and could not format the SD card or  pen drive, or the disk is write-protected and cannot create new files

Cause Of This Issue:

So  let’s break the truth at the beginning itself the most likely cause for  this behavior is that your SD card or your Pen drive has reached its  maximum right cycles.

To protect the user data the device goes into  an invisible read-only mode thus allowing you to save the data before  the device stops working completely, in other words, you cannot fix this  issue and it is by manufacturers design.

Also checkout : Recover Data From SD Card or Any Hard Drive.

Solutions:

However,  there are a few cases in which the cause may be different, and if you  are lucky the solutions that I am going to show my work for you.

With no further delay let’s get started,

1 : Solution One: Physical Write-Protect Switch

Some of the pen drive and SD cards comes with write protect switch, if you have that just toggle it and see if it fixes your issue.

Sd Card Write Protected Trigger

2 : Solution Two: Back-Up Data and Format The Drive

First of all, formatting deletes the contents of the drive, so please backup whatever files needed.

Formatting Guidelines:

To start with please read these guidelines and decide how you are going to format your device.

  1. If you have problem with SD card or have a phone with SD card in it:Insert the SD card into Mobile Slot.
    Format using a mobile phone.
  2. If SD card is Write Protected and You have a Card Reader:Mount your SD card into a PC with the help of an SD card Reader.
    Format using PC.
  3. If Pen drive is problematic:Connect your Pen drive to your PC
    Format using PC.

Using Mobile Device:

If  you have decided to format using a mobile phone, insert the SD card  into the mobile phone slot go to settings select storage select SD card  tap on the three dots menu icon top right corner select storage  settings, now tap on the format.

Once formatting is done you can verify if your issue has been fixed.

Using PC:

If  you have decided to format using PC, mount your device’s drive, be  careful on selecting the right drive else you may end up losing data,  right-click exactly on problematic drive and choose format.

You  can go ahead with the quick format option, if it does not work you can  later uncheck the quick format and try formatting one more time, now  click on the start.

Once formatting is over you  can check if the issue has been fixed, you can even try with some  third-party formatting tools it works for a few cases.

Formatting Tools:

  • EaseUS Partition Master Free
  • Mini Tool Partition wizard
  • GParted Disk Partition
  • Paragon Partition Manager
  • AOMEI Partition Assistant

3 : Solution Three:  Clear Read-Only Attribute

To start with please read the following guidelines and decide how you are going to mount your pen drive or SD card to your PC.

Formatting Guidelines:

I will suggest this guideline to only a tech guy or who have a bit knowledge about computer more than usual.

  1. If you have problem with SD card or have a phone with SD card in it:

Root your phone.

Install “USB MASS STORAGE ENABLER”

Connect your mobile to PC

Mount your SD card to PC as “USB Mass Storage” drive.

Clear Read-only Attribute.

  1. If SD card is Write Protected and You have a Card Reader:Mount your SD card into a PC with the help of an SD card Reader.
    Clear Read-Only Attribute.
  2. If Pen drive is problematic:Connect your Pen drive to your PC
    Clear Read-only Attribute.

Now based on the method that you have decided, mount the SD card or pen  drive on your PC, right-click on Start button and select admin command  prompt or you can search for command prompt.

Right click on command  prompt and select run as administrator, now type diskpart, and hit enter, type listdisk and hit enter, type select disk (your disk).

Be very cautious on the disk number, otherwise you will end up losing  some data, you can even double check the disk number in the disk  management.

After typing select  disk(your drive) then hit enter and  type attributes disk clear read-only and hit enter,  type exit to go back to command prompt.

Now let’s use check disk command to automatically check and remove some of the disk issues type cskdsk.

Then the drive letter followed by /f/iron/X and hit enter wait till the process completes.

You can now close the command prompt and check if your Pendrive or SD card works.

Conclusion:

As I told you earlier, if you got this issue you have very little chance to get your SD card or pen drive back.

If none of these methods worked it is time to replace your SD card or USB pen drive.

I hope it is useful if you find any other working solutions please put that in the comments section below.