Cant write to HDD on win7 keeps saying "the disk is write protected" Drive is in a removable IDE caddy, I put the drive in a USB caddy and was able to format the drive, but still get the same error when i try to write to it, I took ownership of the drive and it shows me as the owner. The drive was used in XP previously but i no longer have an XP system since upgrading to Win7. I have removed the partition with Paragon drive copy and re partitioned the drive, renamed the drive but still gives the same error.

Hello,This problem may happens if the hard drive is corrupted. Try to run the on this disk:1. Click “Start”, and click “Computer”.2. Right-click the problem disk drive, and then click "Properties".3. Click the "Tools" tab, and then, under "Error-checking", click "Check" Now. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. Note: Check for both file errors and physical errors, by selecting both “Automatically fix file system errors” and “Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors”. 4. Click "Start".If on error was found, move to the next steps:1. Click start, type in regedit to open registry edit.2. Navigate to the following registry key:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control Right click on control and create new key. Name it as StorageDevicePolicies . (Copy and paste it from here if possible) Now click on StorageDevicePolicies and in right side pan right click and select create new dword and name it as WriteProtect. Double click on it and set its value to 0.Thomas77

Hi Thomas Thanks for the reply. Error checking did not find any problems, I put the registry entry in, but when i rebooted the system detected a S.M.A.R.T. problem so think this may be a faulty disk. I am going to try a low level format to see if this cures it. If not its one for the scrap pile. Thanks again for replying Regards Derek

This answer leads, apparently, to a dead end without any help to save the hard drive in question. How can you edit the registry when the hard drive in question won't allow write to disk? This prob is not answered correctly unless your selling hard drives. Please advise or discuss this issue of removing the write protection from hard drive.