The ' diskpart' command launches the disk partitioning program via the command line the ' list disks' command then shows all disks attached to the system. So you can see what it looks like on the command line.Īnd, here is an explanation of what is happening:

Line) - I'll explain what each command does further down: diskpartĮxit Click here to see a picture of everything I just said Next, type in the following into the command line (press Enter after each If you have any other external drives plugged in, unplug them except for the one that is write protected. A black administrative command prompt window should now appear.Then right click and select ' Run as Administrator'. To do so: click Start, then type in ' CMD' (no quotes) wait for 'CMD.EXE' or 'Command Prompt' to appear in the list, To remove the write protect, begin by launching an administrative command line As I mentioned there is no write protect switch or tab on the device, so this means the My Book drive was write protected through software or firmware (though as I mentioned, I'm not sure how it was done in the first place).How to Fix: WD My Book Read Only (Remove Write Protect) After more research I discovered it is possible to unlock the partition using the 'diskpart'īelow I'll explain what I did to fix the issue. I also tried a registry fix to unlock usb write protected drives. I came across a few posts that suggested third party ' usb unlock freeware utilities' could unlock the My Book drive, but this did not work. From all the articles I came across, the write protect / read only issue appears to be a widespread problem that happens to users randomly, for no apparent reason. I asked Larry if he would like me to connect to his system to have a closer look using my remote desktop support service, and he agreed.Īfter researching the issue, it appears that the Western Digital My Book drives use software called ' WD Discovery' to lock and unlock the drive, though I could not find an option to disable the write protection.

I have searched for 'wd my book read only remove write protect' in Google but I can't seem to find the answer.

Also, if I right click the drive partition in Disk Management, the delete option is missing. I have also tried formatting the drive with Windows Disk Management but it fails. I have looked but there is no tab or switch on the USB drive to unlock orĭisable the write protect. I have tried formatting the My Book drive using File Explorer, but it tells me the drive is write protected. I don't know what's going on but all my files on my external western digital 'My Book' are marked as ' READ ONLY'.

Fixing wd my book external hard drive