Are you comfortable using a Linux platform such as Slackware, Ubuntu, Debian, RedHat, etc? There is a way in Windows to disable software write protection with a registry tweak (or third party software if you trust it). Some "LiveUSB/LiveCD" platforms also allow you to (for a lack of a better word) bypass Windows constraints and do what needs to be done.
- If Windows is the only thing you feel comfortable doing, a simple 5 step process is all that is required which can be found in method 3 here
- If you wish to give Linux a shot (which isn't terribly complicated and provides more functionality) the instructions can be found here (Though I personally prefer Rufus over UNetBootin as I already know how to download and navigate for the ISO)
- If you already have Linux installed on another machine a drive dock, USB dongle or other mechanism to allow you to access the drive over USB you can run the following commands to disable (or enable) write protection
First find which device it is by executing: sudo fdisk -l | more
For example if it displays: "Disk /dev/sda: 53.6 GB, 53687091200 bytes" and I know that is the drive I want I would then execute the following command to turn write-protection off
sudo hdparm -r0 /dev/sda
If you wish to enable write-protection you would issue -r1 instead.
I hope that helps, and shines a little light on how to protect devices if you couldn't figure out how to do it. For enabling Window protection I suggest using BitLocker or an alternative software solution.
/Edit: Typo
For those whom still misunderstand. This is a well articulated comment on the recent ContentID "oopsies".
