# Formatting write protected FreeBSD 12.1 pendrive



## sagaracharya (Apr 15, 2020)

I wanted to install FreeBSD on my laptop for which I made a memstick of 12.1 image. It's write protected and I'm almost about to bang my head against the wall here trying to format it. I've tried everything mentioned on stack and search engine links with no success.

12.1 image has /boot/entropy error so I want to dd 11.3 memstick image on it.
GParted is unable to format. I have 2 systems ParrotLinux and FreeBSD and any help is appreciated in either to remove the write protection on my SanDisk Cruzer 16GB pendrive.


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## SirDice (Apr 15, 2020)

Unless the stick itself has a write-protect option, memory sticks aren't "write protected".


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## sagaracharya (Apr 15, 2020)

Nope, there is no switch for write protection. When I connected it to my freebsd system, xconsole printed "write protected" so I'm not sure what happened! It worked fine before 'dd'ing freebsd


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## SirDice (Apr 15, 2020)

I think you're just misinterpreting the messages. What _exactly_ does it say?


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## eldaemon (Apr 15, 2020)

It is possible you have a hardware fault. I've heard of some USB drives going into a read-only mode if they sense a fault. Are you able to `dd` over the drive from FreeBSD? What about from another system?

Is it a reputable brand name USB stick? There are a lot of junky knockoffs out there, including some that advertize way more storage than they have. Tools like `f3probe` are a good way to test. Sadly, `f3probe` is Linux-only but BSD has other methods.


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## sagaracharya (Apr 16, 2020)

Yes, I too thought so. I destroyed the pendrive. It was old. It was fun! In another pendrive, I booted 11.3. I hope it doesn't function in a similar way.


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## T-Daemon (Apr 16, 2020)

eldaemon said:


> It is possible you have a hardware fault. I've heard of some USB drives going into a read-only mode if they sense a fault.





sagaracharya said:


> Yes, I too thought so. I destroyed the pendrive. It was old.


It’s also possibile the flash memory reached the end of it’s write cycle limit (flash memories can only endure a relatively small number of write cycles in a specific block, from wikipedia, linking to here) and the controller of the pen drive has been set read-only to protect the data on the drive for loss.


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## sagaracharya (Apr 16, 2020)

Yes, I too think this was the case since I've used it quite a lot. It was 6 years old. Typical drives run for 7 years so yeah, disintegrated it!


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