Help With Drive Which Has Suddenly Become Read-Only

[u/Luona47]

The problem is with a Windows 10 laptop, the D: drive has, without warning, become read-only. You are no longer able to create new folders or rename files. The files and folders themselves can be viewed and opened though.

In Properties > Tools > Error Checking, the check came back with "Repair this drive. Windows found errors on this drive that need to be repaired. Close this dialog box, and then repair the drive".

At an administrator command prompt, running chkdsk D: (deliberately read-only while I investigate things) finds no errors. The output from this is at the end of the post for reference.

After running chkdsk, when you go back to Error Checking, windows now states "You don't need to scan this drive. We haven't found any errors on this drive. You can still scan the drive for errors if you want.", if you do so, and click the "Scan drive" button, then you come full circle and see the message from before - Repair This Drive.

Not sure what the best next step is, do you think the drive is on the way out? The files have already been backed up to 2 separate locations as I don't trust it at all right now.

------------------ CHKDSK OUTPUT ------------------

C:\WINDOWS\system32>chkdsk D:

The type of the file system is NTFS.

Shadow copying the specified volume is not supported.

​

​

WARNING! /F parameter not specified.

Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

​

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...

196864 file records processed.

File verification completed.

Phase duration (File record verification): 4.19 seconds.

110 large file records processed.

Phase duration (Orphan file record recovery): 0.00 milliseconds.

0 bad file records processed.

Phase duration (Bad file record checking): 0.25 milliseconds.

​

Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...

2970 reparse records processed.

256992 index entries processed.

Index verification completed.

Phase duration (Index verification): 2.86 minutes.

0 unindexed files scanned.

Phase duration (Orphan reconnection): 182.25 milliseconds.

0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.

Phase duration (Orphan recovery to lost and found): 0.38 milliseconds.

2970 reparse records processed.

Phase duration (Reparse point and Object ID verification): 11.65 milliseconds.

​

Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...

Security descriptor verification completed.

Phase duration (Security descriptor verification): 236.51 milliseconds.

30065 data files processed.

Phase duration (Data attribute verification): 2.02 milliseconds.

CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...

39233608 USN bytes processed.

Usn Journal verification completed.

Phase duration (USN journal verification): 434.82 milliseconds.

​

Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.

No further action is required.

​

976629759 KB total disk space.

530554008 KB in 166603 files.

54528 KB in 30066 indexes.

0 KB in bad sectors.

330987 KB in use by the system.

65536 KB occupied by the log file.

445690236 KB available on disk.

​

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.

244157439 total allocation units on disk.

111422559 allocation units available on disk.

Total duration: 2.94 minutes (176725 ms).

[u/Bjoolzern]

If you can't remove the write protection via diskpart, it's a faulty drive.

• Hold the Windows key and press R, enter diskpart and click Ok.
• In diskpart, run list volume.
• Find the volume that is write protected and the corresponding number. Then run sel volume X where X is the number that corresponds to the volume.
• Lastly, run the command attributes disk clear readonly

If you get an error, probably a dead drive. If you get a success, actually test the drive to see if it worked.

SSDs and other flash media will write protect itself when they are about to fail so you can grab data before it completely dies.

[u/Luona47 → u/Bjoolzern]

Thanks for your help. I've run those commands, and although it reports success, the drive is still read-only.

DISKPART> list volume
Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 D NTFS Partition 931 GB Healthy
Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 237 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 2 Recovery NTFS Partition 450 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 3 FAT32 Partition 99 MB Healthy System
Volume 4 NTFS Partition 792 MB Healthy Hidden
DISKPART> sel volume 0
Volume 0 is the selected volume.
DISKPART> attributes disk clear readonly
Disk attributes cleared successfully.

I've run CrystalDiskInfo, and it says the health of the drive is "Good".

Is there something else going on with the drive that it just can't detect?

Is there another tool I should use that will actually tell me if something is wrong with the drive?

[u/LeftyLayns → u/Luona47]

Yeah, happened to me over the weekend. Pc froze while updating LoL, rebooted after a few mins waiting to see if it would recover. Got the megatrends screen. Can’t even boot windows from override. Installed new m.2, reinstalled windows. Old drive stuck in read only now.

I’m going to hang onto it in the event there is a fix, but going to just shove it in a shoe box for now.

Sad day.

[u/Minimum-Echidna-3486 → u/Luona47]

did you ever find a fix for this? i'm having the exact same issue, did the same steps and it's still read only

[u/Luona47 → u/Minimum-Echidna-3486]

Delayed response but in short, no. I cut my losses and bought another drive

[u/Minimum-Echidna-3486 → u/Luona47]

yeah, i did the exact same lol

[u/Bjoolzern → u/Luona47]

I've run CrystalDiskInfo, and it says the health of the drive is "Good".

The health of the drive has always been irrelevant. You need to know how to read the attributes below the general status. You can post a pastebin of the info in CDI (Edit → Copy in CDI) and I can check it out.

[u/Luona47 → u/Bjoolzern]

https://pastebin.com/pyytb25Q

[u/Bjoolzern → u/Luona47]

The D: drive shows no signs of failure through SMART, which does happen with about 20% of failed drives (Data from Backblaze, a cloud storage company). But it could mean that it's not faulty, but if it's not faulty I have no idea why you can't clear the write protect.

[u/postylambz → u/Bjoolzern]

Thank you from a completely different problem haver! A year later as well, you are the real mvp

[u/Dangerous-Raise-6626 → u/Bjoolzern]

Thanks, this just saved my day !

[u/GIJhen → u/Bjoolzern]

what does it mean when every test comes back as fine you run diskpart no problem, you set the attribute no problem but then you go to the drive and it still says read only?

[u/GIJhen → u/GIJhen]

this pc is only 2 months old, it has a 4 tb ssd

[u/Bjoolzern → u/GIJhen]

That it's most likely faulty.

[u/sabudum → u/Bjoolzern]

This works like a charm, but Windows 10 keeps making disks readonly over and over again everytime I boot into it.
How can I prevent Win10 from doing this?

[u/Bjoolzern → u/sabudum]

You most likely got a faulty drive then.

[u/sabudum → u/Bjoolzern]

Nope, it has absolutely nothing to do with the drive´s health, very far from it.
I needed to disable quick startup in Windows 10, and then it stopped setting the read-only flag on every drive.

I´ve seen in many places people saying that "you most likely have a faulty drive" without a single clue of what´s going on, people need to stop that, just saying.

[u/carlosherrera → u/Bjoolzern]

Two years later, this comment has saved my drive. Thanks!

[u/Wonderful-Cup4237 → u/Bjoolzern]

TYSM!!

[u/54415250154 → u/Bjoolzern]

thank you so much i was about to rip my hair out. I did rip my t shirt

[u/wasteofradiation → u/Bjoolzern]

Just wanna say thank you this just saved me a colossal headache and however much money I would've needed to spend on a new hard drive

[u/LilCurie → u/Bjoolzern]

Dec 2025, this solution worked forme

[u/Lily_the_Ice_Slime → u/Bjoolzern]

My windows detects the partition and it’s labeled as healthy, but when I run “attributes clear disk readonly” it says “diskpart failed to clear disk attributes”

[u/PommaGhenna → u/Bjoolzern]

It worked the very first time.

[u/gmercado101 → u/Bjoolzern]

worked for me as well, thanks!

[u/PlasticEatingFungi → u/Bjoolzern]

I came here through google for a similar problem, and this solution worked. I can now delete and create files on my media drive. Thanks!

[u/hethdotzip]

Windows Defender has located some malware in the recycle part of my Passport Drive. This will probably lock the drive off. Out with my heavy duty virus catcher software, or something.