4GB Flash Drive doesn't work, any suggestions?

[Wain]

I recently bought a 4GB Emprex flash drive (is Emprex any good?) and it's stopped working. When I try to add files to it, it says write-protected, please remove write protection. It does not have a button or switch to push. I've tried formatting it, but it can't format.

Any suggestions?

 

[Kim Welch]

I apologize for the delay in responding, and thank you for posting. When a flash drive with no lock switch suddenly says it's write-protected and won't format, it usually means the drive's memory is failing and it has switched itself to read-only mode to protect your data.

On Windows you can try clearing the read-only flag with the diskpart tool (list disk, select disk, then attributes disk clear readonly). If that doesn't work, copy off any files you can and replace the drive. For media you can't afford to lose, it's always worth keeping a second copy on another drive or in the cloud.