[SOLVED] I turned drive "Offline", now it's read only ?

[EvilScotsman]

Struggling to get something that should be as simple as windows backup to work.

Saw someone suggest turning drive offline. Terrible advice. But, I tried it and drive showed as offline and unallocated. Restarted PC and drive appears to be back to normal except it is read only and I cant change it. In security settings everyone has control except "users" who don't have write permissions. But it won't let me enable permissions for users as it is write protected.

Please help, this is just another headache on top of the inability for windows to do something as simple as backup a drive, or even allow third party software to back it up. Can't believe how much they try and charge for this ridiculous software.

 

[USAFRet]

1. My 3rd party backup software (Macrium Reflect) has been doing its thing flawlessly, for several years.

2. Why did you do this "offline thing"? What purpose was that trying to serve?

3. Please show us a screencap of your Disk Management window.
(upload the pic to imgur.com and post the link here)

 

[EvilScotsman]

1. My 3rd party backup software (Macrium Reflect) has been doing its thing flawlessly, for several years.

2. Why did you do this "offline thing"? What purpose was that trying to serve?

3. Please show us a screencap of your Disk Management window.
(upload the pic to imgur.com and post the link here)

Currently trying paragon to backup, and it seems to be working.

Offline allowed someone else to fix windows backup problem.

There's nothing abnormal in disk management, except that drive has read-only assigned to it and this is visible under its name in disk management. Otherwise, it is normal, allocated and still has all the files on it. If you have any advice for changing the drive from read only please let me know.

Have already checked registry for "write protection" and couldn't find anything. And can't change it via permissions due to reasons mentioned in OP.

 

[USAFRet]

Currently trying paragon to backup, and it seems to be working.

Offline allowed someone else to fix windows backup problem.

There's nothing abnormal in disk management, except that drive has read-only assigned to it and this is visible under its name in disk management. Otherwise, it is normal, allocated and still has all the files on it. If you have any advice for changing the drive from read only please let me know.

Have already checked registry for "write protection" and couldn't find anything. And can't change it via permissions due to reasons mentioned in OP.

The built in Windows Backup is a very braindead tool.
Many 3rd party tools are much much better.

Clicking on the partition where it says "read only", what options does it give you?

I'm only guessing here, because I can't see your screen, and I've never purposely turned a drive to 'offline'.

 

[EvilScotsman]

The built in Windows Backup is a very braindead tool.
Many 3rd party tools are much much better.

Clicking on the partition where it says "read only", what options does it give you?

I'm only guessing here, because I can't see your screen, and I've never purposely turned a drive to 'offline'.

No options unfortunately, can access properties or turn drive offline again.

Braindead indeed. Paragon seems to have done the trick without a hitch.

 

[USAFRet]

No options unfortunately, can access properties or turn drive offline again.

Braindead indeed. Paragon seems to have done the trick without a hitch.

I use Macrium Reflect exclusively.

Does your drive fully work?
If so, leave it, and move on with a better backup tool.

And be very very careful about what internet people tell you to turn off.

 

[EvilScotsman]

I use Macrium Reflect exclusively.

Does your drive fully work?
If so, leave it, and move on with a better backup tool.

And be very very careful about what internet people tell you to turn off.

Backup isn't the issue here. It's getting the drive off read only. Take it you don't know how to fix that?

 

[USAFRet]

Backup isn't the issue here. It's getting the drive off read only. Take it you don't know how to fix that?

From your previous, I thought it was working.

 

[EvilScotsman]

From your previous, I thought it was working.

You'd asked if I had any options when right clicking on drive in disk partition program.

"No options unfortunately, can access properties or turn drive offline again.

Braindead indeed. Paragon seems to have done the trick without a hitch. "

Paragon is the software I'd mentioned I was using to backup, as we were simultaneously talking about windows backup being abysmal.

 

[EvilScotsman]

For anyone else having issue with disabling read only and write protection for a drive. Particularly when changing permissions isn't working.

SOLVED:
Disabling Read-Only With Diskpart
Diskpart is another Windows utility that is used to format and create partitions on drives, essentially turning one physical drive into two or more virtual drives. If you used this utility to turn on read-only protection, you'll have to use it again to make the disk writable.
Hold down the Windows key and press R to open the Run window. When a dialog box opens asking you to give the Run utility the ability to make changes to your computer, click "Yes."

1. Type "diskpart" in the black Run window and press Enter.
2. Type "list disk" and press Enter.
3. Type "select disk d," replacing the "d" with the drive letter you are working on. Press Enter.
4. Type "attributes disk clear readonly" and press Enter. After several seconds, Diskpart will inform you that read-only has been cleared.
5. Type "Exit" and press Enter to close the window.

If this doesn't work here are other solutions from same article.

Disabling Read-Only With a Registry Key
If a Windows Registry change has enabled read-only status on a drive, you will need to change the registry key to disable it.
Hold down the Windows key and press R to open the Run window. When the dialog box opens asking you to give the Run utility the ability to make changes to your computer, click "Yes."
Type “regedit” in Run window. When the Registry Editor opens, select the following in the tree of nested folders. Each time you double-click a folder, the folders within it will automatically become visible: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies
Double-click "WriteProtect" and change the value from "1" to "0" to change its status from on to off.
Adding the StorageDevicePolicies Registry Key
If you don't see StorageDevicePolicies in the nest of folders, this is probably because your current computer was not used to change write protection on the drive. You will need to add the registry entry yourself. To do this:

1. Right-click the "Control" folder, select "New" and then click "Key."
2. Type "StorageDevicePolicies" in the text field.
3. Select the new "StorageDevicePolicies" and then right-click the empty space in the right pane.
4. Select "New" and then "DWORD (32-bit) value." Type "WriteProtect" and press Enter.
5. Double-click the new "WriteProtect" registry entry and set its value as "0" to disable write protection.
6. Click "OK" and then close the Registry Editor window.