We have *lots* of [questions about USB flash drives becoming write-protected][1] and [most of them aren't closed][1]. The closest I can find to a canonical question is [this][2], whose answers are rather lacking as they fail to explain why this might happen.

In response to this, I'm preparing a new canonical question intended to consolidate all these questions and answers into a single post. I intend to close most of these questions as duplicates of this question.

Your thoughts on this?


  [1]: http://superuser.com/search?q=usb%20%22write%20protected%22%20is%3Aq
  [2]: http://superuser.com/questions/158083/remove-the-write-protection-from-a-usb-flash-disk