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Home › Q&A Forum › Advanced Tech Support › Suddenly, all of my photos are write protected.

  • Suddenly, all of my photos are write protected.

    Posted by LeeHearn on 10/06/2022 at 7:50 AM

    I am running Windows 10 on a Dell desktop. Suddenly, this morning, I can’t share or open any of my photos stored on a USB hard disk. When I try to open a photo that I took, with the Photos program, the program opens, but the photo does not open. After a couple of minutes, I receive a message that the media is write protected, and I have to close it. I didn’t intentionally write protect the photos file. How can I get my photos back? Is it a problem with the Photos program or with the file? Other files on the same disk open with no problem.

    LeeHearn replied 4 years ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
  • 2 Replies
  • TeamKomandoJohn

    Administrator
    10/06/2022 at 8:15 AM

    Hello LeeHearn,

    Was this USB drive photo backup created on the same workstation you are using now?

    Take a look here, there are 5 steps to take when your USB drive is suddenly Write Protected.

    I would first try to copy a few photos directly to your desktop and see if they open.

  • LeeHearn

    Member
    10/06/2022 at 10:14 AM

    The disk containing the photos was first used on the same computer, and has been in use for several years without any problem. The computer was also running very slowly this morning and kept freezing, so I shut it down and rebooted it. That took awhile, but now I can access my photos again. I plan to run a PC-Matic scan and cleanup later today to get it up to speed again and hopefully avoid this problem in the future.

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