Re: Hard Drive is Write Protected?

I had been getting a number of messages stating "The media is write
protected" for a hard-drive that is connected to the GIGABYTE SATA2
controller on the GA-P35C-DS3R. The storage setup was as follows:

Controller 1: GIGABYTE SATA2 controller (BIOS set to IDE mode, GIGABYTE
drivers)
C: 250GB WD SATA hdd (system)
D: PATA DVD
E: PATA DVD
F: 250GB WD SATA hdd <---- affected drive

Controller 2: Intel ICH9R (BIOS set to IDE mode, Microsoft generic IDE
drivers)
G: 250GB Maxtor SATA hdd
H: 250GB Maxtor SATA hdd
I: 250GB Maxtor SATA hdd
J: 250GB Maxtor SATA hdd


The issue had been intermittent but appeared to occur quite often while
attempting to do a backup using shadow copying while also reading and
writing files to the same disk. Rebooting the machine always cured the
issue, but it would later remanifest.

Some searching led me to the diskpart answer but Diskpart showed no
"readonly" status. I also found the suggestion that folders had been
marked as read-only, but while the folders on the drive did have the
grey tick in the readonly box, this was not a black tick and so did not
suggest that the folders themselves were readonly (besides, they are
files no "media").



=============================
THE ANSWER:

In Device Manager, under Storage Controllers, I right-clicked, Update
Driver Software, clicked on the Browse, the List option, and chose the
"Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller".

=============================



So far, several reboots, backups and file operations later and the
issue has not recurred.


Interestingly, this issue follows on from a total failure of the 4 disk
RAID 0 array I had on the Intel ICH9R 6 port SATA controller in the same
machine. This had been running fine for several months, and then
resulted in the crippling of the machine. The computer posted fine, but
got to the RAID BIOS screen and hung, and did so until 2 of the drives
from the RAID array were removed. If the BIOS was re-entered and the
RAID turned off in favour of "IDE mode" those 2 drives could be placed
back into the machine and windows could boot, after which point the 2
drives could be reinitialised. However, although the RAID array could be
rebuilt in BIOS, on the next reboot the enter machine was crippled again
in the same way. Updating the BIOS to the latest version did not resolve
this, but reinstalling windows completely fixed the issue - that is
until a certain number of windows updates had been applied.

On this basis, I wonder if a recent windows update has created an issue
for some storage controller drivers.


Are other people getting "media is write protected" messages have
manufacturer specific storage controller drivers installed?


--
IrisedParhelion