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I've bought a new SSD (Acer SA100 480GB MAS0902+3D NAND SATA 2.5 inch). I want to clone my older HDD (running win10) to the SSD. I've also purchased a SATA to USB connector (Cablet 2.5 Inch SATA USB 3.0 HDD/SSD Portable External Enclosure).

But when I connect the SSD to win10, it comes up as readonly in the file explorer, in the diskmgmnt as well as is the diskpart ("Read-only" is NO but "Current Read-Only State" is YES).

I've tried quick format in the file explorer (the media isn't writable error comes). I've tried using attributes clear disk readonly and format fs=ntfs quick [using diskpart in win10].

I've also tried changing the partitioning scheme (both mbr and gpt doesn't work), deleting all partitions and having a single ntfs partition [using cfdisk in my linux machine].

The problem isn't with the new SSD or the usb connector as it is writable in my linux machine when connected via usb. Also, i've tried connecting my another hdd (which has both ntfs and ext4 fs partitions) to the win10 using usb. There also the ntfs partitions are detected as "readonly".

It's windows so i suppose there shouldn't be any drivers issue, is there anything required for mounting drives in win10 except plugging it in via usb ?

Edit: I've also tried inserting my win10 hdd to my another machine (in which I have linux on nvme) so that there isn't any hardware difference between linux setup and win10 setup apart from drives on which they are installed. There also when i connect ssd or hdd via usb to win10 it gets recognized as "read-only".

Hardware Details:

  • win10 hdd : Toshiba PC L200 500GB 5400RPM
  • new ssd : Acer SA100 480GB MAS0902+3D NAND SATA 2.5 inch
  • Drive enclosure : Cablet 2.5 Inch SATA USB 3.0 HDD/SSD Portable External Enclosure
  • extra hdd : Toshiba 1TB 5400RPM
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  • This is not normal and must mean a hardware fault that is happening only on this computer with its hardware. To isolate it, you would need to try other USB cable or enclosure. You have already tried with another disk, which is useful. Please add to your post the details of all these hardware items.
    – harrymc
    Commented Apr 11 at 17:10
  • But the same usb enclosure is working for linux setup so it must be alright. Also I inserted win10 hdd into the machine on which i was running linux, so if there were any hardware fault it would have also caused when i used linux setup.
    – Rikku
    Commented Apr 11 at 17:54
  • Some hardware items may be incompatible to some degree and usually there's no good explanation. The enclosure is USB3, but is the port USB 3 or USB2? If the laptop has both ports, try them both. What is the laptop model?
    – harrymc
    Commented Apr 11 at 18:05

1 Answer 1

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The problem was with my win10 OS (or maybe hdd ?!). When I plugged in the ssd via usb to a win10 VM on my linux machine, the drive was mounted as writable. I formatted the drive in the win10 VM and tried again on win10 laptop. It came as "read-only" still. I then tried plugging an USB pendrive to win10 laptop, it was also read-only.

I don't personally use that laptop, it's an old family laptop so i'm not sure if any installed application or modified settings may have caused the issue. I tried to find "StoragePolicy" having "read-only" entry in "Registry" and other settings. Didn't found anything.

I ended up dropping the plan for cloning the disk and installed a fresh win10 on the new ssd and manually copied app data of few important apps.

NOTE: I actually didn't found the reason why external usb drive on my win10 laptop was coming as 'read-only' and the issue was not solved. Although installing win10 on new SSD fulfills my requirement so i'm answering my question. The issue was in the HDD or the older win10 setup. If you are facing same issue you can verify by inserting your drive in another windows setup.

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