How to remove read-only protection from NVMe SSD?

Question

Details

• Motherboard: MSI MAG B660
• OS: Windows 11
• Processor: Intel i7-12700
• SSD: XPG S5 512 GB NVMe

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What should I do next to remove Read-only protection from my SSD?

Issue Description:
I was using my system to browse the internet when I suddenly encountered a blue screen error with the stop code Registry Error. I attempted:

• an automatic repair with, and without, a bootable Windows 11 USB drive

• restoring the system to a previous restore point, but encountered errors with each attempt

  I tried to reinstall Windows, however during the installation process, I was unable to delete any partitions on my drive, receiving error message: We couldn't create a new partition.

• I attempted to delete the SSD partitions using DiskPart, cleared the partition table with clean, but upon issuing create partition primary, I received error:

  Virtual Disk Service error: The object is not found.
  

• I connected the drive to another PC, and using the Disk Management tool, tried to format the drive, but the SSD appeared as offline and I could not delete the partitions. I created a bootable Ubuntu USB drive to delete the partitions using GParted and fdisk, but both tools showed errors, with GParted indicating the presence of EFI and Microsoft Reserved partitions marked in red:
  

• Despite trying to delete the partitions using nvme-cli, I was unsuccessful

• sudo smartctl -x /dev/nvme0:

  smartctl 7.4 2023-08-01 r5530 [x86_64-linux-6.8.0-31-generic] (local build)
  Copyright (C) 2002-23, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
  
  === START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
  Model Number:                       XPG GAMMIX S5
  Serial Number:                      2M442L1ES8HJ
  Firmware Version:                   VC0S036H
  PCI Vendor/Subsystem ID:            0x1cc1
  IEEE OUI Identifier:                0x707c18
  Controller ID:                      1
  NVMe Version:                       1.4
  Number of Namespaces:               1
  Namespace 1 Size/Capacity:          512,110,190,592 [512 GB]
  Namespace 1 Formatted LBA Size:     512
  Namespace 1 IEEE EUI-64:            707c18 1b8ecca600
  Local Time is:                      Fri May 31 07:36:50 2024 UTC
  Firmware Updates (0x02):            1 Slot
  Optional Admin Commands (0x0017):   Security Format Frmw_DL Self_Test
  Optional NVM Commands (0x0054):     DS_Mngmt Sav/Sel_Feat Timestmp
  Log Page Attributes (0x02):         Cmd_Eff_Lg
  Maximum Data Transfer Size:         32 Pages
  Warning  Comp. Temp. Threshold:     100 Celsius
  Critical Comp. Temp. Threshold:     110 Celsius
  
  Supported Power States
  St Op     Max   Active     Idle   RL RT WL WT  Ent_Lat  Ex_Lat
  0 +     8.00W       -        -    0  0  0  0        0       0
  1 +     4.00W       -        -    1  1  1  1        0       0
  2 +     3.00W       -        -    2  2  2  2        0       0
  3 -   0.0300W       -        -    3  3  3  3     5000   10000
  4 -   0.0050W       -        -    4  4  4  4    54000   45000
  
  Supported LBA Sizes (NSID 0x1)
  Id Fmt  Data  Metadt  Rel_Perf
  0 +     512       0         0
  
  === START OF SMART DATA SECTION ===
  SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: FAILED!
  - media has been placed in read only mode
  
  SMART/Health Information (NVMe Log 0x02)
  Critical Warning:                   0x08
  Temperature:                        45 Celsius
  Available Spare:                    6%
  Available Spare Threshold:          32%
  Percentage Used:                    1%
  Data Units Read:                    33,644,728 [17.2 TB]
  Data Units Written:                 21,386,221 [10.9 TB]
  Host Read Commands:                 493,923,922
  Host Write Commands:                230,227,110
  Controller Busy Time:               0
  Power Cycles:                       2,241
  Power On Hours:                     3,440
  Unsafe Shutdowns:                   364
  Media and Data Integrity Errors:    0
  Error Information Log Entries:      0
  Warning  Comp. Temperature Time:    0
  Critical Comp. Temperature Time:    0
  
  Error Information (NVMe Log 0x01, 8 of 8 entries)
  No Errors Logged
  
  Self-test Log (NVMe Log 0x06)
  Self-test status: No self-test in progress
  Num  Test_Description  Status                       Power_on_Hours  Failing_LBA  NSID Seg SCT Code
  0   Extended          Completed without error                3439            -     -   -   -    -
  1   Short             Completed without error                3439            -     -   -   -    -
  2   Extended          Completed without error                3439            -     -   -   -    -
  3   Short             Completed without error                3439            -     -   -   -    -
  

• When running sudo smartctl -H /dev/nvme0, the Health test fails with:

  smartctl 7.4 2023-08-01 r5530 [x86_64-linux-6.8.0-31-generic] (local build)
  Copyright (C) 2002-23, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
  
  === START OF SMART DATA SECTION ===
  SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: FAILED!
  - media has been placed in read only mode
  

Answer 1

Critical Warning: 0x08

Convert 0x08 to binary:

0               8
8   4   2   1   8   4   2   1
0   0   0   0   1   0   0   0

So we have:

7   6   5   4   3   2   1   0
0   0   0   0   1   0   0   0

Bit 3 is set, we can look up:

Bit 0: If set to ‘1’, then the available spare capacity has fallen below the threshold
Bit 1: If set to ‘1’, then a temperature is (> over temp threshold) or (< below temp threshold)
Bit 2: If set to ‘1’, then the NVM subsystem reliability has been degraded due to significant media related errors or any internal error that degrades NVM subsystemreliability.
Bit 3: If set to ‘1’, then the media has been placed in read only mode
Bit 4: If set to ‘1’, then the volatile memory backup device has failed. This field is only valid if the controller has a volatile memory backup solution.

So SSD is set read-only at the firmware level. No amount of DiskPart or registry editing will solve this, you'll need to replace this drive.

https://www.disktuna.com/a-write-protected-ssd-nvme-read-only/

Answer 2

Using Diskpart in Windows:

Open Command Prompt as Administrator: Press Win + X and select "Command Prompt (Admin)" or "Windows PowerShell (Admin)". Launch Diskpart: Type diskpart and press Enter. List Disks: Type list disk and press Enter. Identify your NVMe SSD from the list. Select the Disk: Type select disk X (replace X with the disk number of your NVMe SSD) and press Enter. Clear Read-Only Attribute: Type attributes disk clear readonly and press Enter. Exit Diskpart: Type exit and press Enter to close Diskpart. Using Disk Management in Windows:

Open Disk Management: Press Win + X and select "Disk Management". Locate the NVMe SSD: Find your NVMe SSD in the list of drives. Check the Volume Status: Right-click the volume and see if you can remove the read-only attribute from the Properties menu. Sometimes, a quick format might resolve the issue, but be cautious as this will erase data.