Cannot remove write protection from USB drive

I am aware that this question has been asked before, but none of the solutions work for me.

I have multiple MicroCenter USB 3.1 32GB flash drives that the issue. Originally, they worked, but as soon as I tried to copy multiple files and folders onto them for the first time, they show the error. I also cannot format the disk, as the same error appears

The errors:

What I tried:

Running Attributes Disk

Current Read-only State : Yes
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No

Running chkdsk:

The type of the file system is FAT32.
Shadow copying the specified volume is not supported.
Volume USB DISK created 7/11/2021 10:01 AM
Volume Serial Number is BAAD-502B
Windows is verifying files and folders...
File and folder verification is complete.
Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required. 30,232,640 KB total disk space. 16 KB in 1 hidden files. 432 KB in 27 folders. 16,421,008 KB in 49 files. 13,811,168 KB are available. 16,384 bytes in each allocation unit. 1,889,540 total allocation units on disk. 863,198 allocation units available on disk.

In Registry Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies, WriteProtect is set to

Value Data: 0
Base: Hexadecimal

Checking the drive shows the message

You don't need to scan the drive. We haven't found any errors on this drive.

Some other screenshots:

Edit: I tried removing the cover (Spent a solid 20 minutes on it) but it refuses to budge. It also looks like the actual circuit board is hidden behind a black layer as well. Below are some images of the drive.

2 Answers

The disks are dead and they never worked. Their working for a short time was only an optical illusion.

If you look in the messages in the Event Viewer, the device is identified as
Device USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_&Prod_USB_DISK_3.0...

Notice that there is no Vendor ID or useful Product ID, meaning that the firmware on the disk is even incapable of identifying itself. This by itself is not unknown with cheap disks, but it only adds to the general air of cheap fakery.

If there is any way of returning these disks and getting reimbursed, don't hesitate. Better avoid this vendor in the future.

If the device has a functional controller and any amount of functional memory and you can identify their models, it should be possible to reflash the controller using its manufacturer's utility (which would re-detect the actually available memory chips and rescan them for bad blocks, allow to specify heavier ECC for low-quality memory etc). In particular, most such utilities allow to specify the reported vendor and model IDs which are currently not specified as @harrymc noticed.

is the best resource that I know of that has utilities for both identification and flashing. It also has the H2TESTW utility that you can test a new flash drive with for defects (including fake size).

However, as @harrymc said, if you got the drive at a reputable store, it's probably more productive to return or exchange it rather than be stuck with a defective product.