I have a USB pen ( 16 GB from Transcend ) that won’t let me write a new partition table using gparted. Error message: write protected.
I googled some time in vain.
Ok, i just bought a new one on Amazon that is allready on the way to me, but isn’t there a trick to bring that peace of hardware back to life?
Ok, i know the final trick: open a window and …
USB thumb drives have a short lifespan compared to other storage mechanisms. And 16GB sounds kind of old to start with. So I reckon replacing it was your best bet.
Even if you were able to get it working again, It wouldn’thave been reliable any way.
I have a 256MB Lexar Jump Drive plus a few 1 and 2 Gig “gimmie” drives All still work without issue. Sometimes Microsoft protests and wants to fix a drive, but I just ignore that warning and go on about my business.
Wipe the first 1M on the device using dd, and then use gparted. Example: dd if=/dev/zero of=DEVICE bs=1M count=1 (replace DEVICE). Be careful, and make sure the device is correct. This assumes there is something on the device that is confusing gparted. This may void the Transcend 5 year warranty. Is your product listed at Transcend…
Thanks for that tip but:
[manjaro john1]# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M count=1
dd: konnte '/dev/sda' nicht öffnen: Das Dateisystem ist nur lesbar
So i open the window …
The new one has 32 GB for 4.79 € 
The USB pendrive is sda. What’s the output of inxi -D.
journal -f is helpful to follow the messages as they are written to the journal (syslog).
Yeah!
It’s hard to resist trying to get things to work… 
I usually stop when soldering is involved.
Got from transcend an application “JetFlash Online Recovery_Win_v2.4” that downloaded on Win10 a new firmware … the 16 GB pen drive is working again
I’m german speaking: what is correct USB-thumb drive or USB-pen or USB-flash or USB-stick … google rescue me … but not today
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