Re: unprotect
Does the flash disk connect through USB or Ethernet?
Three possibilities:
1) Your drive has some built in software (I have a 3M thumb drive like that, software is called U3 and it is a pain in the butt) which is locking you out. You would need to change the protection using the management software that gets loaded on the host PC by the drive. You might also need a password.
2) Make sure that the files properties are not set to read only. Go to a file through My Computer or Explorer, right click the file, select properties. Make sure the Read Only and Hidden check boxes are unchecked.
3) If it is on Ethernet you need to make sure that file sharing is allowed for the drive. Open My Computer. Right click the flash drive and select Sharing and Security from the pop up menu. It will warn you about sharing a root directory. Click on the warning and then make sure that on the next window it says that file sharing is allowed.
4) This is related to 2) and 3) above. If the files were copied from another computer it is possible that the computer account you are trying to erase from does not have the correct privileges. Go back to the original computer and account.