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IndustryArena Forum > MetalWorking Machines > Tormach Personal CNC Mill > Tormach PathPilot™ > PathPilot renders USB write protected? (aka useless)
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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2017
    Posts
    53

    PathPilot renders USB write protected? (aka useless)

    This is the 2nd time in 4 years this has happened to me. For my own shop simplicity, I transfer gcode to PathPilot with a USB. I have zero interest in figuring out how to dropbox, or network.
    I've been happily machining parts this morning, and had to make some operational tweaks so I eject the USB and plug it into my laptop and get the message that there is a problem with my USB click here to fix it. When I jump through the hoops to repair the drive, I'm alerted that it is write protected.
    No, there is no physical write protect switch that I inadvertently bumped...
    I cannot clear the write protection by any means I've found asking almighty google. I can look at all the files, but can no longer do anything else.
    Last time this happened, and I wasted a few hours trying in vain to fix it, I ended up trashing the USB and using another. Looks like I'm in the same spot now?
    Anyone else ever run into this?

    Oh, I have tried plugging the USB back into the PathPilot control and writing back a file to the USB from the control...same issue - error returned is "Read only file system"

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
    Posts
    1516

    Re: PathPilot renders USB write protected? (aka useless)

    Quote Originally Posted by 74BurkeMVN View Post
    This is the 2nd time in 4 years this has happened to me. For my own shop simplicity, I transfer gcode to PathPilot with a USB. I have zero interest in figuring out how to dropbox, or network.
    I've been happily machining parts this morning, and had to make some operational tweaks so I eject the USB and plug it into my laptop and get the message that there is a problem with my USB click here to fix it. When I jump through the hoops to repair the drive, I'm alerted that it is write protected.
    No, there is no physical write protect switch that I inadvertently bumped...
    I cannot clear the write protection by any means I've found asking almighty google. I can look at all the files, but can no longer do anything else.
    Last time this happened, and I wasted a few hours trying in vain to fix it, I ended up trashing the USB and using another. Looks like I'm in the same spot now?
    Anyone else ever run into this?
    I've had issues with some for other tasks. I have read that:
    Some of these usb sticks (especially 3.0) can have some manufacturer software buried in them. It's mainly to do with high speed transfer but is also where the write protection is.
    No matter how much I format it, it always comes up still showing some used space. Yet there's nothing supposedly on the drive.
    It's getting on my nerves too.
    I can't find my old usb 2.0 which is very annoying.

    Have a read around and see what you can find out. I've gave up for now.

  3. #3

    Re: PathPilot renders USB write protected? (aka useless)

    for quite a while now I've been using the same usb drive to transfer programs from machine to machine , and the read only happened to me for the first time a few days ago . I plugged the drive into my windows computer and did a quick reformat . I don't know what caused the problem but it's working again .

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2020
    Posts
    106

    Re: PathPilot renders USB write protected? (aka useless)

    I have had this recently...oddly on my 3d printer as well. I wrote it off as static shock some how. I do use dropbox thankfully...it's built into path pilot...there really is nothing to setup other than the dropbox user name and password.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Posts
    1777

    Re: PathPilot renders USB write protected? (aka useless)

    Quote Originally Posted by dazp1976 View Post
    I've had issues with some for other tasks. I have read that:
    Some of these usb sticks (especially 3.0) can have some manufacturer software buried in them. It's mainly to do with high speed transfer but is also where the write protection is.
    No matter how much I format it, it always comes up still showing some used space. Yet there's nothing supposedly on the drive.
    It's getting on my nerves too.
    I can't find my old usb 2.0 which is very annoying.



    Have a read around and see what you can find out. I've gave up for now.
    I have had problems with the usb drives at times, I finally figured out how to transfer files over the network, once i got a handle on this it makes it very easy to transfer files from my windows cad cam computer to the PP drive. It took awhile to get used to it but it saves some time not having to fiddle with the usb drives.
    mike sr

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Posts
    653

    Re: PathPilot renders USB write protected? (aka useless)

    The memory cells in USB sticks have a limited number of writes possible before they die. Better USB sticks have internal controllers that check the number and when it gets near the limit, write-protects the drive to keep the data already on there intact.

    Worse sticks will either corrupt your data or 'die' sooner so you have to buy replacements. If its a heavily-used stick, that could be why it's gone into a read-only mode that can't be undone.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2020
    Posts
    218

    Re: PathPilot renders USB write protected? (aka useless)

    Quote Originally Posted by shred View Post
    The memory cells in USB sticks have a limited number of writes possible before they die. Better USB sticks have internal controllers that check the number and when it gets near the limit, write-protects the drive to keep the data already on there intact.

    Worse sticks will either corrupt your data or 'die' sooner so you have to buy replacements. If its a heavily-used stick, that could be why it's gone into a read-only mode that can't be undone.
    That was my thought as well when i read the post. That write limit is typically quite high though so it would have to be a very heavily used drive to hit it.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Posts
    591

    Re: PathPilot renders USB write protected? (aka useless)

    If you use the drive every day, it will wear out. Having it happen twice in four years doesn't sound totally un-normal.
    A larger drive will wear out slower with the same amount of data transferred (it's pretty linear) as long as it uses the same underlying technology.
    No, vendors don't generally list the technology / durability of their drives, so sticking with well-known quality flash manufacturers like Samsung or perhaps Sandisk are generally best.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Posts
    653

    Re: PathPilot renders USB write protected? (aka useless)

    Quote Originally Posted by jwatte View Post
    If you use the drive every day, it will wear out. Having it happen twice in four years doesn't sound totally un-normal.
    A larger drive will wear out slower with the same amount of data transferred (it's pretty linear) as long as it uses the same underlying technology.
    No, vendors don't generally list the technology / durability of their drives, so sticking with well-known quality flash manufacturers like Samsung or perhaps Sandisk are generally best.
    You can pretty much assume the tech in a usb stick is the cheapest, lowest-QC-bin MLC flash memory available.. In that business there is very little scrap thrown away-- everything even partially functional gets sold for use in something by mapping out bad areas-- SSDs and phones get the good stuff and it rolls downhill to embedded systems, SD cards and at the bottom are disposable things like USB sticks and singing greeting cards. Buy from somebody that cares about their brand name and does QC testing if you want them to last, and even then it's good to keep backups.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jun 2017
    Posts
    53

    Re: PathPilot renders USB write protected? (aka useless)

    Thanks for the feedback guys, I guess it is possible if there is a write limit that I have indeed hit it. Bought a 5 pack of USB's last week (possibly the first not-free USB's I've ever had?). I guess I've got a 10 year supply now!

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jun 2022
    Posts
    1

    Re: PathPilot renders USB write protected? (aka useless)

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