Microsoft Windows Server 2008 – Disk is Read-Only / Write Protected

I recently installed a new hard drive into my server running Server 2008.  Everything worked fine, until I rebooted.  I tried to copy a file to the disk and recieved an error that the drive, in my case E:, was write protected.  I don’t know how or why that happened, but the solution is fairly simple.  The steps are as follows:

1. Open a command prompt (ie. Start > Run > cmd) with administrative privledges
2. Type in the command: diskpart
3. Run the command: list disk
4. Look for the disk number that’s having the problem.  In my case I have a system drive, a RAID 5 configuration (1 logical drive) and then the new drive, so it was DISK 2.  I will continue to use it in the example but note that yours may differ.
5. Select the disk using the following command: sel disk 2
6. Enter the following command: ATTRIBUTES DISK CLEAR READONLY
7. Exit diskpart with the command: exit

Then test by copying a file or folder to the drive.  It should be fairly instantaneous, but worst case you may have to reboot (I did not, however).

That’s about it.  It would be interesting to know WHY this happened, but then again, does it really matter?

Good luck.