USB drives that become read only

[mortlocl]

Has any one found a solution for when a USB drive becomes read only for some reason.
It can't be reformated it seems.

It appears that knoppix has a built-in option that can make it writable...but I don't fancy the massive download.

[amish]

learn about dd.

i'm not sure it will help in this case of course... you can always try making sure you haven't acccidentally slid the write only tab (if it has one, some do) over, and with sd cards (not the same thing, but think about it) on occasion i've done something that was fixed by putting the card in my digital camera and taking a picture- yeah, the solution was that simple. easy to figure out? no. simple? yes. you may find the solution is equally simple (but not obvious) in your case. good luck.