Make Disk Or Partition Readonly in Windows 10

In one of the previous articles, I covered how to write-protect removable USB drives. Today, we'll see how to write protect a specific non-removable disk partition or the entire disk drive without using third-party tools.

There are many reasons to make a disk write-protected. It can be useful as an additional security option in some environments. Once you enable write protection for a drive or a partition, it will become read-only. Let's see how it can be done.

To make a disk readonly in Windows 10, do the following.

1. Open an elevated command prompt.
2. Type or copy-paste diskpart and press the Enter key. This will launch DiskPart. DiskPart is a text-mode command interpreter bundled with Windows 10. This tool enables you to manage objects (disks, partitions, or volumes) by using scripts or direct input at a command prompt.
3. In DiskPart, type the following command

   list disk

   In the output, see the disk which you are about to make read-only.

4. To continue with the required disk, you need to "select" it.
   In the following command use the disk number you got from the previous command.

   sele disk DISK_NUMBER

   For example, I need disk #1.

5. To make the whole disk read-only, type the following command:

   attributes disk set readonly

All partitions on the disk will be read-only.

The undo command is

attributes disk clear readonly

To make a partition readonly in Windows 10, do the following.

1. Open an elevated command prompt.
2. Type or copy-paste diskpart and press the Enter key.
3. To find a specific partition, type

   list volume

   

4. "Select" the required volume by typing the following command:

   select volume VOLUME_NUMBER

   Replace the volume number with a number you got from the previous command.

5. Make it read-only using the following command

   attributes volume set readonly

   

The specified volume will be read-only.

The undo command is:

attributes volume clear readonly

That's it.