WinToFlash The Bootable USB Creator

If USB drive was formatted with linux - it's not supported FS by us. To use WinToFlash USB drive must be formatted with Windows in FAT/NTFS.

Now we are using form to report bugs, no special protocol available.

My experiences with this problem and what fixed it:

my environment:
Windows 7 Ultimate RC 7100 64-Bit
trying to transfer Win7 64-Bit retail DVD to a 4GB ADATA "JOGR" USB Stick.

kept getting the "Can not lock the drive" error

I'm not running anti-virus, or anything else for that matter...
Used GameBooster to close everything else (since I thought it must be a service or such).. still didn't work.

Right-click the drive, "Format" (using windows built-in format util)
After Quick Format complete, I tried WinToFlash... worked.

My guess is that a combination of GameBooster and Formatting the drive somehow unlocked it...
Also since there is no "Cancel" option with that error I was forced to close the program with Task Manager the first time.

Would be nice if the program would report which program was locking it so you would know what to close... My guess is that's hard to code?

You may use utility handle from sysinternals.com to find out application using the drive

Simple fix. Your USB drive has its policy set for 'Better Performance.' You gotta change it to 'Quick Removal (Default.)

Go to Device Manager -> Disk Drives -> select the USB Drive, and go to properties. Change to 'Quick Removal." Quick re-format in 'My Computer,' and you're good to go.

Let me know if I was able to help anyone. Peace.

Here is a solution that doesn't involve manually reformatting the flash drive.

It worked worked for me but YMMV. I'm running windows xp 32 bit and the flash drive is a 4gb Sandisk Cruzer.

1. I exited the U3 launchpad program by right clicking over the icon in my taskbar and choosing -> exit
2. I closed all open folders referencing the flash drive.

Now WinToFlash is working flawlessly, hope this helps someone else.

New info: under Windows 7 close all explorer windows in case of this message

I also had this same problem. "cannot lock drive", my drive was formatted with HP usb disk format tool to FAT32.


following what "undii" wrote, I formatted to NTFS filesystem then tried WintoFlash again. This time it started working.

Thank you, to the developers of this program and all who contribute here on this forum.

Another thing that i notice. If u r using the Sandisc U3 make sure that you use the removable drive not the u3 drive as destination.

Under win 7 I was also getting the "can not lock the drive". Solution was to switch off antivitus for a sec and also close all open file manager windows. After that it worked.

how much mb of usb disks are need to transfer these - xp / vista / 7 oper sys.
right now m using 512 MB usb for xpbootable
and usb properties showing only 480 mb available
but in exactly xp sp2 is above than my usb capacity, i dont know how much time it takes to complete
already 14 hrs gone till files are transferring from cd to 512 (480) mb usb,
does any of u know will it go perfect.
i hv to c

I've tried pretty much every combination of everything - from formatting the drive myself and writing bootcode manually, to changing drive letters and running WinToFlash as Administrator.

Nothing works.

I tried each and every one of the solutions. None of them worked for me. So I just tried rebooting into safe mode and voila!

I had the same problem and I understand that the problem was USB drive . it does not suport USB 2.0

I'm using Windows 7, I solved in this way:

-Right click on "WinToFlash.exe";
-Selected "Run as administrator";

No more claiming about locked drives.

AHA!

make sure the usb port isnt 1.0, the front ports on my PC are. I plugged the thumb drive into an extender I have plugged in the back and it worked!

also ran wintoflash as admin, closed all explorer windows, danced around an oak, and lit fires at dawn.

hope this helps
woot tyvm.