Disable/Enable USB Drive

SB drives are mostly used for transferring of data from one computer to other. However, it is possible to disable or enable (incase of a virus has disabled it) the USB drive using some registry tweaks and no third party software. The whole procedure is divided into two steps both of which should be completed. Note: Make sure you know how to safely edit the registry.

To disable the USB drive, first:


Open Registry Editor. (Start->Run->”regedit”)
Navigate to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBstor
Change the value of the dword “Start” from 3 to 4. If the dword “Start” doesn’t exist, create it.
Exit Registry Editor


Second thing to do is to change the permissions on the USBSTOR key. You need to DENY full control on the “system” group. You can do that by right clicking on the USBSTOR, clicking permission and removing everyone, except yourself.
In case the USB drives are disabled, you just have to open registry editor and revert the settings provided above.
Alternatively you can also download the the freeware provided below courtesy of Intelliadmin