Write Only Drive Suddenly

[MiDoJo]

Hey, I figured this place (of the forums I frequent) would be the best to ask this.
I've been happily using my toolbox drive for all things portable. Today I reinstalled John Haller's Portable versions of Audible and 7Zip (I don't think that was the issue but is needed information) and was syncing folders (using Treecomp portably) to my backup when suddenly my drive began to mount and dismount itself, eachtime when treecomps scan reached a certain point (though not the same point) in it's folder scan.

then suddenly windows tells me that my drive is read only.
so ok a couple more details here
various operating systems have now reported the same "read only state" to me for this memory stick (Windows 7 (the originator of the error) Windows XP SP3, Puppy Linux, Peppermint ICE linux)
There is no Write Protect Switch
the drive will not Format, Delete, or write
I've tried registry edits and programs which claim they can fix this issue
During a clamwin scan (from the drive's clamwin install) it hits a reg file from a ccleaner cleanup, tells me it a corrupted file and to run chkdsk and (again) unmounts/remounts the drive
I can't run chkdsk . . . because it reads as a write only drive.

am I at the end of the drives life?
or
if I copy the data (which the backup comes up free of viruses) will a new drive also die on me.
Has anyone any other suggestions for un write protecting the drive?

[usdcs]

I had this happen to me with one of my first 1GB drives, a SanDisk cruzer. I've never been able to resurrect it. I'd copy the files to another drive, and physically destroy the old one, if it has sensitive information on it.

[-.-]

hm is it write only on that computer? you can set it with registry switch. UsbWriteProtect is a program that does this for you if you don't know what registry setting to change

[Ruby]

Boot into a rescue disk (i.e. RIPLinuX - (Bootable ISO X-Version))

Run GParted, delete the partition(s), rebuild partition table, format new partition(s).

All this is done right in the GParted UI, just a few clicks.

Hope this helps fix your problem.