Paul Hachmeyer's post (clipped):---

<<<<IBM calls them MEMORY KEYS.
They do not have a switch as my Memorex does. That is what is so frustrating.
They must be software controlled from the PC, but IBM cannot tell how>>>

Hi, it would appear that somehow the key has been "write protected"

the following URL has a downloadable pdf format manual and i hope the model matches your brothers memory keys.                             
 
    http://tinyurl.com/7uptx

the file name of the manual is "obi205eng".

i am copy/pasting the relevent portion from page 19 of the manual.

 "LCD
The liquid crystal display (LCD) shows your Memory Key total capacity and
free space. The free space indicator turns red when 5% or less of your total
disk space is free.
The LCD display shown in Figure 8: Privacy Zone Indication indicates if you
have logged into your Privacy Zone by using KeySafe. The LCD display
indicates if your Memory Key is write protected. For further details on write
protection, see “Enable/disable write protection” on page 15"

perhaps you would like to go through the entire manual (68 pages) and disable the "write protection" and see if the problem is resolved.

HTH and good luck----Venkat

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