Rufus Error: Access to the device is denied [0x00000005]

When you try to create a bootable USB drive from an ISO using Rufus, you may encounter the Access Denied error. The full error message is below:

Error: Access to the device is denied.

I received the above error when creating a Ubuntu boot disk from the ISO using Rufus. The Rufus log file showed these entries:

WARNING: 'Controlled Folder Access' appears to be enabled on this system
You may need to disable this feature, or add an exception, for Rufus to work...

Requesting disk access...
Will use 'G:' as volume mountpoint
Opened \\.\PhysicalDrive2 for exclusive write access
Analyzing existing boot records...
Drive has a Zeroed Master Boot Record
Clearing MBR/PBR/GPT structures...
Erasing 128 sectors
Write error [0x00000005] Access is denied.
Retrying in 5 seconds...
Write error [0x00000005] Access is denied.
Retrying in 5 seconds...
Write error [0x00000005] Access is denied.
Retrying in 5 seconds...
Write error [0x00000005] Access is denied.
Could not reset partitions
Re-mounted volume as G: after error

Cause

The error [0x00000005] Access is denied occurs if Microsoft Defender’s Controlled Folder Access feature is enabled and it has blocked Rufus from taking excluding write access to the drive.

If you’re not using Microsoft Defender, then check out the equivalent setting in the respective antivirus program.

Solution

To prevent this error from occurring, try disabling Microsoft Defender’s Controlled Folder Access feature temporarily.

Alternatively, you may try adding Rufus’s executable to the list of allowed programs. To allow an app, click “Allow an app through Controlled folder access” option in Windows Defender Security Center. For more information, see the section “Add (whitelist) apps for Controlled folder access” in the article Configure Controlled Folder Access.

Also, refer Official FAQ page of Rufus for additional information.