Is there a way to disable formatting of a USB Flashdrive?

Question

Can any script or setting be written (autorun file?) to disable formatting of a USB Flashdrive? (Win XP, via Windows Explorer > Format)

I'm aware of write-protection, but I don't want to completely prevent modifying files, instead something like what a Group Policy setting could do?

Edit: Really what I'm asking for is a registry setting or else that I can modify on USB drive startup to tell Win XP not to format drive X:

Answer 1

Format the things as NTFS. That should give you sufficient security. You need admin rights to the volume to reformat the USB stick. Anyone with those rights can by definition disable any protection you could enable. If you allow Everyone to create and modify files in the root directory and below, users can still write files as demanded.