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I attempted to flash my 16GB usb drive to install the ubuntu iso image. The process reported it could not flash my drive. There was data on the drive to start. It would be useful for Ubuntu to state the the usb drive should be empty and maybe note what format is desired - FAT, NTFS etc

I had attempted to install macrium [https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree#] This may have install a hidden file on the usb drive. There were 3 other folders as well. All the data has been wiped. The USB is recognized by Windows but has 0 size. Trying to reformat does not work - windows reports it cannot access the drive.

Is there a way to low level format this device? It seems to have lost its ability to detect what is in it. Thanks

peterdev
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  • Try Disks (gnome disk utility) if you want a GUI utility. You can also try gparted or fdisk. If you can't format the flash drive using these tools or the disk isn't detected then it's probably dead. FYI: Ubuntu didn't kill your flash drive. They don't last forever. – Nmath Jul 25 '22 at 21:23
  • It makes no differences what is on the thumb-drive before the ISO is written to it, if written correctly, as any prior data (including all formatting) is destroyed in the write of ISO to media. There are methods to have the ISO written as a file & you have other software that boots it on thumb-drive, but those are not officially supported & specific to 3rd party software in use. – guiverc Jul 25 '22 at 22:00
  • Does this answer your question? How to restore original size and unboot my bootable USB pendrive – karel Jul 26 '22 at 10:27

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Yes of course! On linux use gparted, select the drive at the top right (it should be dev/sdb), right click on unlocated space and select New then give the partition the full space available (you can drag the arrow to the right and the left) then choose the format. Click on Add then apply change.

I found this tutorial that is much complet and readable that what I said before: https://devconnected.com/how-to-create-disk-partitions-on-linux/#:~:text=To%20create%20a%20partition%20using,and%20tweak%20your%20future%20partition.

If you are still on windows it should exist some similar tools.

GuillaumeF93
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Before trying gparted, which can be installed with:

sudo apt install gparted

you should make sure that the USB is at least recognized by the kernel. For this check the last lines of dmesg, after you've inserted the disk. The message should look like:

[58119.935033] usb 1-4: new high-speed USB device number 3 using xhci_hcd
[58120.170901] usb 1-4: New USB device found, idVendor=058f, idProduct=6387, bcdDevice= 1.01
[58120.170902] usb 1-4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[58120.170903] usb 1-4: Product: Mass Storage
[58120.170904] usb 1-4: Manufacturer: Generic

Then you could proceed using gparted. Make sure you are selecting the right drive (sdb,sdc etc) and format it with fat32.

If this information does not pop up, your USB device is bricked.

Mind that Windows is rather harsh on those devices, so it is a fair chance that not Ubuntu bricked it.

kanehekili
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