USB stick acting very odd, can't format it either

Question

I have a General UDisk USB with Tails live system on it. It has very odd behaviour that started when removing it without shutting down the OS:

If it is plugged into my computer (ASUS X53E) when booting, the computer wont go past the asus logo or go to the BIOS menu until it is removed.
It makes windows explorer crash
In Ubuntu disk utility you can see the tails partition until you attempt to do anything with it or you wait 2 mins, then it says "no media detected in /dev/sdc"
the serial number is Љ

I would like to be able to use this usb again, i don't care about any data on it

I'd start by using gparted to see what partitions are on it, what file systems it's formatted in. It will reformat as well. — Marc, Feb 22 '16 at 01:20
In Ubuntu, try running sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc, assuming that your USB is located at /dev/sdc. — Daniel, Feb 22 '16 at 01:20

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 22 '16 at 01:21

2

The most likely explanation is that it's a fault with the USB stick.

Throw it away and buy another one. For the most part, they are too cheap to spend too much time trying to diagnose or troubleshoot the problem. The behaviour you've described (especially, computer won't boot or enter BIOS menu when it's plugged in) imply it's a hardware fault that you can't fix.

If you had important data on there that you can't recover, you are probably out of luck. But since you don't care about the data, you can breathe a sigh of relief.

As for the cause: removing it from a USB port without shutting down the OS will not be the cause. USB devices are electrically designed to be able to be removed from a running system. If a device dies when you do this, it was already faulty.

answered Feb 22 '16 at 01:21

thomasrutter

36,774

THanks, i tried the suggestions in the comments, Daniel's suggestion didn't work, returning the error "no media found on /dev/sdc" and I was unable to get gparted. However i do find it odd that the partitions can be read when it is plugged in until 1 min has passed or an action is tried on it. – Anon y moose Feb 22 '16 at 01:35
Often when they fail they may still work intermittently or for small periods of time, or maybe some parts of the drive may work while others may fail. This can aid data recovery. But yeah likely still a hardware fault with the drive I'd say. – thomasrutter Feb 22 '16 at 01:46

USB stick acting very odd, can't format it either

1 Answers1