Question I keep killing USBs and can’t fix them

[PrussianJaeger]

I have flashed multiple Linux iso’s to multiple USBs, and whenever I try to reverse it back to normal the USB just kills itself. I try diskpart clean, using Disk Manager, everything, and it always returns “Insert a disk into this drive” or “the specified file could not be found”, and I can’t find any solution to this. Why do I keep killing my USBs, and how can I fix it?

 

[Ralston18]

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

Disk drive(s), all types: make, model, wattage, capacity, how formatted.

How many installed USB devices? Are you using any USB hubs either system powered or independently powered?

= = = =

Explain more about "whenever I try to reverse it back to normal the USB just kills itself ".

What do you do or what procedure do you use to "reverse" it [USB] back to normal?

What happens if you use another PC to do the "reverse"?

 

[PrussianJaeger]

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

Disk drive(s), all types: make, model, wattage, capacity, how formatted.

How many installed USB devices? Are you using any USB hubs either system powered or independently powered?

= = = =

Explain more about "whenever I try to reverse it back to normal the USB just kills itself ".

What do you do or what procedure do you use to "reverse" it [USB] back to normal?

What happens if you use another PC to do the "reverse"?

Apologies, I am new to posting here; is there somewhere I can edit my post above? If so I cannot find it; otherwise should I just reply with the specifications?

I have tried to delete the partition and reformat, used diskpart clean, format from both from the file explorer and diskpart, and practically anything you can find about how to do this on the internet. Every time I have tried to do so, whenever I try to format it or plug it in or anything, it says "insert disk into drive" or it doesn't show any space on the usb, or it just fails to format and I can't figure out why; it basically renders the USB stick useless. I have done this 6+ times with a couple different models, brands, and sizes of USB sticks. I have done this on a few different computers too, usually with the front USB ports.

 

[Ralston18]

Hardware specs?

You should be able to click the red pencil icon & Edit option that appears at the bottom of your posts.

Will the computer read and write to USB's created by someone else? Be sure that the data is backed up and that the USB drive is considered expendable.... just in case.

I am not familiar with the creation of Linux iso's - what are you using to create (or attempt to create) the iso and what process are you following?

Your post has been in the Storage category for just a month.

I am going to move this thread to Open Source. More applicable category and solicit further comments and suggestions.

 

[PrussianJaeger]

It doesn’t seem like I can edit the original post, but I am able to edit the comment; odd.

Yes, mine will, my work computer will, all the computers I have done it on will.

I am using Balena Etcher to flash the iso to the thumb drive.

I personally thing Storage is more applicable - my issue is with thumb drives dying, not the Linux iso’s. I believe it might be something with the way I go about cleaning and reformatting them, I’m just not sure what though.

 

[dwd999]

It doesn’t seem like I can edit the original post, but I am able to edit the comment; odd.

Yes, mine will, my work computer will, all the computers I have done it on will.

I am using Balena Etcher to flash the iso to the thumb drive.

I personally thing Storage is more applicable - my issue is with thumb drives dying, not the Linux iso’s. I believe it might be something with the way I go about cleaning and reformatting them, I’m just not sure what though.

The main problem is that you're using Windows, which does not play well with other operating systems. So you'll need to think outside the Windows box and use a disk maintenance utility like Gparted or Partition Wizard or something similar to reset the usb. The biggest problem may be that the usbs have an MBR partition table marker. You'll need to create a GPT partition marker on the usb and the reformat to NTFS standards. But it has to be done outside of windows.

 

[axleyzena]

Try repartitioning the USB drives with Rufus. Select GPT as the partition scheme.

 

[TempTHUserName890]

On linux try the program gparted
On a debian base distro you can get it with:
sudo apt install gparted

Partition this drives with 'FAT32' or NTFS, and use gpt partition table.

Interestingly there is a live CD (you can use on usb too) produce by gparted:
https://gparted.org/livecd.php

If you scared of using USB drive again you could use the CD/DVD,
or alternatively if you have usb CD/DVD drive (like you dont have cd drive on PC) I've found that they will actually work on quite a few system to boot.

 

[Dave8671]

I had this same issue after a few forum posts I found Ventoy. It can burn iso to usb drive and it can wipe them. Installing Ventoy on Linux is a bit of a pain at least for me so I use windows. There is LiveCD which will install it also never tried that on Linux.

Once its installed either way

Ventoy

• Plugin your USB stick you want to wipe
• Open Ventoy
• Pick the right drive on the device field before selecting clear Ventoy
• Than click yes or ok to format
• Last use gparted to create a partition