Question USB Drive unusable after trying to update Windows.

[SaviorsHand]

Edit: Hit enter too early and most of my post wasn't typed yet.

Hello everyone!

I'm new to this forum so please forgive me if I provide too many details or odd information, I'm just trying to be thorough and cover all basis.


Event:
My fiance needed to upgrade her HP Steam laptop from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. Originally I attempted to download the version from Microsoft and was informed I had too little space. As such I cleared up as much space as possible and the download took place overnight(not the fastest internet here). When I woke up in the morning I noticed that the computer was saying more space was needed and to insert a USB memory card as an option.

Flash drive in question: Verbatim 64GB Pinstripe.

https://express.google.com/u/0/prod...QcMtXcy5yV59VGD3-ptqSu_a2AQnh7LhoC6NsQAvD_BwE


The computer then did some more downloading before rebooting and attempt to install the operating system. This began to take hours upon hours and was stuck at 0%. Nothing was proceeding and I suspected and issue with installation. The computer was none responsive so I powered down fully and then restarted. The windows screen indicated it wouldn't move forward without the USB stick but it was inserted. I decided to work on the laptop later but wanted my USB stick to work.

Attempting to fix:

I plugged my stick into my computer and the drive appears with the proper letter but it's not accessible. I was fine with losing the data so I attempted a format.

"There is no disk in drive I:
Insert a disk and try again."

This is odd so I go to the disk management console for windows 10. The drive is not appearing as an option under volumes but does appear under the physical disk options in the bottom half. Device is showing as removable with no media. I right click and choose properties and attempt to fill populate volumes. Volume shows as MBR but no capacity or unallocated/reserved space.

I decide any volume can be deleted as long as I have access to the drive again. I attempt a disk part. Find the Disk is 3 and select it. Find the volume in question is 6 and select it. delete volume.

Virtual Disk Service error:
The object is not found.

format command

Virtual Disk Service error:
The volume is not formattable.

URGGG! Fine what's wrong I say. I head back to the devices properties and view events.

Device not migrated

Device USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_Generic&Prod_USB_Flash_Disk&Rev_7.76\6&20da0495&0 was not migrated due to partial or ambiguous match.

Last Device Instance Id: USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_WDC_WD20&Prod_03FZEX-00Z4SA0&Rev_\20141224&0
Class Guid: {4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Location Path:
Migration Rank: 0xF000FC000000F130
Present: false
Status: 0xC0000719


Ok so maybe it won't migrate for a few reasons but this usb stick doesn't have drivers so I can't attempt to update those really. When attempting to insert back into the same laptop computer I notice it does not recognize it as well and am unable to format or create a new volume/partition.

I've tried changing the Control registry under CurrentVersion.
I've attempted to update the driver and uninstalled it from Microsoft.
I've changed volume information and well as just simply disabled the device and renabled it.


I think I discussed all the major options. I just KNOW the drive couldn't have been destroyed, it's reliable and I trust it works just fine. I'd be blown away if it did. Does anyone have any other ideas I can attempt?

 

[Grobe]

Try the USB stick on another computer and see if you can manage to create a volume.

Try to see if Verbatim have their own toolkit to detect errors / repair the usb stick.

Another thing you can try is to just use a better tool for managing volumes. That means you need to visit Linux world.
The tool I suggest is Gparted. Make a bootable CD/DVD/usb-stick (use another usb stick for that), and you can use your own computer to do this.
Just be sure to select the correct media (so you don't erase the OS/data drive)

 

[SaviorsHand]

Thank you for the reply, Grobe!


Some good suggestions here although I must admit I've already tried the first two. I've not been able to locate any tool from Verbatim that might be able to detect an error or maybe wipe the drive clean from scratch. It just doesn't seem like they have a tool for their flash drives at all -- unless I'm just missing it.

I've also attempted to use the drive on another computer, even the original laptop it became corrupted from, and it's not accessible in the same ways as my own PC.

I'm not familiar with Linux so much so I'm a bit afraid to fool around with it but I can definitely research on commands and such. Unless you're saying the bootable usb drive can contain just gparted itself and doesn't require me to setup a distribution like Debian or Redhat or what have you(old names to be sure but I don't know new ones).

 

[hang-the-9]

Plug in the disk, run diskpart command at a DOS prompt, then do a list disk. Does it show you the USB stick? If it does, do a "select disk x" with the number of that usb stick. Then do a "clean" command. It should wipe any partitions on the disk. If it gives you an error or does not show the disk in diskpart list disk then the stick is bad.

Once it's cleaned, go to disk manager (if the clean worked that is). Is the volume for the stick there? If not, the stick is bad.
If the volume is there, right-click it and create a new partition and try to format it. If that fails, the stick is bad.

 

[Grobe]

The first few moments of this video tutorial does a great job explain the concept Live-CD:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU3zCL5g_7E