USB Flash Drive Formatted for Boot Not Recognized

[kmmccormick86]

I formatted a USB Flash Drive for boot using the Windows 10 Media Creation tool and it now isn't recognized by the new PC's bios, nor the old PC. It is a SanDisk Cruzer CZ36 32GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive.

It is a brand new drive and I find it hard to believe that it failed this quickly. Is there something I'm missing? Thanks for your help.

 

[drtweak]

Go to the Disk Management on the PC you are using. Does it show there? with Flash drives if the Partition got cleaned or there is no drive letter it won't show anywhere.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there.

First go ahead and follow @drtweak's suggestion. Other than that you could try to repeat the whole bootable flash drive with Win 10 process again. I don't know which was the tutorial you've used, but you can check out this one for a clean Win 10 installation (it also features a link on "How to Create a Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10"): http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1950-windows-10-clean-install.html.
Once this has been done, go ahead and try setting your USB ports as the first booting priority from the Boot Priority Menu in your BIOS, to see if you'd be able to boot from the flash drive afterwards.

Hope that helps. Please keep us posted.
Boogieman_WD

 

[kmmccormick86]

Go to the Disk Management on the PC you are using. Does it show there? with Flash drives if the Partition got cleaned or there is no drive letter it won't show anywhere.

I tried going to Disc Management and looking for it, and it doesn't show up there as removable media or an HDD or anything. Also, Windows doesn't "react" when I insert it, aka I don't hear a sound from the system and theres no window that pops up in the bottom right corner.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

If this is the case, this might be an indication of a failed flash drive. It doesn't matter if it's old or new, because it's not a mechanical device which wears out with time (e.g. an HDD), these things simply happen sometimes.
I'd recommend that you try it with a different computer as well, to see if the same thing happens. You could also try reformatting it via its manufacturer's formatting tool (most flash drive and SD card manufacturers offer such tools for their devices), to see if that fixes things up.

 

[kmmccormick86]

If this is the case, this might be an indication of a failed flash drive. It doesn't matter if it's old or new, because it's not a mechanical device which wears out with time (e.g. an HDD), these things simply happen sometimes.
I'd recommend that you try it with a different computer as well, to see if the same thing happens. You could also try reformatting it via its manufacturer's formatting tool (most flash drive and SD card manufacturers offer such tools for their devices), to see if that fixes things up.

Got it. The other indication that I was looking at was that the Flash Drive was not showing up in either the old PC's or the new PC's BIOS...That would also indicate that it is completely dead, correct?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Yup, unfortunately it really seems like this is the case. At least the good news is that you didn't have any valuable data on it and that you should be able to RMA it if you contact the vendor you got it from and/or its manufacturer's customer support.

Good luck!

 

[kmmccormick86]

Yup, unfortunately it really seems like this is the case. At least the good news is that you didn't have any valuable data on it and that you should be able to RMA it if you contact the vendor you got it from and/or its manufacturer's customer support.

Good luck!

Thanks! I really appreciate it. It's just weird that it failed so quickly. The LED light on there was "Breathing" which indicates that it was receiving power and just not transferring data. Very odd. I've already contacted the retailer and should be getting a replacement tomorrow.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Well as already mentioned, these tings happens sometimes with electronic devices. Good to know that you've sorted things out with the retailer!

Cheers!