Re: Restoring my USB drive
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 11:13 am
Sometimes there are hardware problems with USB flashdrives, I don't consider them 100% reliable, not even close.
Support for MX and antiX Linux distros
https://forum.mxlinux.org/
Thanks Chris, since that's a Win format, I'll switch to my Win7 partition to download it. If it works as well as you say it does, it will come in handy for use in my Winblows OS.chrispop99 wrote:I've come across this problem a couple of times, though with other Linux distributions. After following pretty much the same journey that you have taken, I eventually found a piece of Windows software that would recover drives that were impossible to format by normal means. It is available here:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/downlo ... rmat-tool/
Hope this fixes it for you.
Chris
Adrian wrote:Try: "live-usb-maker partition-clear"
Thanks folks, that worked - now to check for bad blocks! Much appreciated!fehlix wrote:In some cases usb-devices do resist to get properly formated.
Even very good tools like Rufus (on win) sometimes cannot sort this out.
The HP-formater is certainly a good choice in that OS to handle this.
On Linux not all formater-tools do handle USB-devices well enough when it comes to clearing the partition table properly before the formating takes place.
I‘ve seen this happen unfortunately with Gparted and also within the famous Mint-Stick usb-formater tool.
The most reliable tool for clearing partiton table I‘ve seen.. ( you won’t believe it ;=)
comes with MX-Linux. The partition clearing is handled within the live-usb-maker tool.
You would call the partion clearing from within the terminal like this
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# sudo live-usb-maker partition-clear
The tool is save in a sense as it will only show you the available USB-device.
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# sudo live-usb-maker partition-clear
======================================================
Starting live-usb-maker
======================================================
Only one target usb device was found sdg
Will use target device sdg (7.5G Lexar USB Flash Drive)
-------------------------------------------------------
Ready to perform partition-clear action on sdg
-------------------------------------------------------
Shall we begin?
> yes
> no
> pretend mode
Press <Enter> to select the highlighted entry
Use 'h' for help, 'r' to redraw, 'q' to quit
After partion table is cleared properly you will have a far more better chance
that Gparted will create a proper formated USB-Stick.
Within Gparted create the Partiton Table (unter Menu→ Device).
After that is done create a new partition (under Menu → Partition)
using the whole space and choose eg. format FAT32 and Label something like USBFAT32.
Please remember USB-devices do have a limited live write-cycle. To properly verifiy the USB-stick will not have blocks with failure do check the USB-stick using the tool badblocks
like this for usb device e.g. /dev/sdg
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# sudo badblocks -t random -v -w -s /dev/sdg
Even for new USB-Sticks it might be a good advice to check the device before using it.
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$ sudo badblocks -t random -v -w -s /dev/sdb
badblocks: No such file or directory while trying to determine device size
Potentially first plug-out / unmount your USB-stick. Plug-In again so the kernel sees the device !Bierhundt wrote:I don't understand this:Code: Select all
$ sudo badblocks -t random -v -w -s /dev/sdb badblocks: No such file or directory while trying to determine device size
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# sudo blkid
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# sudo fdisk -l
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# sudo live-usb-maker partition-clear
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# sudo badblocks -t random -v -w -s /dev/sd?
Thanks, good to know. I wish I would have known that before I bought these I do have a couple of larger ones that are actually a laptop SSD hard drive in a cheap case that I bought off Newegg for a good price. Maybe I should invest in those instead of these Lexars that are only about 6 mo. old! Hopefully these SSD hard drives are better quality than the USBs. You can pick up a 120Gb SSD for $40 and the case only cost about 5 bucks. the other one I bought off ebay and it already had a case.Adrian wrote:Sometimes there are hardware problems with USB flashdrives, I don't consider them 100% reliable, not even close.
Deutch? Back in the 60's, I spent 20 months near a town called Kirchgons - loved it! Nice people there. Small town 48 cliks N of Frankfurt.fehlix wrote: Find the /dev/db? -device name für you usb-device.
Well spotted ... Perhaps you remember the taste of the Frankfurter "Äppelwoi" - nice people indeed!Bierhundt wrote:Nice people there. Small town 48 cliks N of Frankfurt.fehlix wrote: Find the /dev/db? -device name für you usb-device.