Restoring my USB drive

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Adrian
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Re: Restoring my USB drive

#11 Post by Adrian »

Sometimes there are hardware problems with USB flashdrives, I don't consider them 100% reliable, not even close.

Bierhundt
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Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2018 12:12 pm

Re: Restoring my USB drive

#12 Post by Bierhundt »

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
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.

Bierhundt
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Re: Restoring my USB drive

#13 Post by Bierhundt »

Adrian wrote:Try: "live-usb-maker partition-clear"
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

Code: Select all
# sudo live-usb-maker partition-clear

The tool is save in a sense as it will only show you the available USB-device.

Code: Select all
# 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

Code: Select all
# 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.
Thanks folks, that worked - now to check for bad blocks! Much appreciated!

Bierhundt
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Re: Restoring my USB drive

#14 Post by Bierhundt »

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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fehlix
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Re: Restoring my USB drive

#15 Post by fehlix »

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
Potentially first plug-out / unmount your USB-stick. Plug-In again so the kernel sees the device !
Find the /dev/db? -device name für you usb-device.
E.g by

Code: Select all

# sudo blkid
or by

Code: Select all

# sudo fdisk -l
or even by running

Code: Select all

# sudo live-usb-maker partition-clear
quit partition-clear here... only look for the identified usb-device name "/dev/sd?"

Identify the device name e.g. could be /dev/sdc or /dev/sdb or oven /dev/sda .
The patrions are something like /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdc2 ...
Than go for the bad blocks again with the proper device name

Code: Select all

# sudo badblocks -t random -v -w -s /dev/sd?
Happy hunting!
Gigabyte Z77M-D3H, Intel Xeon E3-1240 V2 (Quad core), 32GB RAM,
GeForce GTX 770, Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB, Seagate Barracuda 4TB

Bierhundt
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Re: Restoring my USB drive

#16 Post by Bierhundt »

Adrian wrote:Sometimes there are hardware problems with USB flashdrives, I don't consider them 100% reliable, not even close.
Thanks, good to know. I wish I would have known that before I bought these :wink: 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.

Bierhundt
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Re: Restoring my USB drive

#17 Post by Bierhundt »

fehlix wrote: Find the /dev/db? -device name für you usb-device.
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.

Thanks for the advice .... I'll try to get to that this weekend. (So little time. so much to get done!).

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fehlix
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Re: Restoring my USB drive

#18 Post by fehlix »

Bierhundt wrote:
fehlix wrote: Find the /dev/db? -device name für you usb-device.
Nice people there. Small town 48 cliks N of Frankfurt.
Well spotted ... Perhaps you remember the taste of the Frankfurter "Äppelwoi" - nice people indeed!
Gigabyte Z77M-D3H, Intel Xeon E3-1240 V2 (Quad core), 32GB RAM,
GeForce GTX 770, Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB, Seagate Barracuda 4TB

Bierhundt
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Re: Restoring my USB drive

#19 Post by Bierhundt »

Yeah, mine was a total loss as well - Oh Well, No biggie!

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penguin
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Re: Restoring my USB drive

#20 Post by penguin »

During last months I have seen strange things with some USB used simultaneously on Windows 10 and Linux systems.New USB flash drive SanDisk with capacity of 8 gb. The last happens yesterday. I had read this USB on my Android Smartphone. When I tried to load it on Windows 10, the OS had impossible to mount or read it, in any way. Using MiniPartition on Windows, I found that USB had files inside but has no way to read them.This Flash USB I have mounted/read latter without any problem on my Linux. As I said , similar things happen on last months. Because Windows lacks to recognize this USB, I have re partitioned it with MiniPartition. Seems that a incompatibility exists when this Flash USB is partitioned with Gparted VS MiniPartition. But....I think that Windows is behind of this scenario that rise up recognizing problems for Flash USB, used simultaneously on different OS including Linux.

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