FLASH! AH AHHHHHH! drive problems. (Solved)

brandotheninjamaster

Ok, so I got this flash drive and had it in when I was reinstalling windows. When I went to format my primary partition, I formatted the flash drive instead. After my initial "aw dammit" I plugged the flash drive into another computer and...nothing. Is there anything I can do to bring back to life? I don't care about the data on it. It just seems like a waste to go buy a new if I can revive this one. Thanks in advance.



P.S. In case someone didn't get the title, it was from Flash Gordon.


Done and Solved.

urahonky

Plug the flash drive into a computer, right click My Computer, and go to Manage. In the new window go to Storage, and click on Disk Management. Do you see it in there? If so, right click and make sure it's active and make sure it's formatted for FAT32 or NTFS (not sure which one is the one that USB drives use).

Ruckus

Stick it in a Windows computer, right click on My Computer and choose "Manage", down near the bottom of the Management console there should be "Disk Management" (under "Storage"). Click on that. If your Flashdrive is listed as a device (bottom right area of the screen) it may either need to have a driver letter assigned manually or it needs to be completely formatted.

[edit] Or listen to Urahonky. I recommend FAT32 if the drive is less than 30GB.

BRAINS!

Can you change a USB 2.0 flash drive to FAT32? I was under the impression it had to be NTFS. Well, maybe it has to be NTFS for 2.0 capability?

brandotheninjamaster

I've tried reassigning the letter, but windows didn't even recognize it.

Blender

if windows wont see it, there may be hardware failure

is there any recognition? in any usb port, any computer?

you might have to bust the casing open and check for loose connections, burnt parts,???

I've had some success with this

Ruckus

BRAINS! wrote: »

Can you change a USB 2.0 flash drive to FAT32? I was under the impression it had to be NTFS. Well, maybe it has to be NTFS for 2.0 capability?

Windows only allows FAT32 if the drive is less than 32GB.

To the OP: If the drive shows up in the Computer Management console as a removable device, you may have to right click on it and create a new partition (as you most likely deleted the partition in the Windows Installer earlier).

brandotheninjamaster

I know its been a while, but I finally got windows to detect my flash drive. It shows up in my computer but when I go to disk management it just says "unallocated". I tried to format it but it says "the media is write protected". Also, another thing that I notice is that I have options for eject and such that I would for a "disk drive" and the file system being used is "raw".

meeker

Just wondering was it a U3 drive? If so, they had to be formatted using tools on the Sandisk website.

brandotheninjamaster

believe it or not the drive has no brands listed on it. I guess its some kinda third party deal.

brandotheninjamaster

Alright so I figured out 2 things.

1.) So all this time it was saying "write protected". So I have a write protection switch on there.
2.) I am really retarded and should have noticed this before.

So after switching the drive to the "unlocked" position (*facepalm*) I was able to format it no problem. Thanks to all those who posted for your help.

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