Cannot format corrupted USB pen drive.

pan64 · 05-10-2016, 08:40 AM

anyone, but especially the badblocks

linustalman · 05-10-2016, 08:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pan64

anyone, but especially the badblocks

Ok, thanks.

Teufel · 05-10-2016, 08:50 AM

If badblocks hangs completely it may be due to bad blocks.
Check it for badblocks with HDDScan instead of badblocks.
Start HDDScan, select your device in dropdown list.
Press "Tasks" button and select "Surface tests" item.
When new window appeared check "Read" option and press "Add Test" button. It will start new window with your task added to tasts list. Dowbleckick added task, it will open task details windows, there you can control task executing as map or as graph or as text report. If there are bad blocks you will be informed.

Look screenshots there: http://hddscan.com/

Do not erase a stick, just perform read test to search for bad blocks, especially at the very beginning.

pan64 · 05-10-2016, 09:01 AM

http://superuser.com/questions/68943...ith-i-o-errors
here you can find some links to some tools to try to "low level format" your pendrive and try to repair it, although I definitely cannot guarantee anything.

linustalman · 05-10-2016, 09:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teufel

If badblocks hangs completely it may be due to bad blocks.
Check it for badblocks with HDDScan instead of badblocks.
Start HDDScan, select your device in dropdown list.
Press "Tasks" button and select "Surface tests" item.
When new window appeared check "Read" option and press "Add Test" button. It will start new window with your task added to tasts list. Dowbleckick added task, it will open task details windows, there you can control task executing as map or as graph or as text report. If there are bad blocks you will be informed.

Look screenshots there: http://hddscan.com/

Do not erase a stick, just perform read test to search for bad blocks, especially at the very beginning.

I am running HDDScan inside VirtualBox -- would that be a problem? I presume it's best to rightclick the exe and run as administrator - which I did. Attached are screenshots of the results for graph, map, & report. It seems to be badblock city *_*.

Teufel · 05-10-2016, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LinusStallman

I am running HDDScan inside VirtualBox -- would that be a problem? I presume it's best to rightclick the exe and run as administrator - which I did. Attached are screenshots of the results for graph, map, & report. It seems to be badblock city *_*.

Can't say for sure will it work in VirtualBox correctly, screenshot shows that there are a lot of damaged blocks, but at the same time the graph shows that all seems OK. To be correct HDDScan needs full low level access to the drive, without virtualization layer.

linustalman · 05-10-2016, 09:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teufel

Can't say for sure will it work in VirtualBox correctly, screenshot shows that there are a lot of damaged blocks, but at the same time the graph shows that all seems OK. To be correct HDDScan needs full low level access to the drive, without virtualization layer.

So the USB drive is salvageable? I have no access to a computer with Windows natively installed on it.

sgosnell · 05-10-2016, 09:59 AM

Is there any chance this drive has had a gpt partition table installed on it at some time? Mixing gpt and mbr can cause these symptoms. If it has, you need to use gdisk, from Linux, to remove the remaining traces of the gpt table.

Teufel · 05-10-2016, 09:59 AM

Not sure it salvageable.
I have no VirtualBox installed to make conclusion about it behaviour.
I would try to perform low level format as it suggested above, but I suspect that HP Low Level Format tool needs direct access to drive.

Did you try to delete partition table with dd command as it suggested above?

Code:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=1

linustalman · 05-10-2016, 01:45 PM

I had 'sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdf' running for over an hour but nothing happened.

The reason it is sdf and not sdb this time is because I tried it in VirtualBox Win 7 earlier and this changes the drive letter in GNU/Linux.

Teufel · 05-10-2016, 02:37 PM

No need to run it for hour to erase partition table. It takes one second.
run

Code:

sudo fdisk -l

to see where your stick attached: /dev/sdf or /dev/sdb or somewhere else. It would be nice to detach all the sticks and external usb drives if they attached before running fdisk
then run

Code:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=1

replace /dev/sdX with the value from fdisk output
dd should return in less than 1 second.
if it returns immediately - open gparted (or use fdisk if you familiar with it) and create new partition table, add partition and format it. Do not use any gnome-***** utility. Only gparted or fdisk.

If it doesn't help - get Vendor ID and Device ID and search web for manufacturer's restoration tool for your device and try to restore flash drive. But this requires native Windows installation to run such a tools (if you can found it), not a VirtualBox installation.

Vendor ID and Device ID can be found from

Code:

sudo lspci -k

and

Code:

sudo lspci -n

output

linustalman · 05-11-2016, 05:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teufel

Code:

sudo fdisk -l

...

Portion of output:

Code:

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdf'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sdf: 31.0 GB, 31024349184 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3771 cylinders, total 60594432 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0008b89c

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdf1              63    60594431    30297184+   c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)

linustalman · 05-11-2016, 05:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teufel

No need to run it for hour to erase partition table. It takes one second.

...

Code:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=1

...

Both hung:

Code:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdf bs=1M count=1

and

Code:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdf1 bs=1M count=1

linustalman · 05-11-2016, 05:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sgosnell

Is there any chance this drive has had a gpt partition table installed on it at some time? Mixing gpt and mbr can cause these symptoms. If it has, you need to use gdisk, from Linux, to remove the remaining traces of the gpt table.

Hi sgosnell.

Here's some output from using gdisk:

Code:

GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.8

Type device filename, or press <Enter> to exit: /dev/sdf
Partition table scan:
  MBR: MBR only
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: not present


***************************************************************
Found invalid GPT and valid MBR; converting MBR to GPT format
in memory. THIS OPERATION IS POTENTIALLY DESTRUCTIVE! Exit by
typing 'q' if you don't want to convert your MBR partitions
to GPT format!
***************************************************************


Warning! Secondary partition table overlaps the last partition by
33 blocks!
You will need to delete this partition or resize it in another utility.

Command (? for help): 


Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING
PARTITIONS!!

Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): y
OK; writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to /dev/sdf1.
Warning: The kernel is still using the old partition table.
The new table will be used at the next reboot.
The operation has completed successfully.

Should I convert the 2 partitions to one of these?:
1 - MBR
2 - GPT
3 - Create blank GPT

pan64 · 05-11-2016, 05:51 AM

You can try, but if dd did not work for you .... (this will not either). Did you check post 19?