1 Topic by Cerberus

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Topic: Problem with formatting an USB-Stick

I´ve got an USB-Stick from SK with 8 GB which is now write-protected because of a write-failure. As I wanted to save a file on it, my harddisk was in heavy use, so the time ran out to complete the task. Because of that it happend that a file chunk is on the stick and the whole stick is writeprotected. I wanted to format the stick with gparted live cd, but when it checks the partitions the system hangs up. When the stick is not inserted I haven´t got this problem. I also checked the registering from Win XP, no value for writeprotecting set. What should I do ?

2 Reply by gedakc

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Re: Problem with formatting an USB-Stick

Are you using the most recent version of GParted (0.7.1)?

3 Reply by Cerberus

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Re: Problem with formatting an USB-Stick

Yes. I´m using version 0.7.1-1 and tried it for the first time.

4 Reply by gedakc

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Re: Problem with formatting an USB-Stick

If you do not have any data that you wish to recover from the USB stick, you might try to overwrite the entire stick with zeroes.  This should wipe out the partition table as well as any data on the USB stick (assuming you can write to the stick).

WARNING:  The following command will completely erase all data from a disk device:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/path-to-your-disk-device-to-erase bs=512

Where:   /path-to-your-disk-device-to-erase is something like /dev/sde

5 Reply by Cerberus

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Re: Problem with formatting an USB-Stick

Nothing works. I´m not able to write on the stick. I´ve tried to format it with tools from transcend, to delete the partition with parted magic - no chance to format it or to write on it...

6 Reply by Cerberus

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Re: Problem with formatting an USB-Stick

... I´ve also tried to open the stick (which was easliy to open and close again) and to pour water on the chips - I´ve also tried to get rid of the data with a small magnet - but nothing worked - the data still remains...

7 Reply by gedakc

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Re: Problem with formatting an USB-Stick

Out of curiousity, does the USB stick have a switch on it to write protect the data?

I just thought of this because SD cards have a switch like this and when it is set the card cannot be written to.

8 Reply by Allnsmth

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Re: Problem with formatting an USB-Stick

Yes ..you can use dos command for completely remove data your pen drive...!
That is the only way to format pan drive.

9 Reply by Cerberus

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Re: Problem with formatting an USB-Stick

gedakc wrote:

Out of curiousity, does the USB stick have a switch on it to write protect the data?

I just thought of this because SD cards have a switch like this and when it is set the card cannot be written to.

No. I hasn´t got any switch.

10 Reply by Cerberus

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Re: Problem with formatting an USB-Stick

Allnsmth wrote:

Yes ..you can use dos command for completely remove data your pen drive...!
That is the only way to format pan drive.

When I tried to format it under dos I also got the message that the drive is write-protected. I don´t know what I should try under dos?

11 Reply by gedakc

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Re: Problem with formatting an USB-Stick

Cerberus wrote:
gedakc wrote:

Out of curiousity, does the USB stick have a switch on it to write protect the data?

I just thought of this because SD cards have a switch like this and when it is set the card cannot be written to.

No. I hasn´t got any switch.

Unfortunately I do not much for other ideas.  If the USB stick is still under warranty you might try returning it for a refund.  Otherwise you might try to find a forum that is specific to USB devices to seek help there.