topic Re: Is this a "bin-it" job ...... in Tech Help - Software/Hardware etc

Is this a "bin-it" job ......

shutter — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 13:32:21 GMT

.......Or.... Can it be recovered ? ( Running Linux Mint 21.2 Fully updated)

I have a 16GB Mini USB stick.. which had some stuff on it... that I did not need any longer so I used the "Disks" function to "Erase" and "Format" the stick.

Running time was estimated at over 3.5 hours.. - no problem... got all day !.

After about 30 mins... it reported a "problem with formatting" or similar.... so I shut it down. Then I tried to format it with the USB Stick Formatter.....

In the above "composite"... on the left side, under Devices... it does not show.

Using a terminal instruction " lsusb " it shows as Bus 001 Device 030 ID ffff 1201

( confirmed by removing it and the above not showing on repeat of lsusb)

Opening "Disks" from the menu it shows as NAND USB2DISK and in the right hand pane as /dev/sdc With "no media" in the main area.

Terminal instruction " lsblk " also shows it as sdc 8:32 1 0B 0 disk

GParted does not recognise it, or show it .

It`s probably "borked" ...but before I chuck it in the bin... just wondered if anyone can see a way of formatting it, to reuse.

Thanks

Re: Is this a "bin-it" job ......

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 13:57:20 GMT

Assuming it still appears as /dev/sdc

Try erasing everything on the flash drive using this at a command prompt -

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

That will write zeros to every location on the device, removing all formatting and data.

The command will probably end with an error message, as it will try and keep writing zeros past the end of the disk space, which will report an error and will eventually return to the command prompt.

You probably want to restart the PC with the wiped flash drive still attached, and then use 'Disks' to format as needed.

Re: Is this a "bin-it" job ......

shutter — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 14:02:04 GMT

@Anonymous

Thanks for the terminal..... here is the result ....

Re: Is this a "bin-it" job ......

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 14:20:27 GMT

I don't know then !

That command usually recovers my flash drives that 'Disks' has failed to format correctly.

Re: Is this a "bin-it" job ......

shutter — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 14:28:08 GMT

@Anonymous OK... it`s certainly a bit weird... cos it doesn`t show in some parts but in others , it does, and the /dev/sdc bit on the Disks section is the only place it gets a "drive name" for the disk

Tried to find instructions "on line" and one of them suggested to "unmount" the drive using sudo umount /dev/sdc

on the terminal it gives this result.

gerry@gerry-GL752VW:~$ sudo unmount /dev/sdc
[sudo] password for gerry:
sudo: unmount: command not found
gerry@gerry-GL752VW:~$

Re: Is this a "bin-it" job ......

DirtyDean68 — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 14:57:19 GMT

Apologies for stating the obvious, but looking at your post you've missed typed the umount command. You'll need to drop the first "n".

It should look like this:

sudo umount /dev/sdc

That should unmount the drive. (I have no idea why the the first "n" is dropped in the command.)

Re: Is this a "bin-it" job ......

shutter — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 15:30:19 GMT

@DirtyDean68 OK.... just done this..

gerry@gerry-GL752VW:~$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda 8:0 0 476.9G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 512M 0 part /boot/efi
└─sda2 8:2 0 476.4G 0 part /
sdb 8:16 1 0B 0 disk
sdc 8:32 1 0B 0 disk
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom

gerry@gerry-GL752VW:~$ sudo umount /dev/sdc
[sudo] password for gerry:

umount: /dev/sdc: not mounted.

removed and inserted the usb stick

then did this ...

gerry@gerry-GL752VW:~$ sudo lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda 8:0 0 476.9G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 512M 0 part /boot/efi
└─sda2 8:2 0 476.4G 0 part /
sdb 8:16 1 0B 0 disk
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
gerry@gerry-GL752VW:~$

as you can see sdc is no longer showing !...

However... going to Disks.... it does pop up again...as mentioned before as

Drive

NAND USB2DISK but showing " No Volume " in the panel on the right.

lsusb gives similar result to the one shown above.. ( ID ffff:1201 )

lsblk also brings back sdc into the drive listings.

Should I "umount" sdc again... and then reboot with it plugged in?

Re: Is this a "bin-it" job ......

DirtyDean68 — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 16:15:17 GMT

The Disks app will detect and mount it again. You can unmount the drive by clicking in the power button as per the screen shot below.

Running lsusb should have at least given you the manufacturer and model names and codes of the USB stick. It is possible the USB stick's onboard firmware is not reporting that back, which indicates it may have become corrupted.

If you are still getting it listed as "ID ffff:1201" using lsusb and you're unable to format it with Disks, Gparted, etc., in my opinion you should cut your losses and junk the USB stick unfortunately. ☹️

Re: Is this a "bin-it" job ......

bmc — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 16:16:15 GMT

@shutter

Have you tried using something like GParted on the drive. I think you can load it on your machine so long as you're not working on the Boot disk. Otherwise ypou boot it from a USB stick.

https://gparted.org/index.php

Brian

Re: Is this a "bin-it" job ......

shutter — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 17:52:31 GMT

@DirtyDean68 Yeah. I think that giving it the heave-ho into the bin is the solution here... Not worth spending any more time on it, really

@bmc Yes I have tried GParted... as inidcated on my "composite" pic at the start of the thread.

So off to lanfill it goes.

Thanks to all for your interest and input.

Off to Ebay and find another ! ! ! .

Have a good evening all.