Arch Linux

Marvix

Member

Registered: 2013-10-08

Posts: 157

Revive USB flash drive

I have USB flash drive and I need to revive it. It is 32 GB and shows is has none.

With Gparted it cannot be seen, In Gnome Disk Utility, I can been seen with no options to edit but only the "Edit Mount Options..."

I try with the command line to look it and only with lsblk -a shows it, as below:

NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sdb      8:16   1         0 disk

is there a way to revive it?

peterklarc

Member

Registered: 2017-03-28

Posts: 28

Re: Revive USB flash drive

Maybe wipe / destroy all data with dd command to zero out the usb or if you have a windows at hand the disk part command.

Maniaxx

Member

Registered: 2014-05-14

Posts: 761

Re: Revive USB flash drive

Do 'dmesg | tail' and 'lsusb' after plug-in to see if it gets detected properly. If so, use 'fdisk' to clear/recreate partition.
If not detected properly try on different usb controller port (usb2<>usb3).

---

sys2064

waitnsea

Member

From: France

Registered: 2013-02-10

Posts: 67

Re: Revive USB flash drive

Do 'dmesg | tail' and 'lsusb' after plug-in to see if it gets detected properly. If so, use 'fdisk' to clear/recreate partition.
If not detected properly try on different usb controller port (usb2<>usb3).

Hi,
Usually, after running fdisk with this command :

$ (echo o; echo n; echo p; echo 1; echo; echo; echo w) | sudo fdisk /dev/sdb

Gparted will be able to see your usb key and you had to create first a new partition table

Edit : please be very careful with this command - use before, as you did :

$ lsblk -f

  for not to apply it to a wrong device

Last edited by waitnsea (2019-03-28 03:29:52)

Tétrapyle

Member

Registered: 2014-01-03

Posts: 61

Re: Revive USB flash drive

Waitnsea, nobody should ever type the command you suggested unless they're able to write it by themselves and need no advice. You should at least edit your message and replace sdb with sdX. It looks like a bait for people to wipe down their internal drives.

I mean, seriously.

Plus, unless you have a bunch of defective usb flash drives, why not just go into fdisk and type m for help about the commands?

mmdamin

Member

From: Iran

Registered: 2019-02-19

Posts: 205

Website

Re: Revive USB flash drive

I have a USB Flash Disk. 'lsusb' always shows it as its brand but sometimes 'lsusb' shows 'SMI DISK' and 'lsblk' shows no volume. it's not writable, readable and mountable 'till I plug out and plug in it again. may you have same problem.

---

github