Home / ubuntu / Questions / 1050706
In Process
Gabriel Ziegler
Asked: 2018-06-30 04:59:59 +0800 CST

Can't format/erase a partition on usb stick [duplicate]

  • 772

I wanted to make a bootable Windows 10 USB on my Ubuntu 16.04 Gnome and in the process of following these steps I got myself into a few problems with my 8 GB pen drive disk.

  • GParted does not recognize the whole 8GB as unallocated. I think another 4GB partition was created but I don't seem to able to manage it via GParted.

    GParted doesn't recognize whole disk

  • I get errors when trying to format disk or erase it in Disks:

    Format disk error

  • When I run sudo mkfs.vfat /dev/sdb1 || sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb1 bs=1M count=1 to format via command line I get the following output:

    mkfs.fat 3.0.28 (2015-05-16)

  • I tried opening the USB disk in GParted on another laptop (running Lubuntu) and there I could see the disk formatted correctly and showing up the whole 8GB. Could it the problem be my computer's system?

How am I to repair this USB stick so I can get a working windows bootable USB?

partitioning usb gparted disk

3 Answers

  1. I had also problems using the standard partitioning tools. I solved it by using the program fdisk. Install it with

    sudo apt install fdisk

    and then invoke it with

    sudo fdisk /dev/sd_your_usb_device

    Don't forget to unmount your usb before, and DON'T manipulate your system disks!

    Link on how to format a disk.

    • 1

  2. I too face similar problem with Gparted. I have no Idea why this happens when I make bootable or persistent usb.

    But I have easy trick. I use mkusb to format and freshly allocate pen-drive.I never gone through any terminal drill.

    I hope it will work for you too.

    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb

    • 1

  3. You should try another partitioning tool like GnomeDisks (gdisk), some usb sticks have very specific issues. Maybe one tool can succeed where another doesn't.

    On GnomeDisks, select the usbstick and press the minus button on the right section above the partitioning table.

    • 0