Jump to content

recover the flash drive after installing Linux on it

I installed Ubuntu to a usb flash drive to test out the latest version. Now I want to remove it from the drive, but in windows the drive shows up as 2MB in capacity and on Mac it can't be read at all.

 

How can i safely format it, so that I can use it again as a generic 32GB drive? I'm afraid if I format it under windows, it will just be a 2MB partition.

 

Do I need to do it through another Linux installation? I would have tested it, but I don't have access to one atm

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Partition Management on Windows. You could (I did this one) brick it by marking the entire drive as unallocated and build a 32GB partition with it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

 

1. From Command prompt type diskpart

2.Within Diskpart, use the List Disk command to check which disk the USB device is. The USB device should be obvious; in my case, it's the 14GB disk.

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt

  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---

  Disk 0    Online          232 GB  1024 KB

  Disk 1    Online          149 GB      0 B

  Disk 2    Online          149 GB  7168 KB

* Disk 3    Online           14 GB      0 B

 

3 Once the disk is known, select the disk and run the rest of the displayed commands (change "disk 3" to the number of your disk):

DISKPART> select disk 3

Disk 3 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> clean

DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk.

DISKPART> create partition primary

DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition.

DISKPART> select partition 1

Partition 1 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> active

DiskPart marked the current partition as active.

DISKPART> format fs=ntfs quick

100 percent completed

DiskPart successfully formatted the volume.

DISKPART> assign

DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.

DISKPART> exit

 

I found this with the magic of google.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

had to do a clear all instead, since the clear command was met with Access Denied. But it worked, thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×