Any programs that let you create a bootable partition manager for free?

[Lievre]

My SSD got corrupted and nothing I've done has been able to reformat it. I've tried literally everything besides trying to do through a partition manager off of a live USB. But everything I've seen is asking for a $60-300 license just to be able to do that. 

[RadiatingLight]

Can't you just download linux onto a usb stick and nuke it from there?

[Constantin]

Rufus 

Wrong

[Kilrah]

Any linux distro with a live usb, i.e. pretty much all of them.

[Zm1TDkSnQkY4KEqskCARSBpk]

Gparted provides its own distro called Gparted Live that's much more lightweight than some other GNU/Linux distros.

[Psykicwarrior]

Sorry for being a bit more pessimistic, but since its a boot drive I'd assume you are trying to format it during windows install, which works more or less the same was as formatting from linux boot, if its unable to even format its likely the drive is destroyed, its either used up all reserve bits and has locked itself to read only, or something like the controller is dead.

Easiest way to test is to connect it to another computer if possible and try to see files on drive, if that works, try moving a small file to the drive, if that fails its locked to read only.

[Kilrah]

If the OP explained their situation and intentions a bit better we'd be making better suggestions.

[Lievre]

33 minutes ago, RadiatingLight said:

Can't you just download linux onto a usb stick and nuke it from there?

I've tried linux. When I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING outside of professional equipment. Linx is unable to even format the drive as it just says that its an unknown memory tyoe "PMBR"

[Lievre]

7 minutes ago, Psykicwarrior said:

Sorry for being a bit more pessimistic, but since its a boot drive I'd assume you are trying to format it during windows install, which works more or less the same was as formatting from linux boot, if its unable to even format its likely the drive is destroyed, its either used up all reserve bits and has locked itself to read only, or something like the controller is dead.

Easiest way to test is to connect it to another computer if possible and try to see files on drive, if that works, try moving a small file to the drive, if that fails its locked to read only.

I guess the drive is dead then, I've tried Linux and Windows boot installers, third party programs, nothing has worked. I'm able to recover data off the drive, but I cant actually reformat it back to NTFS. 

[Lievre]

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[Lievre]

Quote

Can't you just download linux onto a usb stick and nuke it from there?

I've tried Linux and that didn't work. It just reads it as an unrecognized PMBR partition and is unable to touch it 

[doommood]

Give a try to Partition Magic. http://www.partition-magic.com/index.html

Also you could use a bunch of tools collected into hirens cd to format a drive.

[zogthegreat]

Hi Lievre,

 

Boot from the Linux Live USB again, open a terminal and do the following:

 

sudo fdisk -l

 

Look for you drive, if it's the only drive on the system, it should be /dev/sda. When you find the drive, do this:

 

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1

 

If your drive isn't dead, that should frag your drive and make it ready for formatting. If you get an error or you can't find your drive in the output of sudo fdisk -l, post up your output from the commands.

[Lievre]

2 hours ago, zogthegreat said:

Hi Lievre,

 

Boot from the Linux Live USB again, open a terminal and do the following:

 

sudo fdisk -l

 

Look for you drive, if it's the only drive on the system, it should be /dev/sda. When you find the drive, do this:

 

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1

 

If your drive isn't dead, that should frag your drive and make it ready for formatting. If you get an error or you can't find your drive in the output of sudo fdisk -l, post up your output from the commands.

Hello, the console was able to frag the drive (it seems) as I had no errors and was able to attempt to format it, only I was met with an I/O error presumably because Im doing it over a USB connection. However, I cannot attempt to format it through a pure sata connection as keeping it plugged into a sata connection during post keeps every PC I plug it into unable to boot past the manufacturer logo screen. So close yet so far. 

 

Edit: It didnt work on my main PC, but on one of my older laptops I was able to mess around in the BIOS settings and got it to work

[zogthegreat]

3 hours ago, Lievre said:

Edit: It didnt work on my main PC, but on one of my older laptops I was able to mess around in the BIOS settings and got it to work

So the drive is good? Or at least working? Please put it back on the machine that you ran the sudo fdisk -l command and run the command again. Copy the output and post it here so we can see what is happening with your drive. Instead of writing everything out by hand, open a text editor, (should be gedit, but just type "notepad" and what ever notepad app your distro should pop up), and do a copy/paste. When you save the output text file, be sure to append it with ".txt". Linux doesn't automatically save files in Windows format and you will probably have to manually edit the formatting to be readable, (you will understand once you do this. Don't worry, sounds complicated, but it's not.)

 

BTW, what is the make and model of your drive? 

[Lievre]

2 hours ago, zogthegreat said:

So the drive is good? Or at least working? Please put it back on the machine that you ran the sudo fdisk -l command and run the command again. Copy the output and post it here so we can see what is happening with your drive. Instead of writing everything out by hand, open a text editor, (should be gedit, but just type "notepad" and what ever notepad app your distro should pop up), and do a copy/paste. When you save the output text file, be sure to append it with ".txt". Linux doesn't automatically save files in Windows format and you will probably have to manually edit the formatting to be readable, (you will understand once you do this. Don't worry, sounds complicated, but it's not.)

 

BTW, what is the make and model of your drive? 

The drive is a Samsung 860 Evo 2TB. I was able to format it in another machine and it works in Linux, but I cant get the drive to work properly when I plug it into a machine when its running windows via sata to USB connection. And in the main machine I had it in, for some reason the PC will not boot past the manufacture logo when it detects this specific drive in the sata slot. I'm sure this has something to do with secure boot or legacy BIOS settings, as disabling/enabling those got it to work in the older laptop, but changing the former didn't do anything, and I can't find the latter anywhere in BIOS settings. 

 

Plugging it into a Windows machine makes it show up as a 0 byte drive I cant access (in Windows explorer that is). I'm currently reformatting it while also wiping all data in linux on the older laptop to see if that fixes anything. I'll try the command again if this doesn't work and post the output logs. 

 

Edit: It should be noted, I was able to install Windows on the drive, I just cant use it on another machine for some reason when its not the boot drive. Along with the problem of not being able to boot into Windows if Legacy BIOS settings is not disabled

 

Edit 2: I'm not sure if the output is supposed to display more than this, but this is what my console says after fragging the drive:

1+0 records in
1+0 records out
512 bytes copied, 0.00243022 s, 211 kB/s

which I assume is completely normal

[zogthegreat]

Hmm, yes, it does sound like a problem with your computer(s), although it's strange that it happens on multiple computers. 

 

I have a Inspiron 7720 laptop that I have a similar problem with. When I'm switching OS's, (I run Windows, Linux and Mac on the machine), I have to go into the BIOS and on the page where you choose "Exit and Save", there is a setting that says "Load BIOS defaults". Load your BIOS defaults, then go back and reset your preferences, but include the following:

 

Sata Operaton -> AHCI
Secure Boot -> Disabled
Boot List Option -> UEFI. 
Enable Legacy Option ROMs

 

Save and reboot. Hopefully this will fix your problem.

[Lievre]

Unfortunately, this PC doesn't seem to have a Boot List option to change to UEFI mode, or legacy ROMs. It seems Asus didn't want you to run anything besides Windows on their laptop. Which also explains why I was never able to get Linux to run on this. 

[zogthegreat]

Have you tried a BIOS update? Many manufactures have updated BIOS's that have advanced features. On my Inspiron 7720, the BIOS that the machine shipped with didn't have any uEFI options but after doing a BIOS update, the options were available.

 

Just to ask, are you booting with a legacy, (MBR), bootable USB or an uEFI bootable USB? It could be that your using the wrong type of boot stick.

[Lievre]

This whole problem actually started after updating to a more stable BIOS (I cannot role back the BIOS update to see if that fixes anything). Not sure what happened but the 860 in the system just got corrupted and stopped working after that. And I've tried MBR, legacy, and bootable USB. I can actually boot with the SSD plugged in via USB now, but its still not usable in the machine(s) and I still get hung during post when its in a SATA slot. 

[RejZoR]

Live Linux version is a good option. But if you really want a dedicated tool, I have good experience with EASEUS Partition Manager Free.

https://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/epm-free.html

 

WinPE version is payable, but they used to offer bootable Linux version as well. Not sure if they still do tho.