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How To: Format Usb Flash Drive Not Showing Up On Computer

looney
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How to: format USB flash drive not showing up on computer

 

A member had a problem with one of his USB flash drives.

Something went wrong when he formatted it with a format program to turn the flash drive into a linux live drive.

As a result of this his USB flash drive no longer showed up in the "computer" folder. The USB flash drive did show up on the windows 7 Disk Management but it was grayed out and he could not format it via the Disk Management.

This tutorial will fix the problem by formatting it using diskpart.

 

WARNING: You will lose all data on the USB flash drive!

 

Step 1:

type "diskpart" in the windows search bar and open the program, preferably by right-clicking and selecting "Run as administrator".

 

step1.png

 

 

Step 2:

Once you opened diskpart you will need to type in the following command: "list disk"

This will list all the Hard drives and USB flash drives connected to the computer.

 

step2.png

 

 

Step 3:

Locate you USB flash drive by looking at the size of the drive in the list, make sure you remember the Disk number. In my case it's a 32GB flash drive, so mine is the 29GB drive listed as "Disk 8"

 

WARNING: Don't continue to step 4 unless you are 100% sure that you have the right drive or you will clean the wrong drive!

 

Step 4:

Select the troubled USB flash drive by typing the command: "select disk (insert the drive number here without brackets)" 

In my example it is Disk 8.

 

step3.png

 

 

Step 5:

Now you must clean the drive by giving the "clean" command.

 

step5.png

 

 

Step 6:

Next thing you need to do is create a partition with the command "create partition primary"

 

step6.png

 

 

Step 7:

Now you need to select the partition you just created by giving the following command: "select partition 1"

 

step7.png

 

 

Step 8:

Last step, you need to format the flash drive with the following command: "format fs=ntfs label=USB quick"

 

step8.png

 

 

Victory:

You can close diskpart.

The drive will now show up on your computer listed as USB formatted with the NTFS file system.

 

victory.png

 

 

 

 

Please like this post if it was helpful.

 

looney

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  • 5 months later...
Posted

Only just found this today as I was having a problem with my USB and this guide solved it. Thanks!

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Posted

This happened to me! I have a 16gb Sandisk cruzer just sitting around because linux screwed it up!

Thanks looney! :D

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Posted

thx, but my kingston 8gb doesent show up in diskpart, and windows says that its not working correctly.. is it dead?

and is there any way to rescue the data?

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thank you sooooo much my 2gb usb is now working :D thanks looney

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other laptop Asus.

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Posted

Damn, thought I'd give this a go but my Corsair Voyager GT is dead. Guess I'll have to try my luck with some Microcenter USB drives!

 

Thanks for the tutorial, but it appears my problem is much more severe.

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lol, I made this topic ages ago, why all the responses all of the sudden :P

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lol, I made this topic ages ago, why all the responses all of the sudden :P

1 guy found it, replied then brought it to the top or everyones USB thumbdrives stopped working.

BTW you made this topic the day i joined :D

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

YESSSSS I JUST FOLLOWED IT AND IT WORKED! <3 YOU LOONEY!

Main Rig: -FX8150 -32gb Kingston HyperX BLUE -120gb Kingston HyperX SSD -1TB WD Black -ASUS R9 270 DCUII OC -Corsair 300r -Full specs on Profile


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Posted

That is one way to skin a cat. I'll keep this bookmarked for later. You can also do in within disk management in windows to. I'll get a video of that done sometime. Many ways to do it!

SkullAbyss

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That is one way to skin a cat. I'll keep this bookmarked for later. You can also do in within disk management in windows to. I'll get a video of that done sometime. Many ways to do it!

sometimes it wont work with DM but it will work with DP.

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sometimes it wont work with DM but it will work with DP.

True on that. There are many options to do that fix with, Gparted, DM, DP (sends my mind guttering), and other 3rd party partition managers

SkullAbyss

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  • 1 month later...
Posted

Any luck if a drive doesn't show up in disk management or diskpart? It won't show in Windows 8.1, Ubuntu, nor my 2nd computer which has Win7.

 

I burnt a live USB of Arch on an 8GB drive, so I don't care if I lose files or anything. I was able to boot to the drive several times before it became unable to use. 

Any suggestions?

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Any luck if a drive doesn't show up in disk management or diskpart? It won't show in Windows 8.1, Ubuntu, nor my 2nd computer which has Win7.

 

I burnt a live USB of Arch on an 8GB drive, so I don't care if I lose files or anything. I was able to boot to the drive several times before it became unable to use. 

Any suggestions?

Try Partition Wizard

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Posted

Try Partition Wizard

 

It doesn't show any drive other than my main HDD. As soon as I plug in a different USB, that USB shows up instantly. 

post-52974-0-73603900-1388936560.png

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It doesn't show any drive other than my main HDD. As soon as I plug in a different USB, that USB shows up instantly. 

Then I'm 99% certain its dead :(

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My 500 gb HDD was basically dead after a intrerupted partitioning. Bluescreen when booting from any windows instalation dvd/usb and of course, my ssd. Tried some jumper reset, did,nothing. And then i installed ubuntu on it aaaand it revived. Surface format and yay no problems since.

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  • 2 years later...
Posted

Cheers mate :) 

 

Saved my 64GB usb

Judge a product on its own merits AND the company that made it.

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Posted

thx, but my kingston 8gb doesent show up in diskpart, and windows says that its not working correctly.. is it dead?

and is there any way to rescue the data?

If you dig deep into the nice and LTT YouTube channels you are bound to find one.

i like trains 🙂

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There are very few things that I really don't like doing on my PC. Using Diskpart is one of them.

Intel i7 5820K (4.5 GHz) | MSI X99A MPower | 32 GB Kingston HyperX Fury 2666MHz | Asus RoG STRIX GTX 1080ti OC | Samsung 951 m.2 nVME 512GB | Crucial MX200 1000GB | Western Digital Caviar Black 2000GB | Noctua NH-D15 | Fractal Define R5 | Seasonic 860 Platinum | Logitech G910 | Sennheiser 599 | Blue Yeti | Logitech G502

 

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There are very few things that I really don't like doing on my PC. Using Diskpart is one of them.

whuuuuuuut?

 

I use it for everything!

By far the best stock drive tool to use on windows :)

Respect the Code of Conduct!

>> Feel free to join the unofficial LTT teamspeak 3 server TS3.schnitzel.team <<

>>LTT 10TB+ Topic<< | >>FlexRAID Tutorial<< | >>LTT Speed wave<< | >>LTT Communies and Servers<<

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whuuuuuuut?

I use it for everything!

By far the best stock drive tool to use on windows :)

I always worry if I really did tell it the right drive letter :(

Intel i7 5820K (4.5 GHz) | MSI X99A MPower | 32 GB Kingston HyperX Fury 2666MHz | Asus RoG STRIX GTX 1080ti OC | Samsung 951 m.2 nVME 512GB | Crucial MX200 1000GB | Western Digital Caviar Black 2000GB | Noctua NH-D15 | Fractal Define R5 | Seasonic 860 Platinum | Logitech G910 | Sennheiser 599 | Blue Yeti | Logitech G502

 

Nikon D500 | Nikon 300mm f/4 PF  | Nikon 200-500 f/5.6 | Nikon 50mm f/1.8 | Tamron 70-210 f/4 VCII | Sigma 10-20 f/3.5 | Nikon 17-55 f/2.8 | Tamron 90mm F2.8 SP Di VC USD Macro | Neewer 750II

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