Formatting a USB Drive with multiple partitions.

[Energycore]

I was recently gifted a 8GB USB pendrive that's been split into two partitions. I've been trying to format it but one of the partitions, spanning 3.65 GB, has been labeled read-only.

 

I tried to disable write protection by setting key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/Control/StorageDevicePolicies/WriteProtect to hexadecimal 0, which was suggested as a way to be able to format a write protected drive, but no dice.
 

I also tried using diskpart to disable write protection by using command attributes disk clear readonly, but when attempting to clean the disk I get "DiskPart has encountered an error: the request could not be performed because of an I/O device error".

 

The Event Log revealed a disk error ID 158 which corresponds to two multiple disks assigned identical disk GUIDs. I suspect it's got something to do with the drive being split into two partitions but I'm at a loss for how to continue.

Any Ideas LTT?

[paddy-stone]

Try rufus to format it  https://rufus.akeo.ie/

[Energycore]

3 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

snip

Rufus reported a similar error

 

Format operation started
Requesting disk access...
Opened drive \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2 for write access
Will use 'G:' as volume mountpoint
I/O boundary checks disabled

Analyzing existing boot records...
Drive has an unknown Master Boot Record
Volume has an unknown Partition Boot Record
Deleting partitions...
Could not delete drive layout: [0x0000045D] The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error.
Could not reset partitions
Re-mounted volume as 'G:' after error

[paddy-stone]

1 hour ago, Energycore said:

Rufus reported a similar error

 

Format operation started
Requesting disk access...
Opened drive \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2 for write access
Will use 'G:' as volume mountpoint
I/O boundary checks disabled

Analyzing existing boot records...
Drive has an unknown Master Boot Record
Volume has an unknown Partition Boot Record
Deleting partitions...
Could not delete drive layout: [0x0000045D] The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error.
Could not reset partitions
Re-mounted volume as 'G:' after error

Hmm weird, never seen that before. I'd most likely give up at this point then and just get another USB drive, I know that's no help to you, sorry abiut that... but USB drives are getting so cheap now that unless you have something you really need on the drive it's not worth the effort, and as you're trying to format it then you aren't after data already on the drive obviously, LOL. Anyway, good luck with it, but after trying all the usual suspects to format it I'd give up. Only other one I can think of is trying EASUS disk manager.

[Energycore]

2 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

Hmm weird, never seen that before. I'd most likely give up at this point then and just get another USB drive, I know that's no help to you, sorry abiut that... but USB drives are getting so cheap now that unless you have something you really need on the drive it's not worth the effort, and as you're trying to format it then you aren't after data already on the drive obviously, LOL. Anyway, good luck with it, but after trying all the usual suspects to format it I'd give up. Only other one I can think of is trying EASUS disk manager.

I agree and I can get a 32GB for 5 bucks. But i'd like to know anyway since it's a piece of knowledge I could use in the future. Thanks for the time

[paddy-stone]

1 hour ago, Energycore said:

I agree and I can get a 32GB for 5 bucks. But i'd like to know anyway since it's a piece of knowledge I could use in the future. Thanks for the time

Yeah, I'd be interested to know too as it's something I've never seen before and would probably still look at ways to get it working as you said, but in the meantime I'd get a USB to use also

 

I recently bought a Samsung USB 3.0 drive 128GB with read/write speeds upto 180MB/s for like £25... use it for when I need media files in a hurry. Have other drives that are low capacity USB 3.0 drives like 16GB that I bought for around £8 or so to use as installation drives for stuff like windows/linux/kodi, usually sandisk drives.

[Energycore]

Just now, paddy-stone said:

Yeah, I'd be interested to know too as it's something I've never seen before and would probably still look at ways to get it working as you said, but in the meantime I'd get a USB to use also

 

I recently bought a Samsung USB 3.0 drive 128GB with read/write speeds upto 180MB/s for like £25... use it for when I need media files in a hurry. Have other drives that are low capacity USB 3.0 drives like 16GB that I bought for around £8 or so to use as installation drives for stuff like windows/linux/kodi, usually sandisk drives.

Can I fit a bootable windows install + about 5 gigs of useful software into a 32GB drive? Or am I better off with 64.

[RedWulf]

8 minutes ago, Energycore said:

Can I fit a bootable windows install + about 5 gigs of useful software into a 32GB drive? Or am I better off with 64.

I have the basics and a windows AIO(7, 8, 10 /32, 64/home, pro) on a 16gb drive so yeah

 

I might have missed it but try deleting the partition and re-creating one in minitools partition wizard or any other 3rd party tool(back up the data if you need). The issue may be that windows does not play very well with partitioned thumb drives. If you don't need the 2nd part just delete it and expand the primary partition.

[Energycore]

1 minute ago, RedWulf said:

I have the basics and a windows AIO(7, 8, 10 /32, 64/home, pro) on a 16gb drive so yeah

 

I might have missed it but try deleting the partition and re-creating one in minitools partition wizard or any other 3rd party tool(back up the data if you need). The issue may be that windows does not play very well with partitioned thumb drives. If you don't need the 2nd part just delete it and expand the primary partition.

It's not letting me because the partition is "read only".

 

Which sends me back to square one. Dammit.

[paddy-stone]

1 hour ago, Energycore said:

Can I fit a bootable windows install + about 5 gigs of useful software into a 32GB drive? Or am I better off with 64.

Yeah you can, windows installs are between 3 and 4GB, I have my windows 10 ISO from media creation tool and it's only 3.2GB, so I'd say yes it's more than enough... hope that helps

[RedWulf]

20 minutes ago, Energycore said:

It's not letting me because the partition is "read only".

 

Which sends me back to square one. Dammit.

Back the data up and use something like clonezilla or dban to f*#k that drive up then recreate the main partition.

[RedWulf]

Just now, RedWulf said:

Back the data up and use something like clonezilla or dban to f*#k that drive up then recreate the main partition.

this is abit of work for a thumb drive but if your like me its the principle of not being beat by a computer.

[Energycore]

Just now, RedWulf said:

Back the data up and use something like clonezilla or dban to f*#k that drive up then recreate the main partition.

I don't need that data. It can go to hell.

1 minute ago, RedWulf said:

this is abit of work for a thumb drive but if your like me its the principle of not being beat by a computer.

Agreed. It's about teaching the robot who's the sentient one here.

[Energycore]

45 minutes ago, RedWulf said:

 

I've been putting this off for too long. How does one use GNU/Linux software on Windows?

[RedWulf]

1 hour ago, Energycore said:

I've been putting this off for too long. How does one use GNU/Linux software on Windows?

depends on the software, some you cannot and require a vm, some you can use some enviroment installs or daemons, and some can run natively. For this purpose just use any disk wiping program available or (this is what i do simply bc I have it handy) you can run dban from a thumb drive by booting the computer from it. I would watch some videos first so you dont brick your computer. 

[Energycore]

1 minute ago, RedWulf said:

depends on the software, some you cannot and require a vm, some you can use some enviroment installs or daemons, and some can run natively. For this purpose just use any disk wiping program available or (this is what i do simply bc I have it handy) you can run dban from a thumb drive by booting the computer from it. I would watch some videos first so you dont brick your computer. 

I think I'll install Mint into another drive I've got and wipe the stick from there. I'll have to learn how to Linux though.

[RedWulf]

14 minutes ago, Energycore said:

I think I'll install Mint into another drive I've got and wipe the stick from there. I'll have to learn how to Linux though.

Its always good to know, the large community can show you via google and many of ubuntu features are still in mint. good luck 

[Lehti]

You could use Windows' Disk Management to partition the USB stick. However, at least in my experience, trying to remove the partitions and expand the leftmost one is problematic. When I did that, I needed to use Diskpart to recreate a single partition.

[Energycore]

5 minutes ago, Lehti said:

You could use Windows' Disk Management to partition the USB stick. However, at least in my experience, trying to remove the partitions and expand the leftmost one is problematic. When I did that, I needed to use Diskpart to recreate a single partition.

The weird thing is, the thumb drive shows as two different disks in the disk management panel. Nevermind two volumes / partitions. You know how when you look at a drive it tells you how it's partitioned, in this case there's two disks and when you look at each, you get a single partition spanning the entire thing.

Does that mean the thumbstick literally has two physical drives in it? I don't know.

[Lehti]

Fire up a GParted Live environment and check in there.

[Energycore]

24 minutes ago, Lehti said:

Fire up a GParted Live environment and check in there.

The GParted iso is bootable, right?

[Lehti]

Yes. A live environment is an operating system you can boot from USB for evaluation or other purposes. In the case of GParted, it's to create or resize partitions or to perform data recovery from a dying drive.

[Energycore]

Alright brb!

[dalekphalm]

57 minutes ago, Energycore said:

The weird thing is, the thumb drive shows as two different disks in the disk management panel. Nevermind two volumes / partitions. You know how when you look at a drive it tells you how it's partitioned, in this case there's two disks and when you look at each, you get a single partition spanning the entire thing.

Does that mean the thumbstick literally has two physical drives in it? I don't know.

I beg the question of how did they create the multi-partition to begin with? Who was the previous owner? Did they create the partitions, or get it like that? Did the drive come like that to begin with (Eg: factory partitioned)? Knowing how it was created may help resolve the issue.

[Energycore]

3 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

I beg the question of how did they create the multi-partition to begin with? Who was the previous owner? Did they create the partitions, or get it like that? Did the drive come like that to begin with (Eg: factory partitioned)? Knowing how it was created may help resolve the issue.

Unfotrunately I've no way to know since it was passed unto me and it's a gift from a school - one of the partitions is full with a presentation of said institution, while the other half is free to store data.

 

Since Windows can see both partitions (wikihow suggested that Windows can't see all partitions on a split USB drive), my guess it's factory partitioned.