An irritating USB problem.

[EverfrustratedPChobbist]

Ok , so i made a linux USB boot drive to load mint on my roomates computer so he could familiarize himself with linux and i was running into a problem with windows bootloader taking prioity even though the bios was config to load the usb first. (an issue for another thread). And i had to step away from the computer for natures call 2 minutes into my reaserch and crap i hear him yell " I think i fixed it" to come back and see that he FORMATED!!! the usb and left only the space i allocated to a recovery drive readable effectivly killing 137gb of readable storage. So my question is, is there any way i can recover the drive, format the USB and start over again or am i looking at alot of dead space?

[gtx1060=value]

the usb right, not the hard drive of the computer

[EverfrustratedPChobbist]

4 minutes ago, gtx1060=value said:

the usb right, not the hard drive of the computer

yes, i should have clarified that.

 

[ARikozuM]

12 minutes ago, EverfrustratedPChobbist said:

Ok , so i made a linux usb boot drive to load mint on my roomates computer so he could familiarize himself with linux and i was running into a problem with windows bootloader taking prioity even though the bios was config to load the usb first. (an issue for another thread). And i had to step away from the computer for natures call 2 minutes into my reaserch and crap i hear him yell " I think i fixed it" to come back and see that he FORMATED!!! the usb and left only the space i allocated to a recovery drive readable effectivly killing 137gb of readable storage. So my question is, is there any way i can recover the drive, format it and start over again or am i looking at alot of dead space?

You can boot Windows and use Win + R, "cmd", "diskpart". Quote me when you're ready to continue. And this may or may not work.

[EverfrustratedPChobbist]

2 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

You can boot Windows and use Win + R, "cmd", "diskpart". Quote me when you're ready to continue. And this may or may not work.

alright terminal's up

 

[ARikozuM]

2 minutes ago, EverfrustratedPChobbist said:

alright terminal's up

 

"list disk"

Find the number corresponding to the USB

"select disk #"

 

Let me know when you're ready.

[EverfrustratedPChobbist]

2 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

"list disk"

Find the number corresponding to the USB

"select disk #"

 

Let me know when you're ready.

alrighty good to go 

[ARikozuM]

Just now, EverfrustratedPChobbist said:

alrighty good to go 

You've selected the USB?

 

"clean all" or "clean all override"

[EverfrustratedPChobbist]

clean all override is an invalid argument but clean all worked. next step please.

 

6 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

You've selected the USB?

 

"clean all" or "clean all override"

 

[ARikozuM]

Just now, EverfrustratedPChobbist said:

clean all override is an invalid argument but clean all worked

 

Wait for it to complete.

Now unplug and plug. Your drive may be saved or might still be crippled.

[EverfrustratedPChobbist]

3 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Wait for it to complete.

Now unplug and plug. Your drive may be saved or might still be crippled.

whoops forgot to backup the drivers not a big deal but as it is , it's only reading the same 1gb.

[Omon_Ra]

17 minutes ago, EverfrustratedPChobbist said:

Ok , so i made a linux USB boot drive to load mint on my roomates computer so he could familiarize himself with linux and i was running into a problem with windows bootloader taking prioity even though the bios was config to load the usb first. (an issue for another thread). And i had to step away from the computer for natures call 2 minutes into my reaserch and crap i hear him yell " I think i fixed it" to come back and see that he FORMATED!!! the usb and left only the space i allocated to a recovery drive readable effectivly killing 137gb of readable storage. So my question is, is there any way i can recover the drive, format the USB and start over again or am i looking at alot of dead space?

Was this an external USB HDD? It sounds like it is based on the storage capacity and the failure to load first even though USB is selected. You'll want to run a live USB like that off a USB stick, rather than a full drive. Just reimage the Mint distro to a USB flash drive using something like Rufus and you'll be good to go.

[ARikozuM]

2 minutes ago, EverfrustratedPChobbist said:

whoops forgot to backup the drivers not a big deal but as it is , it's only reading the same 1gb.

Yea... It's done then. I would recommend a throw-away USB next time since they're $9 for 32GB.

[EverfrustratedPChobbist]

2 minutes ago, Omon_Ra said:

Was this an external USB HDD? It sounds like it is based on the storage capacity and the failure to load first even though USB is selected. You'll want to run a live USB like that off a USB stick, rather than a full drive. Just reimage the Mint distro to a USB flash drive using something like Rufus and you'll be good to go.

I did use a a USB pen drive to load the iso thats why this has me all kerfukkled because ive never run into a problem loading linux as a dual boot  on anything windows oem

[ARikozuM]

5 minutes ago, EverfrustratedPChobbist said:

I did use a a USB pen drive to load the iso thats why this has me all kerfukkled because ive never run into a problem loading linux as a dual boot  on anything windows oem

Those USB writers have to make changes to the controller which is why this happens.

[Omon_Ra]

21 minutes ago, EverfrustratedPChobbist said:

I did use a a USB pen drive to load the iso thats why this has me all kerfukkled because ive never run into a problem loading linux as a dual boot  on anything windows oem

So it's a ~160GB pen drive? Were you just trying to run it as a Live USB (running the OS off of the USB stick) or trying to install it to an internal drive on the computer? I'm kind of confused as to what happened. Typically you can't format/repartition the disk that is running the OS, which would have been your USB drive. If your roommate was trying to install Linux to the internal hard drive, it's possible he repartitioned/reformatted that drive, thus borking the whole dual boot idea and necessitating a Windows reinstall should you want dual booting.

[EverfrustratedPChobbist]

19 minutes ago, Omon_Ra said:

So it's a ~160GB pen drive? Were you just trying to run it as a Live USB (running the OS off of the USB stick) or trying to install it to an internal drive on the computer? I'm kind of confused as to what happened. Typically you can't format/repartition the disk that is running the OS, which would have been your USB drive. If your roommate was trying to install Linux to the internal hard drive, it's possible he repartitioned/reformatted that drive, thus borking the whole dual boot idea and necessitating a Windows reinstall should you want dual booting.

yes i had both a live boot and install partitioned on the drive but i was going to use it to install the os into the free space i allocated on his hdd. my apologies for my poor phrasing ive been up all night building a gaming rig so im going off of no sleep and not enough coffee.

[Omon_Ra]

3 minutes ago, EverfrustratedPChobbist said:

yes i had both a live boot and install partitioned on the drive but i was going to use it to install the os into the free space i allocated on his hdd. my apologies for my poor phrasing ive been up all night building a gaming rig so im going off of no sleep and not enough coffee.

No worries, I kind of understood what was going on, just a little unclear on a few things. So he basically wiped his entire HDD during the attempted installation, not the installation media? That drive is probably unrecoverable. I'd just reformat/repartion the HDD and just start over with fresh Windows and Linux installations.

I personally had issues with trying to dual boot Mint and Windows on my laptop. For some reason it couldn't install to the internal SSD even though I had a partion and everything setup for it. I eventually replaced the CD drive with a HDD caddy, and I tried to install Mint to that drive for the dual boot and it still didn't really work right. Ubuntu worked fine as a dual boot (both on the single SSD and then with the SSD/HDD combo) and Mint was fine as long as it was the only OS. I eventually just gave up on the idea of dual boot for that computer and just stuck to Windows for that one. I resurrected an old laptop I had as my Linux machine and I switched to Fedora as well.

[EverfrustratedPChobbist]

20 minutes ago, Omon_Ra said:

No worries, I kind of understood what was going on, just a little unclear on a few things. So he basically wiped his entire HDD during the attempted installation, not the installation media? That drive is probably unrecoverable. I'd just reformat/repartion the HDD and just start over with fresh Windows and Linux installations.

I personally had issues with trying to dual boot Mint and Windows on my laptop. For some reason it couldn't install to the internal SSD even though I had a partion and everything setup for it. I eventually replaced the CD drive with a HDD caddy, and I tried to install Mint to that drive for the dual boot and it still didn't really work right. Ubuntu worked fine as a dual boot (both on the single SSD and then with the SSD/HDD combo) and Mint was fine as long as it was the only OS. I eventually just gave up on the idea of dual boot for that computer and just stuck to Windows for that one. I resurrected an old laptop I had as my Linux machine and I switched to Fedora as well.

I never got to install from the USB because of the problem with bios not posting the usb even though it was first priority in the boot order and would just load windows. The only thing he formatted was the USB itself,thankfully.

[Omon_Ra]

33 minutes ago, EverfrustratedPChobbist said:

I never got to install from the USB because of the problem with bios not posting the usb even though it was first priority in the boot order and would just load windows. The only thing he formatted was the USB itself,thankfully.

Oh, okay. Weird. What program did you use to write the ISO to the USB?

[EverfrustratedPChobbist]

15 hours ago, Omon_Ra said:

Oh, okay. Weird. What program did you use to write the ISO to the USB?

unetbootin i picked up another stick and reloaded it , still wont post for some reason i even disabled the windows boot loader,blu-ray drive and set the usb as the only priority its still not picking it up so im thinking that the problem is a conflict with the stick and my keyboard/mouse all running off of usb ports so i have to figure out which one reads first and put the live boot there and see if it catches. i know the iso write was good because it boots on my VM so im at a loss as to whats happened .

[Omon_Ra]

4 hours ago, EverfrustratedPChobbist said:

unetbootin i picked up another stick and reloaded it , still wont post for some reason i even disabled the windows boot loader,blu-ray drive and set the usb as the only priority its still not picking it up so im thinking that the problem is a conflict with the stick and my keyboard/mouse all running off of usb ports so i have to figure out which one reads first and put the live boot there and see if it catches. i know the iso write was good because it boots on my VM so im at a loss as to whats happened .

Weird. I always use Rufus (http://rufus.akeo.ie) for any live USB writing needs I have. Have you tried other Linux builds? Like I said, Mint was acting weird for me when I tried to install it.