HELP!!! Flash drive corrupted.

takochako

Prominent
Jul 25, 2017
50
0
660
I have a flash drive that I tried using rufus to burn an Ubuntu ISO but it only made it partway through and corrupted my flash drive. In DiskPart I can't create a partition, clean it, or create a volume. It says: "DiskPart has encountered an error: The system cannot find the file specified." The size is shown as 0 bytes and the status is Unusable. Can someone please help me fix this? (I'm not buying a new drive because of this).
 

takochako

Prominent
Jul 25, 2017
50
0
660


It was working completely fine before Rufus. I had it as a Windows 10 boot drive before this. I removed the files from it but was that not enough to prepare it? It says there's 7.43 GB of unallocated space, but it won't allow me to create a simple volume.

EDIT: The drive is now showing up as healthy and partitioned, but I still can't clean it or anything. I'm going to try creating the boot drive for Ubuntu (definitely not with Rufus) and I'll post the results.

EDIT 2: Okay so it still shows up as healthy, and it seems to have all the space free on it, but I still can't create a boot drive with ISO to USB. I guess I have to try Rufus one last time.
 

blockhead78

Distinguished
I've had a very similar problem with a program like rufus (can't remember which)

It failed part way through and was basically dead from that point onwards

As to whether it was the process failing that was cause, or if it was the usb drive that failed is anyone's guess... but regardless the drive was beyond recovery and I had to replace it

Sounds like you have the same scenario.

Have you tried just doing a straight forward format?
 

takochako

Prominent
Jul 25, 2017
50
0
660


Yes I have, it says "An unexpected error has occured." And when it doesn't give that message, it says the USB drive is no longer located under This PC, even though I can see it there. It shows up as healthy and formatted now, but Rufus won't detect it. I also can't create files on it anymore.

EDIT: When I try to use chkdsk, with any arguments, it gives me the error "Cannot open volume for direct access."
 

takochako

Prominent
Jul 25, 2017
50
0
660


I'm almost positive it didn't fail. It's showing up as healthy, active, and partitioned, but I can't use it. I don't want to buy a new one because it's sort of a collectible to me. It's a Tony Hawk SkateDrive, which they don't make anymore. I really want to do anything it takes to fix it. (I also have another drive that is having the same problem, but I didn't try to format it or anything, Windows just decided to say it's malfunctioning and now I can't use it. If you can help me with that one too, it would be great!)
 

MasterChief86

Honorable
Dec 13, 2016
133
1
10,765


A bit similar to my case. common occurrence when i was trying the same stuff using power iso. a lot of times, i'd just format the thing and it'd work the next time i'd plug it in. of course there would be no data remaining but when you're creating a bootale usb, you're already signing up for it.
 

blockhead78

Distinguished


I'm not sure what else to suggest.

In my case, i tried every partition tool I could get my hands on to try and reformat it, but it was no joy.

The drive just refused to work from that point
 

takochako

Prominent
Jul 25, 2017
50
0
660


The problem is, I can't reformat it, I can't partition it, I can't create files on it, I can't create a volume. It seems to be stuck in the "No Media" state again. The good news is, my other flash drive seems to be working. There are some corrupt files on it but so far I'm able to transfer data to and from it.