OT: Thumb Drive Won't Format

jrazz wrote on 4/10/2008, 8:38 AM
I was trying to copy some files to my 16 gig thumb drive only to be told that it was write protected. This is not accurate. I then copied information from the drive to the computer (so as not to lose it) and that went well without a hitch. I could also create folders on the drive (even though it produced an error message telling me it could not do that).

So, to shorten the story, I then attempted a reformat (after reading online about possible solutions). I cannot get it to format. I tried using the command prompt, by right clicking the drive (it is showing up as letter E:) and by attempting both of the above in safe mode. Nothing is working. Any ideas?

If you double click the drive, it tells you it is unformatted and prompts you to format. Formatting will progress all the way through and at the end it will bring up the error message stating it was unsuccessful.

j razz

Comments

nolonemo wrote on 4/10/2008, 11:07 AM
Are you trying to format in plain FAT (FAT-16), which has a 2GB partition size limit (as I understand)?
jrazz wrote on 4/10/2008, 11:36 AM
FAT 32 (although I did try both from the command line).

j razz
baysidebas wrote on 4/10/2008, 11:44 AM
Is this a USB thumb drive or an SD card? I recently had the same problem with a 2GB SD chip simply because my USB card reader was old and didn't support a card of this capacity. It happened exactly as you described. When I used another card reader of a more recent vintage the issue just went away and the card formatted no .problems.
jrazz wrote on 4/10/2008, 12:51 PM
It is an actual thumb drive called "My Flash" and of the 16 gig flavor. I have contacted the company and am seeking to return it as I have had it less than a month and a half.

j razz
nolonemo wrote on 4/10/2008, 1:15 PM
I had something similar with a CF (only 512MB) card I had been using for a while, I assumed the card had "gone bad." Hope you get a new drive from the mfgr.
riredale wrote on 4/10/2008, 3:55 PM
Pardon me for asking a really dumb question, but there wouldn't be a write-protect switch somewhere on the case, would there?
jrazz wrote on 4/10/2008, 4:42 PM
No such luck. I wish that was all it was. Thanks for asking the obvious though; sometimes it is the first thing to be overlooked.

j razz