How do I reformat the 64GB USB stick used by media creation tool ?

Page 2 of 4 FirstFirst 1234 LastLast

  1. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #11

    Fellwalker said:
    I am now going to try cerberus's Command promt method.
    If that doesn't work, install and use MiniTool Partition Wizard free:
    Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Free
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 21
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #12

    cereberus said:
    windows only allows a maximum size partition of 32GB for a fat32 install, and mct creates a fat32 drive.


    Open a command prompt with admin rights and type

    diskpart

    list disk

    select disk n (where n is disk number of usb drive from above command)

    list disk (check asterisk by usb disk to show you have selected right drive)
    Firstly - thank you cerberus for your information and instructions. No asterisk anywhere. Have I some settings I should have enabled?

    cereberus said:
    clean (warning wipes drive completely hence must be sure right drive)
    That seems to work well. I now have an empty USB disk - Disk Management shows it as 58.61GB unallocated

    cereberus said:
    create partition primary

    select partition 1
    FAIL.
    Code:
    DISKPART> list disk
    
      Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
      --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
      Disk 0    Online          476 GB  2048 KB
      Disk 1    Online          931 GB      0 B
      Disk 2    Online         1863 GB      0 B
      Disk 3    Online           58 GB      0 B
      Disk 4    Online           15 GB  5120 KB
    
    DISKPART> select disk 3
    
    Disk 3 is now the selected disk.
    
    DISKPART> clean
    
    DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk.
    
    DISKPART> create primary partition
    
    Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.10240
    
    PARTITION   - Create a partition.
    VOLUME      - Create a volume.
    VDISK       - Creates a virtual disk file.
    
    DISKPART> select partition 1
    
    The specified partition is not valid.
    Please select a valid partition.
    
    There is no partition selected.
    
    DISKPART>
    Now I am stuck as to what to do. I have also found from creating an Ubuntu bootable USB that I have the same issue on a micro sd card which is in it's original USB holder. You can see disk 3 is the subect of this post, disk 4 is the micro SD card in a USB caddy. How do I reformat the 64GB USB stick used by media creation tool ?-screenshot-2016-03-15-11.20.47.png

    What can I do now?
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 3,367
    W10 Pro x64/W7 Ultimate x64 dual boot main - W11 Triple Boot Pending
       #13

    The second partition you are trying to create on the flash drive there as well as any other usb media will not be available in Windows. I know that only too well from having made up Live Data Recovery sticks with Linux on the first of two as well as the second where Windows will only see the first Fat or NTFS volume created. Funny how the other can plainly see every volume!

    A right click on the first volume there wouldn't have seen the "Delete volume" option greyed out either. Nuke that and create the new 64gb choosing the format option after for NTFS. I have a pair of 125gb drives here with a 10gb Linux volume as second made the Mount point "" for Grub where I can pull data onto the first 104.5gb data partition for transfer or recovery purposes when booted live from the stick.

    How do I reformat the 64GB USB stick used by media creation tool ?-data-recovery-dm-view.jpg

    You can see the fast reference there to the DM being the only place that will appear with the Delete volume option .

    How do I reformat the 64GB USB stick used by media creation tool ?-data-recovery-stick-delete-volume-option.jpg

    For seeing full access to the 64gb drive there you would need to grow the partition only after reformatting it to NTFS or nuking the drive and once a single NTFS volume is made bootable extract a 10 iso's contents onto the new volume. The 8gb size flash drive however is quite adequate for 10 media however. On a 32gb flash drive for the "4 in 1" project outlined in one thread last fall before the Threshold 2 update arrived I believe we had the 10576 build at the time just out and available at the MS Tech Bench Program download page to extract the contents of both Dual edition ISOs into the 32bit and 64bit folders you would clear out first from the MC tool download.

    How do I reformat the 64GB USB stick used by media creation tool ?-w10-install-key-32gb-drive.jpg
      My Computers


  4. Posts : 21
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #14

    Thank you everyone for your suggestions. Windows 10 itself could not fix this. Disk manager options (certainly any I wanted) were greyed out.

    So I did download and install MiniTool Partition Wizard free:

    That allowed me to follow on from the place I had got to of an unallocated 64GB, create a partition, set it active and set it primary. WHen I was about to scream because nothing was happening I realised there is a big APPLY button to press. Pressing that enacted all the changes and the 64GB USB stick is now back to visible and usable in windows.

    How do I reformat the 64GB USB stick used by media creation tool ?-screenshot-2016-03-15-11.20.47.png

    Clearly MiniTool Partition Wizard free: is a very useful tool.
    Thankyou forumites. THis is so much more useful a forum than the windows community. I wish I had found it sooner.
      My Computers


  5. Posts : 21
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #15

    I feel my problems with this thread were brought about by using the media creation tool, which did stuff to the usb that windows 10 could not undo. In terms of Windows 10, I am still on Build 10240, and had been going to use mct to attempt again to upgrade to 10586.
    Instead, I shall now search the tenforums site for the best way to do so.
      My Computers


  6. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #16

    Fellwalker said:
    I feel my problems with this thread were brought about by using the media creation tool, which did stuff to the usb that windows 10 could not undo. In terms of Windows 10, I am still on Build 10240, and had been going to use mct to attempt again to upgrade to 10586.
    Instead, I shall now search the tenforums site for the best way to do so.
    Download the matching eddition ISO file, I recommend from Tech Bench, right click on the ISO file, select Mount, run setup.exe from the virtual drive letter that appears.

    Windows 10 ISO Download - Windows 10 Forums

    Once you are done with the upgrade, you can remove the virtual drive letter by right clicking on it and selecting Eject. That will not delete the ISO, you can either keep it for future use or delete the file itself.
    Last edited by NavyLCDR; 15 Mar 2016 at 09:07.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 15,441
    Windows10
       #17

    Fellwalker said:
    Firstly - thank you cerberus for your information and instructions. No asterisk anywhere. Have I some settings I should have enabled?

    That seems to work well. I now have an empty USB disk - Disk Management shows it as 58.61GB unallocated

    FAIL.
    Code:
    DISKPART> list disk
    
      Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
      --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
      Disk 0    Online          476 GB  2048 KB
      Disk 1    Online          931 GB      0 B
      Disk 2    Online         1863 GB      0 B
      Disk 3    Online           58 GB      0 B
      Disk 4    Online           15 GB  5120 KB
    
    DISKPART> select disk 3
    
    Disk 3 is now the selected disk.
    
    DISKPART> clean
    
    DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk.
    
    DISKPART> create primary partition
    
    Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.10240
    
    PARTITION   - Create a partition.
    VOLUME      - Create a volume.
    VDISK       - Creates a virtual disk file.
    
    DISKPART> select partition 1
    
    The specified partition is not valid.
    Please select a valid partition.
    
    There is no partition selected.
    
    DISKPART>
    Now I am stuck as to what to do. I have also found from creating an Ubuntu bootable USB that I have the same issue on a micro sd card which is in it's original USB holder. You can see disk 3 is the subect of this post, disk 4 is the micro SD card in a USB caddy. How do I reformat the 64GB USB stick used by media creation tool ?-screenshot-2016-03-15-11.20.47.png

    What can I do now?
    you entered

    create primary partition

    should be

    create partition primary
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 21
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #18

    cereberus said:
    you entered

    create primary partition

    should be

    create partition primary
    Oops. That is why I generally avoid the command line. You can make significant problems if you do it wrong. Thanks for pointing it out - I kept reading and obviously read what I expected not what was there! Doh!
      My Computers


  9. Posts : 3,367
    W10 Pro x64/W7 Ultimate x64 dual boot main - W11 Triple Boot Pending
       #19

    Fellwalker said:
    Thank you everyone for your suggestions. Windows 10 itself could not fix this. Disk manager options (certainly any I wanted) were greyed out.

    So I did download and install MiniTool Partition Wizard free:

    That allowed me to follow on from the place I had got to of an unallocated 64GB, create a partition, set it active and set it primary. WHen I was about to scream because nothing was happening I realised there is a big APPLY button to press. Pressing that enacted all the changes and the 64GB USB stick is now back to visible and usable in windows.

    How do I reformat the 64GB USB stick used by media creation tool ?-screenshot-2016-03-15-11.20.47.png

    Clearly MiniTool Partition Wizard free: is a very useful tool.
    Thankyou forumites. THis is so much more useful a forum than the windows community. I wish I had found it sooner.
    Now try to assign a drive letter to the second partition you went ahead and created on the flash drive and see where you get?! Then take a look at it from a regular File Explorer window. You may find that the only place you can see it is in the DM there! With recovery sticks here already there enough times where I would end needing to repartition a flash drive.

    Fellwalker said:
    Oops. That is why I generally avoid the command line. You can make significant problems if you do it wrong. Thanks for pointing it out - I kept reading and obviously read what I expected not what was there! Doh!
    This is what I have conveyed to a number of people over the years that not everyone will want to use or even feel comfortable using a command line rather then the gui method. Keeping a few live Linux distros here as well as the latest GParted cd for work while not booted in Windows can be handy at times while the Mint. But whichever partitioning option is used you will want to see this when going to add a second partition on any flash drive other then a mountable Linux volume or swat part when seeing a live recovery stick made up.

    How do I reformat the 64GB USB stick used by media creation tool ?-create-secondary-partition-unavailable.jpg

    With GParted or the Gnome Partition Editor as well as the DiskPart tool you wouldn't see that warning appear! The MiniTool program does however and only confirms what I have been saying.
      My Computers


  10. Posts : 21
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #20

    Night Hawk said:
    Now try to assign a drive letter to the second partition you went ahead and created on the flash drive and see where you get?! Then take a look at it from a regular File Explorer window. You may find that the only place you can see it is in the DM there! With recovery sticks here already there enough times where I would end needing to repartition a flash drive.
    Thanks, but N/A. Disk 3 is the one I had been having problems with that I hda solved. Disk 4 is the additional flash drive that I'd used as a bootable Ubuntu but now wanted back for other use.



    This is what I have conveyed to a number of people over the years that not everyone will want to use or even feel comfortable using a command line rather then the gui method. Keeping a few live Linux distros here as well as the latest GParted cd for work while not booted in Windows can be handy at times while the Mint. But whichever partitioning option is used you will want to see this when going to add a second partition on any flash drive other then a mountable Linux volume or swat part when seeing a live recovery stick made up.

    How do I reformat the 64GB USB stick used by media creation tool ?-create-secondary-partition-unavailable.jpg

    With GParted or the Gnome Partition Editor as well as the DiskPart tool you wouldn't see that warning appear! The MiniTool program does however and only confirms what I have been saying.
    Agreed. I have never tried to create partitions on a flash drive. I've doneit with hard disks in Windows since XP, for a dual boot system, but I'm not playing around with such things now.
      My Computers


 

  Related Discussions
Our Sites
Site Links
About Us
Windows 10 Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation. "Windows 10" and related materials are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

© Designer Media Ltd
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:41.
Find Us




Windows 10 Forums