Recovering flash drive to original state

Hello @chipwood,

To get the USB back to an is new state, try this . . .

Clean AND Format:

[1] Press the Win + X keys together > Command Prompt (Admin).
[2] Type EACH command below Individually into the Administrator: Command Prompt Window > Enter.

diskpart
list disk
select disk # Where # is the USB Disk Number.
clean This will ERASE EVERYTHING from the USB.
create partition primary
format fs=NTFS quick Change to format fs=fat32 quick for FAT32.
exit
exit

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NOTE:

In your case, you would need to format the USB as NTFS because of the FAT32 limitation of a 32GB Partition. There are obviously ways around this if you wanted.

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I hope this helps.

Hello @bobkn,

bobkn said:

Can you format a drive larger than 32GB as FAT32 from the command line? It doesn't work from within Windows.

(Not a rhetorical question. I haven't tried it.)

Normally, FAT32 is limited to a 32GB Partition . . .

How to format FAT32 larger than 32GB?

Although FAT32 partition can be 2TB at most, many users find that they are unable to format 32GB+ partition to FAT32 in Windows 10/8/7 via the native tools, like Disk Management, File Explorer or DiskPart.

Source: > What’s the FAT32 Partition Size Limit and How to Bypass It?

I hope this helps.

Hello @chipwood,

chipwood said:

Not sure what you mean; something other than drive letter.

IMPORTANT: It should read diskpart, my fault, sorry.

I have just performed this on my test computer upto the Clean Command where my USB is Disk 1 . . .

Code:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6002]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 6.0.6002
Copyright (C) 1999-2007 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: SYSTEM-ADMIN-PC

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status      Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  ----------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online        75 GB      0 B
  Disk 1    Online      1910 MB      0 B

DISKPART> select disk 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART>

I hope this helps.

I have the program/utility GPARTED installed on my Linux machines, it can be used to repartition/reformat in several types, have done up to 64GB USB thumb drives as FAT32 and and have a 2.5" 500GB HDD in a USB case as FAT32, works fine on Windows and Mac OS X [mine died] but haven't had access yet to a macOS machine to test. The GPARTED utility is also available as a downloaded .iso file used to create the Bootable LiveCD, runs a lite version of Linux.

Hello @chipwood,

chipwood said:

Paul Black

You wrote . . . IMPORTANT: It should read diskpart . . . , but near the beginning of the instructions disk part. Are both correct, as it seems anomalous; just curious.

I made a mistake in my initial post which I have since corrected. It MUST be diskpart WITHOUT the space. It is ALWAYS best to correct these sorts of things for others who come across this thread so the information is correct.

I hope this helps.