unable to format usb drive

C

cimon

Geek Trainee
Hello

I have a 256 Mb usb drive, which got corrupted due to some virus .

Now when I try to format it it just shows a message "windows was unable to complete the format"

I have even tried Properties>>Tools>>Checkdisk selecting both options but to no use . When I click "start" the check window just closes

when I tried thru dos,....it just says it has RAW file system and not able to format even ther

What can I do to format my usb and make it working again.I dont want to retrieve my data, I just want to format it and make it working again.
Pls help ... its out of guarantee period.

Thanks
 
Welcome to HWF! :D

If the drive letter of the usb drive is F:, then do the following.
Go to start > run and enter CMD, and click on OK. Now enter the command:
chkdsk F: /f. This will check for any problems. Now enter the command:
format F: /q. That should do it.
 
What type of virus attack do you infected. Is it Win32dll. So that the way of RHochstenbach says is better.

And also, if you can find a Linux machine just go there and formated easily.
 
hi

thanks for the reply
but as I mentioned that I tried that and it says it has RAW filesystem

here it is ..wht i got


D:\>chkdsk F: /f
The type of the file system is RAW.
CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.


D:\>format F: /q
Insert new disk for drive F:
and press ENTER when ready...
The type of the file system is RAW.
Please use the /FS switch to specify the file system
you wish to use on this volume.


d:\>format F: /FS:fat
Insert new disk for drive F:
and press ENTER when ready...
The type of the file system is RAW.
The new file system is FAT
Verifying 0M
Cannot determine the number of sectors on this volume


now what shud i do
 
ok ..i hav set it right

was simple
rt click My computer >>Manage>>Disk Management>> ther my usb is listed .so do rt click new partition

thanks for all ur help
 
That makes sense as there's no sort of parameters defined for the device as a drive. If those aren't there, then the OS can't format it.
 
cimon; said:
rt click My computer >>Manage>>Disk Management>> ther my usb is listed .so do rt click new partition
Click to expand...
yeah, but the existing partition may need to be deleted first (if there is an existing partition)[ot]deleting the partition permanently removes all data currently on the USB drive[/ot]BTW: i have my USB pen partitioned into many partitions
 
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