Bootable USB thumbdrive doesn't show up to be reformatted

[erinsaurus87]

Hi all,

I have a usb thumbdrive that is formatted as a bootable start up disk for ubuntu. Now that my ubuntu os is installed, I want to take back my thumb drive for other uses, but it doesnt show up in my disk utility so that I can reformat it. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[OneLine]

Re: Bootable USB thumbdrive doesn't show up to be reformatted

How to make the helping a bit easier: http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3111093.0

Tools (Linux log files etc:

• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LinuxLogFiles
• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UsingUUID
• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick
• http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-format-usb-pen-drive/
• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RenameUSBDrive

1) plug your usb thumbdrive
2) look what the dmesg is telling



Without knowing nothing of your system - an example:

With the Kubuntu 11.10

Plug in a usb storage- the dmesg is telling:

[ 1408.632021] usb 1-1: new high speed USB device number 2 using ehci_hcd
[ 1409.212830] usbcore: registered new interface driver uas
[ 1409.227025] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
[ 1409.227217] scsi4 : usb-storage 1-1:1.0
[ 1409.227868] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[ 1409.227872] USB Mass Storage support registered.
[ 1410.232668] scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access SanDisk Cruzer 8.01 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[ 1410.242231] sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg6 type 0
[ 1410.242784] sd 4:0:0:0: [sde] 7892991 512-byte logical blocks: (4.04 GB/3.76 GiB)
[ 1410.243516] sd 4:0:0:0: [sde] Write Protect is off
[ 1410.243522] sd 4:0:0:0: [sde] Mode Sense: 45 00 00 08
[ 1410.244026] sd 4:0:0:0: [sde] No Caching mode page present
[ 1410.244031] sd 4:0:0:0: [sde] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1410.246636] sd 4:0:0:0: [sde] No Caching mode page present
[ 1410.246644] sd 4:0:0:0: [sde] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1410.248460] sde: sde1
[ 1410.250877] sd 4:0:0:0: [sde] No Caching mode page present
[ 1410.250881] sd 4:0:0:0: [sde] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1410.250886] sd 4:0:0:0: [sde] Attached SCSI removable disk

The blkid is telling:

:~$ sudo blkid

/dev/sde1: UUID="2FA7-0CA3" TYPE="vfat"

The lsusb is telling:

:~$ lsusb

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0781:5406 SanDisk Corp. Cruzer Micro U3

(The device notifier is working at here: http://userbase.kde.org/Plasma/DeviceNotifier.)

I can, without mounting, erase/format the usb key: K > Applications > System > Startup Disk Creator (erase) or K > Applications > System > Partition Editor (package: partitionmanager) or command line (fat32, device sde1):

sudo mkfs.msdos -F32 -v /dev/sde1