Can I salvage a usb drive?

**Prexy** · 23-Jan-2021, 12:52

I have an 8GB usb drive. lsusb sees it but Dolphin does not. It may be password protected. If it is, I know the password but I am never asked for it. Forgetting about the contents of the drive, is there a way to make it usable again?

**Knurpht** · 23-Jan-2021, 13:32

Originally Posted by Prexy

I have an 8GB usb drive. lsusb sees it but Dolphin does not. It may be password protected. If it is, I know the password but I am never asked for it. Forgetting about the contents of the drive, is there a way to make it usable again?

If it is technically OK, i.e. not damaged, you can. Find out which /dev/sd? device it is, by plugging it in and looking at

Code:

ls -ltr /dev/sd*

, let's say it's /dev/sdx

Then do:

Code:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx bs=1M count=1000

After that use YaST to put a partition and filesystem on it.

**Prexy** · 27-Jan-2021, 15:10

Originally Posted by Knurpht

If it is technically OK, i.e. not damaged, you can. Find out which /dev/sd? device it is, by plugging it in and looking at

Code:

ls -ltr /dev/sd*

, let's say it's /dev/sdx

Then do:

Code:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx bs=1M count=1000

After that use YaST to put a partition and filesystem on it.

Apologies! I didn't see your response to my question until now. I use advance search to see all updates since my last login, but didn't see your post.

Thanks for this. I am ready to partition. I didn't partition yet. I assume that I have choices for file system. I may use it to carry around data, But, I could install a linux OS instead. Will one file system accommodate both options? The dd took quite a long time. At first I thought the drive must have been defective, but it worked!

**hcvv** · 28-Jan-2021, 01:47

Originally Posted by Prexy

Apologies! I didn't see your response to my question until now. I use advance search to see all updates since my last login, but didn't see your post.

You do not use the feature to get a mail when a new post is added to a thread you are subscribed to?
A discussion with a turn around time of five days is a bit discouraging

Originally Posted by Prexy

The dd took quite a long time. At first I thought the drive must have been defective, but it worked!

Only 1000 blocks shouldn't take too much time. But you could have written only 100, or 10 and even only one would have overwritten an existing partition table (if there was one).