8gb usb stick will not format

[hatrick]

A freind asked me to see if I can fix his usb stick.  Its a cheap 8GB stick.  I don't know what brand but he got it off of eBay for only 28$.  He was copying files when someone else came by and did not realize it was in use and unplugged it.  Or so the story goes.  It will not format to fat32 nor ntfs.  It gets all the way through the format process then a window pops up and says windows xp cannot format the drive.  I tried to format on my vista laptop and it crashes the system.
     I cannot delete anything off of it.  I get cyclic redundancy errors.  Is there any way to wipe it clean and then format?

[nickc1976]

Start > Run > cmd

type format g: /x <enter>

where g: is the drive letter for the USB device.

Be very careful using this procedure - if you specify the wrong drive letter you will lose everything on that drive.

[kuszmania9999]

some of flash drive have a small lock somewhere, try find it.
Like a pin.

[hatrick]

Start > Run > cmd

type format g: /x <enter>

where g: is the drive letter for the USB device.

Be very careful using this procedure - if you specify the wrong drive letter you will lose everything on that drive.

thank you for the reply,  when i run this command it goes through a verifying process.  It runs through the process 100% then gives the message " Invalid media or track 0 bad - disk unusable".   I think its trashed.

[hatrick]

some of flash drive have a small lock somewhere, try find it.
Like a pin.

thank you.  there is not lock.

[quaxo]

thank you for the reply,  when i run this command it goes through a verifying process.  It runs through the process 100% then gives the message " Invalid media or track 0 bad - disk unusable".   I think its trashed.

Most likely. This often happens to cards and USB drives when they're unplugged while in use.

[patio]

It may be a U3 drive...Vista is not exactly prepared for this unless you have every update already installed...plug it in to an XP machine and format it.

[hatrick]

It may be a U3 drive...Vista is not exactly prepared for this unless you have every update already installed...plug it in to an XP machine and format it.

thank you, I have tried 3 of my xp puters, two at work and my vista laptop.  I don't have easy access to a windows 98 puter but have heard if the correct driver is install for larger data storage devices such as this one it might..... Since its under warranty for 1 year I will recommend the owner to initiate a return.

[patio]

If it didn't show up in 3 machines i would definitely be returning it for replacement...

[Broni]

It may be a U3 drive...Vista is not exactly prepared for this unless you have every update already installed

It must be right, because I have U3 flash on my Vista, and it works without a problem.

[squall_01]

Okay if the maker is on it, google it.  Like sandisk makes u3.  If its not on there try finding it on e-bay.  Then look for a format program or try the usb main site.  I had the same error and by doing this  it got mine working.