Thumb drive screwed?

F

FenFox

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 20, 2016
Messages
296
So I have a 256 GB thumb drive.
Threw Windows Media Creation Tool on it.
After I was done with Windows, I formatted it and noticed that I only had 32 GB usable. The other storage was there, but I couldn't access it.
So I used diskpart to create a primary partition.
Did a long format, all good, I can see all my available space.
Plugged it in a day later and I can't see the drive under "This PC", no Windows sound was made when it was plugged in.
Doesn't show up under "safely eject" and there's a slow red glow/pulse coming from the thumb drive that normally lights up when I'm reading/writing data - but at a much faster pace.

The thumb drive shows up under Disk Management. Can't eject it from there. The entry is just blank. When I right click > Volumes it just says - Capcity: 0 MB / Unallocated space: 0 MB / Reserved space 0 MB.

Did I toast this drive somehow? Can I fix this?
 
with a bit of luck there is a reset option on the drive, you will have to google around to see if it is the case. Also what I have noticed is that if a USB drive is acting up with windows is to plug in a different one, access it and then eject it, then try the other one again, makes windows refind it.
 
There are some kind of boot limitations for usb driver around the 32gb mark.
and things like the old xbox only supports 32gb.
That is probably why the media tool maxx'ed your disk to 32gb

as stated above you probably need to find a reset tool og try with diskpart over writing the start of the disk to neutralize it
 
I honestly don't know why you are having this issue, but one thing you should consider is there a quite a few fake drives out there, which are just 32GB with flashed firmware so they seem like 256GB. Was this bought from a reputable dealer? Have you ever actually filled it to capacity?
 
DeathFromBelow said:
Did you use the 'clean' command in diskpart before you formatted?
Click to expand...

Honestly, can't remember if I did or didn't do a "clean". I may not have. I did this pretty late at night and I was half asleep.
Should I just run diskpart again and hit "clean" this time around?

This is what the drive currently looks like in Disk Management and Diskpart.

Link

Dougie: This was definitely a 256 GB drive bought from BestBuy. I used it multiple times before - filling it up all the way.

Lexar has offered an RMA for it, but I may have to pay for it, and I'd rather just fix it on my own if possible to avoid the hassle of the RMA/payment.
 
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