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When a USB stick has been used for, say, a bootable Linux distribution, it usually cannot be re-used as a mass storage device by, say, Windows. These instructions are to wipe/reset a usb stick so it will work as it used to.

(This is largely untested)

See also:

• Making a USB stick bootable

on Windows ∞

How do you partition a USB Thumb / Flash Drive?

• cmd as admin
• diskpart.exe
• list disk
• select disk 1 (or whatever)
• list partition
• select partition 1 (or whatever)
• delete partition or delete partition override
• create partition primary

• create partition logical

not confirmed:

format fs=[format type] label="[label name]" quick

on Linux ∞

source: https://slint.fr/installers/Restore_an_USB_stick.txt

cat /proc/partitions
dmesg | tail # you need to be root for that one

The device name is probably something like /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc, for these instructions it is /dev/sdx

(1) Wipe the bootsector of the USB stick:

drive=/dev/sdx

\dd  if=/dev/zero  of="$drive"  bs=512  count=1

(2) Create a new partition on the USB stick using fdisk or cfdisk.

Set the type "FAT32" for that partition.

TODO - fdisk can be automated, turning this whole set of instructions into one script.

(3) Write a FAT32 filesystem on it:

drive=/dev/sdx

\mkdosfs  -F32  "$drive"1

Last updated 2024-07-21 at 05:52:39