Questions tagged [usb-flash-drive]

USB Flash Drives are portable USB drives that rely upon flash storage, also known as pen drives or USB sticks.

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Disable the "format disk" dialog

I have a USB flash drive which has Linux installed on it. Now what I do is insert it into my computer and boot it inside an VM. Works great. The only problem is, that Windows always asks me to format ...
redxef's user avatar
  • 211
9 votes
1 answer
32k views

How to avoid "Windows cannot open the required file D:\Sources\Install.wim" when installing Windows 10 from USB drive?

I downloaded the Windows 10 version 1909 ISO and created USB installation media on MacOS using UNetbootin. On the Windows target machine, the installation program started properly. It asked about my ...
John McGehee's user avatar
8 votes
5 answers
18k views

No drive letter assigned to USB drive on windows 8.1

Not long before, I executed dd on my USB drive, but later when I needed it. I found it could not be formatted in Windows Disk Management, which said "The system cannot find the file specified." So I ...
Noverull's user avatar
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8 votes
5 answers
3k views

I found two USB sticks on the ground. Now what? [duplicate]

As from the subject, I want to see what's inside. I am seriously interested in finding the owner if possible and returning them, but I am worried it could be an attempt at social engineering. I own a ...
Stefano Borini's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
56k views

Cannot boot from Yumi multiboot USB stick

I've just created a multiboot USB stick using Yumi. I tried to start my notebook (Asus K70IO) using it, but all I see is just a black screen with blinking underscore even after waiting for minutes. ...
Andrew Nikolin's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
34k views

how can I make a USB stick bootable in EFI

I have a MacBook and I would like to check out Fedora. I have created a bootable USB stick with UNetbootin, but it won't boot on my mac. It does on a friends PC (win7). I think this has to do with ...
user1009013's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
19k views

Mount a Second Partition of a USB Drive on Windows [duplicate]

I have a Pen-drive of 8GB, I have 2 partitions on it, one of 15MB and another of the remaining (7GB+). I know that Windows only recognizes the first partition, is there any way to mount the second ...
Akshat Mittal's user avatar
8 votes
4 answers
697 views

Are server backups to flash drives feasible?

If I were to use a flash storage device on a server, a portable one specifically, and backups written to it periodically every 5 hours or so, would there be much wear to the flash drive to the point ...
chaz's user avatar
  • 322
8 votes
1 answer
11k views

Do USB flash drives have a unique identifier?

Is it possible to tell if a USB flash drives has been secretly exchanged for an identical device without inspecting the data on the device itself? Do USB flash drives have some form of unique ...
suraj's user avatar
  • 81
7 votes
3 answers
94k views

Extremely slow USB transfer speed

I am using Windows 7 32-bit, and have a Transcend 8 GB USB 2.0 flash drive. I have formatted the drive to NTFS using the Windows format tool. The problem is that when moving or copying files to and ...
Rosso's user avatar
  • 71
7 votes
2 answers
4k views

What's up with this 64GB USB thumb drive appearing as two disks?

I recently purchased a 64gb usb thumb drive, but for some reason it appears as two disks on every system I've insert it in. I've tried to repartition it in Linux, Windows, and MacOS to no avail. ...
bmdhacks's user avatar
  • 283
7 votes
2 answers
13k views

How can I browse an untrusted USB flash drive safely? [duplicate]

Say I have a USB flash drive I found lying on the ground. I want to see if it has any information that could help me return it to its owner, but I live in an urban society. It could easily contain ...
IntrepidPig's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
13k views

Multiple bootable partitions on a USB drive?

Is it possible to create a functional USB drive with three different partitions: Bootable Linux installer Bootable Windows installer Storage If so, is it as simple as creating three partitions for ...
Key-Six's user avatar
  • 213
6 votes
2 answers
4k views

What happens when a flash drive wears out?

Flash memory has a limited number of read/write cycles, after which it fails. What happens when it fails? Is it like a hard drive, where a failed write is silently moved to another part of the disk ...
endolith's user avatar
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6 votes
3 answers
2k views

What is the "Circle With A Vertical Line" icon appearing on removable disk icons?

In Windows 7, a removable disk's icon sometimes has a smaller icon in its corner similar to the 0/1 icons resembling power on/off. Look: I don't remember the small thing appearing there before. It ...
Hossein's user avatar
  • 223
6 votes
3 answers
48k views

Windows 7 Professional doesn't mount my usb flash drive anymore

I have a Kingston flash drive which works fine in every computer that I insert it. But in my Windows 7 it doesn't mount anymore. Why this is happening ? When I insert the flash drive it seems that ...
Valter Silva's user avatar
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6 votes
3 answers
59k views

How can I merge a USB stick shown as two drives?

A local company last year gave away some USB sticks with their products on them in a PDF file. The PDF is now outdated (2010 version) and I find it a waste to throw away a perfectly good USB stick for ...
Jarco's user avatar
  • 615
6 votes
1 answer
14k views

How can I remove all drivers and other files related to a USB Mass Storage device?

I have a flash drive here that does not work on one OS on computer - let's call it the desktop Windows 7. It works fine on another computer - laptop Windows 7. It also works fine on Windows 8 on the ...
Bob's user avatar
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5 votes
3 answers
9k views

What is the best file system and allocation size for a USB flash drive?

I'm considering using my 4 GB Kingston DataTraveler USB stick to store my Firefox and Thunderbird profiles for my laptop and desktop PCs. I want to maximize performance when using Firefox. The ...
Etienne Dechamps's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
4k views

Finding the physical sector size of USB / SOLID STATE DRIVE fdisk & stat

Currently trying to find a BULLET proof way to find the sector size of a FLASH based device (testing with USB thumb drive), not getting a convincing reply anywhere else using stat gives me the size = ...
softyengin's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
81k views

Cannot delete partition in diskpart - invalid argument?

I'm trying to delete a partition on a UFD using Diskpart. I am running it through an elevated CMD prompt. But the problem is it reports that I am using an invalid argument. Please see the log below. ...
Samir's user avatar
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5 votes
2 answers
6k views

Windows 8 pagefile on usb FLASH

Not duplicate :) Windows 8 hides usb flash drives in the list of virtual memory drive list. The picture taken when I installed 2 usb flash drives but they are not in the list. Any body knows the ...
Omid Kosari's user avatar
5 votes
3 answers
53k views

How will I make a pendrive write protected?

I just want to make my pendrive write protected just to make sure, when I insert it public PCs like in cyber cafes in order to just read the files, it doesn't get virus affected. How can I do this?
Carshtokky's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
31k views

USB pen drive suddenly became read-only [duplicate]

Kingston DTSE9 16 Gb USB pen drive (genuine one) suddenly becomes read-only. It has been used in a car, permanently plugged in into the USB socket as music collection for approx 6 months. It was ...
masterofsql's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
4k views

USB flash drive disconnecting and reconnecting continually

Short question One of my flash drives is continually disconnecting and reconnecting on Windows XP. I plugged it in and for few seconds I can see a drive letter in "My Computer". After few seconds it ...
Tomas's user avatar
  • 306
4 votes
1 answer
30k views

USB making tool for Windows detects flash drive as fixed, need to be seen as removable

I downloaded the Windows 8.1 ISO file but my laptop doesn't have an optical drive. The only choice is to install it from USB. I found a Windows 7 USB making tool (the some works for Windows 8 as I ...
Rohit Vipin Mathews's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
3k views

Why does unplugging my thumb drive result in a blue screen?

When I unplug my thumb drive, Windows XP Pro almost immediately BSODs. How can I stop this? It happens whether I use "safely remove" or not, and will happen with other USB drives as well.
ColinYounger's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
9k views

How to access files on a USB stick after booting from that USB stick?

I booted computer from a USB stick using UNetBootin and Damn Small Linux. Now I want to include some files on the stick such that they'll be available to me once the computer is booted up in Linux. I ...
Asher Walther's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
4k views

Ubuntu live CD and installing new applications onto a USB drive

Background: I am a programmer that occasionally has access to other computers when on vacation or something. These are generally the machines of friends or family, so randomly installing Ubuntu on it ...
bikesandcode's user avatar
4 votes
5 answers
657 views

How to sync large, disconnected file sets with a small USB flash drive?

I want to keep a large file set (700 GB) synchronized between two computers at two different locations (A and B). The computers are not networked in any way. The file sets will be synchronized ...
Box18's user avatar
  • 41
4 votes
1 answer
2k views

Execute a program when a USB stick is removed

The title says it all. Basically, I want to unmount a TrueCrypt volume when the USB stick with the keyfile on it is removed (and, ideally, shut down the computer as well). There used to be a program ...
n3rd's user avatar
  • 141
4 votes
7 answers
20k views

Why is my PC boot time slow when USB HDD attached?

I have a USB Hard disk that I am using as a secondary drive just for extra storage. When this is attached and I start my PC the second screen says searching for mass storage dives for about 5 minutes ...
John's user avatar
  • 203
4 votes
0 answers
63 views

How to physically damage a USB stick, SD card, or SDXC card to permanently make it read only? [duplicate]

Over the years, I have had several cases where either an SD card, a USB stick or any other removable storage medium has had a physical defect, and after some use, or a certain amount of formatting, it ...
DanRan's user avatar
  • 140
4 votes
3 answers
154 views

Linux flash drives

How can I determine the address of a pen drive in Linux? My task is to create a file on my pen drive dynamically - as soon as I insert the pen drive, the file should be created.
R-The_Master's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
944 views

I have a broken USB drive, that shows as two physical disks, one with a negative size

My USB drive has broken quite spectacularly. What has happened is that I used to have one, 1GB pendrive. Now, apparently, I have two physical disks (yes, physical disks not partitions - linux and ...
Joe's user avatar
  • 147
3 votes
0 answers
1k views

USB drive ejects itself while formatting

I have a 32GB Toshiba USB drive. Recently I tried writing an image of chrome OS to it with balenaEtcher. It failed. Since then my drive has been unreadable on both windows 10 and Ubuntu. I have ...
Stel Dare's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
74k views

How can I low level format a USB drive? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: What is the best way to completely reformat an USB stick? How can I low level format a 16GB USB drive? I've already confirmed it has bad sectors, so I reckon a low level ...
flpgdt's user avatar
  • 467
3 votes
3 answers
49k views

How to protect file on USB from being copied?

How can I prevent file on USB flash drive to being copy and paste either via right click or drag and drop copy to other device that is hookup to it like a PC ? The file will be PDF, document file, JPG ...
Kevin Wang's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
6k views

Autorun file on USB drive in OS X

I would like to have my USB flash drive auto-run a file on it when plugged in.
JShoe's user avatar
  • 1,392
3 votes
1 answer
7k views

Is it possible to run an Automator workflow when a USB device is connected?

I would like to run an Automator workflow every time I connect a certain thumbdrive to my OS X Snow Leopard system. This workflow will copy certain files from my hard drive onto the thumb drive. I ...
pkaeding's user avatar
  • 1,470
3 votes
4 answers
6k views

How can I Install Linux on flash disk with NTFS filesystem?

I would like to install Linux (Ubuntu) on a Flash disk with NTFS partition and boot from flash disk, is it possible? If yes, how could I do this?
asker's user avatar
  • 325
3 votes
3 answers
1k views

Copy-proof flash drive

I'm looking for a solution that make it possible to make a flash drive which protects the data from being copied so that the data is data could be "played" only The main aim for the flash drive is to ...
Mohamad A. Hasan's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
5k views

USB flash drive showing "disk not formatted" error?

When I attempt to access the files of my USB flash drive after connect it to my PC running Windows 7, it shows format error saying that it is not formatted. Any way to fix this error?
Luke J's user avatar
  • 31
3 votes
2 answers
4k views

Flash drive shows in My Computer but can't be accessed

I have a flash drive. When I plug it into my (Dell, Windows XP) computer it appears in My Computer as an empty drive - not a disk with no files on, a drive with no disk in! Double-clicking drive J: ...
Mr_Chimp's user avatar
  • 183
3 votes
4 answers
13k views

Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 motherboard won't boot from USB flash drive

I am trying to boot BAMT, a Linux distribution based on Debian via USB on a brand new Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 motherboard. I tried various flash drives and various OSes. I never had this problem with ...
01BTC10's user avatar
  • 163
3 votes
1 answer
3k views

Dual Boot USB Drive

I can install Windows 7 from USB. I can also install a Linux distro from USB. Is there a way of doing both? Like, plugging in the USB drive and choosing Windows and installing Windows, or choosing -...
Michael Brown's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
11k views

Create a Linux (Knoppix) bootable USB (with multiple partitions) with Linux or Mac OS X

I want to create a Knoppix bootable USB flash drive. I've found instructions about how to do this, but I would like to do it fulfilling the following conditions: The USB I am planning to use has 8 ...
Barranka's user avatar
  • 199
3 votes
2 answers
11k views

Can Airport Extremes handle NTFS external drives?

I've got an Airport Extreme and an external USB Hard Drive formatted with NTFS. (And a LAN of Windows XP Machines.) The drive works perfectly when connected directly to a PC. When it's connected to ...
Electrons_Ahoy's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
2k views

Windows 7 USB power lose after a few seconds / minutes

My friend's computer has a problem where the USB ports causes problems with the power of some devices connected to the computer. The USB mouse has no problems, however the Wireless Adapter looses ...
Stefan Dunn's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
393 views

Does flash-memory integrity depend on system resources while reading/writing (like CDs/DVDs)?

Question I’m really concerned that flash-memory is just not reliable as a storage for irreplaceable files. Does anybody know if the integrity (corruptibility) of flash-memory (flash-drives, memory-...
Synetech's user avatar
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