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I have a 8GB Sandisk Cruzer USB flash drive that I had ruined a while back trying to make it bootable. Anyway now when I click on it I get a message that it needs to be reformatted to be used. So when I try to do that, the formatting starts and suddenly ends with the message "Windows was unable to complete the format".

This happens no matter which file system I choose (NTFS, FAT32, exFat) and also which computer I try this on. I am now on a Windows 7 32-bit OS and before tries it on a Vista Home Basic machine.

Anyone know any way around this issue?

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3 Answers 3

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You could also go the hard way, using the GParted Live CD. If gparted is unable to format, then the drive is broken (that's my opinion and not necessary true, but I can't think of something else in that case).

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Have you tried going into "Computer Management" (right click on My Computer, Manage), then "Disk Management". Make sure that the disk has a valid partition structure.

Be very careful in that Windows, don't do anything to your hard disk. Make sure you only touch the USB disk.

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I had a similar problem with a Sandisk drive. Sandisk flash drives often come with U3, which is software that allows you to carry mobile versions of your favorite software (ff, ultraedit, etc..). Unfortunately, the U3 software is hidden, you need to use Sandisk's proprietary software to manage U3 (you can use their tool to install/uninstall).

http://u3.sandisk.com/

Edit: I would try using their LaunchPad removal tool.

http://u3.sandisk.com/launchpadremoval.htm

If that doesn't work, try reinstalling U3 (not sure if you can do this), then uninstalling again.

After all that, try formatting.

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  • thanks for trying but the launchpad removal tool fails. I guess the flash drive has to be working for it to work.
    – Jake
    Feb 12, 2010 at 21:48

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