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Attempted to create a FreeDOS bootable drive with Rufus. The process failed and the drive was damaged.

  • Software: Rufus 3.8p
  • System: Windows 10 Enterprise 1709 x64

A lot of times when a similar problem is discussed online users respond (correctly) with different methods that can bring a system to identify a USB drive again. However, I want to clarify, and further show with pictures, that I am aware of all of those methods, have tried them, and this case is well beyond that. Those methods are:

  • Using diskpart to "clean" the drive
  • Using Disk Management to to convert the USB drive's partition between MBR and GPT
  • Using Disk Management to re-assign a letter to the USB drive
  • Using a third-party software to re-partition the drive (i.e. MiniTool Partition Wizard, Acronis tools, etc.)

I have used the following systems while attempting to "revive" this USB drive:

  • Windows 7
  • Windows 10
  • Linux (primarily Ubuntu, but also others)

Regardless of the system, none of them can access the drive in any form, even though it is somehow recognized by the system.

The following images further demonstrate my efforts and the current state of the USB drive.

  • Disk Management - Notice how Disk 1 shows nothing for partitions:

image

  • USB Drive Properties - Volumes tab - Notice Unallocated space as 0 MB:

image

  • USB Drive Properties - Details tab - This is a "ChipsBnkFlash_Disk":

image

  • Diskpart - "There is no media in the device":

image

So as you can see, when people say online: "Oh, it's not broken, you just need to re-partition and/or re-assign the drive letter", they may be correct for other scenarios, but that's simply NOT my case here.

Can anyone make a suggestion as what to do next? (except putting the USB drive in the garbage)

UPDATE # 1: Additional output seen in Linux Ubuntu

image

image

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  • In Linux distribution, did you see any response in dmesg output while plugging in or out the drive? Does it appear in lsblk or fdisk -l?
    – Biswapriyo
    Mar 17, 2020 at 16:02
  • Thanks Biswapriyo. - I used watch "dmesg | tail -20" and the system can see the device there, however, it never shows anywhere else. I am not sure about lsblk because I am new to Linux, sorry. (I have a screenshot). I also don't believe fdisk could see it, judging by the fact that this is a 1GB drive, and I could not see anything that size in the log.
    – ruyelpequenocid
    Mar 17, 2020 at 16:46

4 Answers 4

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In all likeliness, Rufus didn't ruin the drive, it just gave an already worn / failing flash drive that past push.

No Media USB Flash Drive

Disk Management 'No Media' essentially says, I see a storage device (which means controller of the flash drive works), but no media. Kind of similar to a diskette drive without a diskette. The flash drive's controller can not speak with the NAND chip for some reason.

This may be a physical reason due to trauma after you for example dropped the drive, but most common cause is the controller being unable to talk to the firmware. In turn this can be caused by NAND being worn or for example a damaged firmware (the flash translation layer) due to improper shut down for example.

Is it wise to repair a USB Flash Drive?

There are ways to re-write this firmware, but before I explain that I want to warn and advise against it: If we for example assume the main issue being wear, the NAND flash being worn then it makes no sense to try repair such a flash drive because in all likeliness it will fail again soon.

Also the tools we need for the repair often need to be obtained from dubious websites. Various of the tools I downloaded I used to repair this USB flash drive triggered my antivirus software and also they were flagged as suspicious etc. on Virus-Total.

Repairing a 'No Media' USB flash drive

  1. Get the tool called ChipGenius. This tool will allow you to determine the controller chip.

  2. ChipGenius will refer you to a Chinese website, USBDEV is another option.

  3. Next step is getting a 'mass-production-tool' (mptool) for that particular controller.

My controller was a ChipsBank controller.:

enter image description here

It took some downloads to find an MPTool that supported my controller and that detected my USB Flash Drive. I ran the tool with default settings:

enter image description here

I recorded my first steps in attempting to repair a no media flash drive here.

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    Excellent post and video, Joep. Thanks so much for sharing in such detail. I will definitely try those tools now that you've shown them to us.
    – ruyelpequenocid
    Dec 8, 2023 at 1:11
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If you have not done so already, review the Rufus FAQs There is a wealth of info there related to errors, compatibility, troubleshooting, etc.

If you think you have unanswered questions you can contact the developer via their website https://rufus.ie/ or email Pete Batard [email protected].

Provide up front more detailed information. Make and model of flash drive, what specific options you selected when using Rufus, what "process failed" means (how? error message?), what did you do next immediately (windows removable media eject), and when you ran your attempts to "fix" it how you conducted each fix specifically. For each of the fixes whether it was same machine & same USB port, same machine different USB port, same machine different OS, different machine same OS, etc.).

As you are no doubt aware, you have a binary situation: 0. Failed Flash Drive; or 1. Healthy flash drive

0. Failed Flash Drive You will not find much traction with "Rufus damaged my flash drive" from Pete but ideally he or the content on his site can assist you to determine conclusively if the media is in fact "dead", and you can warranty (if option) or trash.

1. Healthy Flash Drive If this is the case then it is necessarily so that that your process to change its current state includes an issue with the methodology that isn't immediately apparent to you.

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  • Thanks for your response. --- No, the Rufus FAQ contains no help for my scenario. I could contact Pete but in all fairness the situation caught me off-guard and by the time I realized the severity of the problem all evidence was gone, I had clicked away the error messages, I do not remember the wording, I did not take screenshots. ---Furthermore, I cannot truly reproduce the steps using the damaged drive.
    – ruyelpequenocid
    Mar 17, 2020 at 17:15
  • 1
    Perhaps I could use another similar drive and start over but then I am risking to lose a second drive (regardless whether the problem is caused by Rufus or not). --- The facts are that the USB drive was fine, then I used Rufus, then the USB drive was gone. --- So while Rufus may be the victim here of a tremendously unfortunate coincidence (Windows 10 is not clear from the list of suspects, and neither is the hardware), his involvement is very suspicious at least. --- I have been using Rufus for a very long time now and I think it is a great software, but I had a bad deal today.
    – ruyelpequenocid
    Mar 17, 2020 at 17:15
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    Rufus developer here. I'm afraid that, in all likelihood, evidence points to these facts: Your flash memory was becoming defective, then, when Rufus (but it could have been any other application for that matter, because, as opposed to what many seem to believe, Rufus does not do any kind of "special" writes) wrote to it, it failed altogether, which resulted in the flash drive controller declaring that no media was present, which ultimately resulted in Rufus producing an error, since it couldn't write data. Your report is symptomatic of failed flash memory, i.e. pure hardware failure.
    – Akeo
    Mar 18, 2020 at 1:48
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    There's actually a Rufus FAQ entry that alludes specifically to this issue. Basically the flash memory used in many USB flash drives is a lot less reliable than people imagine, and, if you are unlucky, may fail early, especially as, flash memory cells have a limited number of write cycles before they fail. And when that happens, the internal controller from your device, which is usually the same as the ones used for card readers, will report that it sees no media.
    – Akeo
    Mar 18, 2020 at 1:55
  • Thanks for the input Akeo. I am inclined to accept the hardware failure theory, I am aware of these cases and it could happen to anyone. I also admit that this particular USB device is one of those cheap drives that are truly not reliable. --- As stated before, I was simply sharing my experience, seeking some feedback in case others had similar experiences. I continue to use Rufus and I think it is an excellent piece of software.
    – ruyelpequenocid
    Mar 26, 2020 at 21:17
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Ask the USB flash drive manufacturer for service software. I've got one for mine some time ago.

Maybe something listed on http://usb-fix.blogspot.com/p/chipsbank.html would match this disk.

But... From my limited experience be prepared with backups and/or use it only with non-critical data.

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  • Thanks TMSZ. I will check with the manufacturer. -- And very right about the backup comment. In this case there was no data loss because nothing critical is ever placed on it.
    – ruyelpequenocid
    Mar 17, 2020 at 16:50
-5

An important problem is that MS Windows simply ignores some aspects of disk volumes, because Windows itself don't use it: Primary partitions which are not at the first place, a GPT structure if you are not running on a host with UEFI, etc. Sorry, I'm not a MS Windows expert and I don't know about details. The result can be that you have a volume (hard disk, USB stick, etc.) which MS Windows refuses to see or see in the wrong manner, but the volume is OK. When running Linux, use lsblk --fs and fsdisk /dev/sd##### to display the structure of your volume. Then you will see what is on the volume. Use fsdisk if you want to change the structure.

The installation of FreeDOS on a USB stick is a little bit special. Please read the documentation of FreeDOS concerning such an installation.

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  • 2
    -1 because your answer appears to ignore the context of this question. Windows doesn't detect any storage on the drive, partitioned or not, and neither does Linux. Also, fsdisk is not a valid program name (did you mean fdisk?)
    – gronostaj
    Nov 19, 2020 at 14:41
  • Maybe that was a typo and he meant sfdisk which is a scriptable version of fdisk.
    – FlexMcMurphy
    Feb 13, 2021 at 1:01

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