# USB Formatting Issue



## aviation_man

Hey all I found an 8gb Sandisk micro cruzer and I stuck it in my computer and it said to reformat. So I did, and it came up with an error. 
So I tried formatting it using DiskPart. Selected the USB drive, and tried to use the command "CLEAN" it came up with an error " The semaphore timout period has expired. See event log"
So I went to event  log and it gave me:
Failed to open device \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolume8. Error code: [email protected]

And also, under details it gave me:

Virtual Disk Service:

EventID 8 
[Qualifiers]  49664 
Level 2 
Task 0 
Keywords: 0x80000000000000 
EventRecordID: 3904 
Channel: System 


Anybody know how I can format this flash drive or any third party application that I can use? 
Thanks.


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## wildbill

Is it brand new or did you find it used?? Sounds to me that the drive is shot.


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## aviation_man

wildbill said:


> Is it brand new or did you find it used?? Sounds to me that the drive is shot.



It's bout 6 months old. I bought it brand new.


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## wildbill

I bought a 4 gig sd card new and within 4 months, my camera said it needed formatted. Turned out it was no good. So that's where your at possibly, fried memory stick. It happens.


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## bigrich0086

the drive could of taken a nice jolt while it was lost.

Also did you put any drive encrpytion on it which denys access to the drive even it you try to format.

Also if you have a windows cd boot off that and see if it sees the flash drive during isntall. 

And or run the command promt and type this in


format [drive:] [/q] [/fs:file-system]
drive:	Specifies the drive to format.
/q	Performs a quick format.
/fs:file-system	Specifies the file system to use (FAT, FAT32, or NTFS)

SO type in format c: /q.  But be sure you have the right drive letter in there for the flash drive.


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## aviation_man

bigrich0086 said:


> the drive could of taken a nice jolt while it was lost.
> 
> Also did you put any drive encrpytion on it which denys access to the drive even it you try to format.
> 
> Also if you have a windows cd boot off that and see if it sees the flash drive during isntall.
> 
> And or run the command promt and type this in
> 
> 
> format [drive:] [/q] [/fs:file-system]
> drive:	Specifies the drive to format.
> /q	Performs a quick format.
> /fs:file-system	Specifies the file system to use (FAT, FAT32, or NTFS)
> 
> SO type in format c: /q.  But be sure you have the right drive letter in there for the flash drive.



Ok I'll try the boot later.

Nope no encryption

I tried that command prompt and it gave me: 
Access Denied, you do not have sufficient privileges.
You have to invoke this utility running in elevated mode.

EDIT: hold on..


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## bigrich0086

your user account might not have FULL privileges. Try booting into safe mode into Admin account and run the command.


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## aviation_man

bigrich0086 said:


> your user account might not have FULL privileges. Try booting into safe mode into Admin account and run the command.



I am the admin (only account on here), how would I not have full privileges?


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## kimsland

*USB Format tools*:
 HP USB Disk Storage Format Utility: http://downloads.pcworld.com/pub/new/utilities/peripherals/SP27608.exe

 Hard Disk (flash drive) Low Level Format Tool: http://hddguru.com/download/software/HDDGURU-Low-Level-Format-Tool/LLFsetup.2.36.1181.exe


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## aviation_man

kimsland said:


> *USB Format tools*:
> HP USB Disk Storage Format Utility: http://downloads.pcworld.com/pub/new/utilities/peripherals/SP27608.exe
> 
> Hard Disk (flash drive) Low Level Format Tool: http://hddguru.com/download/software/HDDGURU-Low-Level-Format-Tool/LLFsetup.2.36.1181.exe



First one said that it's write protected ( I didn't put any encryption on it, or password)
And second program said that "Cannot access cause it is smaller than 65535 sectors"


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## bigrich0086

did you check the flash drive for a manual lock switch on the side. some have this as a safety so nothing is deleted when in lock position


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## aviation_man

bigrich0086 said:


> did you check the flash drive for a manual lock switch on the side. some have this as a safety so nothing is deleted when in lock position



No it doesn't have a lock on it.


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## bigrich0086

If all else fails i say take it skeet shooting LOL


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## kimsland

aviation_man said:


> First one said that it's write protected ( I didn't put any encryption on it, or password)


Is it write protected?
Some (older) flash drives had a tiny switch on the side that write protected the drive


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## aviation_man

kimsland said:


> Is it write protected?
> Some (older) flash drives had a tiny switch on the side that write protected the drive



I didn't make it write protected. 
And no there isn't a switch on it or anything like that


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## kimsland

Sorry I didn't read page 2 here on this thread
That had already been covered

You could try those tools on another computer, with your flash drive in as well (sometimes works, as there may be a registry error or something)


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## aviation_man

kimsland said:


> Sorry I didn't read page 2 here on this thread
> That had already been covered
> 
> You could try those tools on another computer, with your flash drive in as well (sometimes works, as there may be a registry error or something)



I tried it on an XP machine and I got the same results as my W7 machine.
Anything else I can try? It says that the drive is 16MB, but it's 4gb. I can't access it through Windows Explorer or anything.


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## bigrich0086

try running the command prompt again from booting off the windows cd in recovery mode. worth a shot


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