USB stick can appear hidden or be mistaken for a traditional hard drive.
USB stick can appear hidden or be mistaken for a traditional hard drive.
I recently purchased a 128GB flash drive from Walmart (refer to the second photo). When I connected it to a virtual drive via UTM and mounted it in a VM, something went wrong and damaged the entire drive. Now Windows treats it just like a regular disk and can't access anything, while macOS and Linux also fail to recognize it. I’m looking for a way to fix it without sending it to a recovery center—just need a functional USB stick with enough space.
If there’s nothing requiring attention, you can simply rearrange the content.
I mentioned that Linux doesn't recognize the disk, so you must have Linux? Try using the tool Gparted. If the device is detected by Linux, just wipe all partitions and then set up a fresh FAT32 or exFAT one. You might achieve similar results in Windows with Disk Management, but based on my experience, Gparted offers a higher chance of success. Good luck!
Run CMD on a Windows 7 or newer system and apply DiskPart commands to clear the drive. Next, utilize Disk Management to format the disk. If this fails, the drive is probably non-functional and you should consider replacing it. I’d generally steer clear of PNY.
When none of the tools recognize it as a storage device, you might need to replace it within the warranty period.
They mentioned using DiskPart, but Windows treats it as a USB drive and prompts for a specific letter.
Diskpart isn't functioning due to no detected media on the device. I'm considering using GParted, but it seems the system is already non-responsive.
The Linux Kernel ignores it during fdisk operations, only noticing the other storage devices. I’m now certain it’s no longer functional.