This post describes the methods to repair or restore Flash Drive which appears to be damaged or corrupt after using with flashing tools such as Rufus, Balena Etcher, Startup Disk Creator, Fedora Media Writer, Windows Media Creator Tool, etc.. Sometimes when you make a bootable flash drive, the flash drive is rendered unusable due to reduced capacity. Relax! Actually such tools do not damage Flash Drives. Capacity of the Flash Drive is reduced because Flashing tools create new partitions and un-allocate extra space. Also, on windows, Linux File System is not accessible, thus, only the bootable partition of Flash Drive of few MegaBytes (~ 2 MB) capacity is visible.
Flashing software tools are often used to make a Flash Drive bootable for installation of latest version of operating systems on computers. The software flashes Operating System images to SD cards & USB drives safely and easily. A user uses these tools to create bootable flash drives for different Operating Systems such as Linux Mint, Manjaro Linux, MX Linux, Ubuntu, Windows, etc. using ISO files of respective Linux operating systems.
In one case, when a flashing tool is installed and used to create a Bootable drive for Operating Systems the ISO image is flashed in “DD” mode. I another case, ‘dd’ command is used in Linux terminal to create bootable media from ISO files in command line mode. In both cases, the capacity of the flash drive which is required for operating system files is only used and it is made bootable. The remaining capacity of the flash drive is left as un-allocated space on the flash drive. After flashing, the flash drive is successfully made bootable and subsequently used to install Operating Systems on computers.
After successfully installing the operating system, when the bootable flash drive is used for storing data, it appears to be corrupt or damaged and becomes unusable due to reduced capacity and needs to be restored to original capacity. When flash drive is viewed in File Explorer, it appears that the flash drive has reduced to a mere capacity of 2.25 MB with few unrecognized files and folders.
As an illustration, the following figure shows this error:
In some cases, the flash drive may even not be detected and displayed in Explorer. At this point, user may panic while thinking that the flash drive is corrupt or damaged.
While checking in Windows Disk Management Software, the Flash Drive will have 03 (three) partition. The first partition contains Linux setup files. But it is not visible in Windows File Explorer. The unused space forms the last partition. It is also not visible in Windows File Explorer. The middle partition only is visible in Windows File Explorer. The image below illustrates same:
There are two observations here:
a. Windows cannot recognize the first partition because it is Linux File System. Windows cannot recognize Linux File System.
b. The un-allocated space forms the last partition. To access this partition in, you need to create a partition and format it to a recognizable file system e.g. NTFS, ext4 or FAT32.
Certainly, we can use the first and last partitions by formatting them with appropriate file system. The un-allocated space is available in the form of these partitions on the flash drive. But, it will create two partitions on the flash drive which will hamper the smooth usage of the flash drive. Also, the bootable partition space will remain unused.
It seems that the flash drive is no more appropriate for use. But, need not worry the flash drive is safe and is repairable. Follow the below mentioned methods to repair or restore the flash drive appearing to be damaged or corrupt by Flashing software:
Method 1: Repair Flash Drive on Linux System
Follow following four steps to repair flash drive on a Linux Operating System:
Step 1: Login to Linux System
Login to any Linux Operating System and insert the damaged or corrupted bootable flash drive. The flash drive will successfully mount and the contents could be viewable in File Explorer. The flash drive will contain Linux setup files. The capacity of the flash drive must have reduced to around 2 GB or some other size as per ISO file size.
Step 2: Open ‘Disks’ Application to view Flash Drive Partitions
Open “Disks” built in application in Linux operating system and select the flash drive. Similar to Windows it would appear that there are 3 partitions on Flash Drive. The first partition was visible in Linux File Explorer, while other partitions were not. Or even, no partitions of Flash drive are visible in File explorer. The un-allocated space on Flash Drive forma the last partition. This unallocated space is not visible in Linux File Explorer. The middle partition is also not visible in Linux File Explorer.
Step 3: Select Boot Information Partition to repair flash drive
Select the middle DOS/ FAT partition of small size (in MBs or KBs) as shown in below image as an illustration and click on ‘Delete Partition’ button to delete this partition:
Deleting this master partition will delete all other partition information and disk would be re-available with its original capacity as shown in below image as an illustration:
Step 4: Repair Flash Drive by formatting the partition
Format the partition to make it usable by clicking on ‘Settings’ button. Provide a Drive Name of your choice and select appropriate Format Type for formatting the flash drive. EXT4 will not be visible in Windows, however, NTFS and FAT will be visible in Windows and Linux both. Click ‘Next’ and then ‘Format’ to begin formatting. Wait for formatting to finish. On successful formatting, click ‘Mount’ button to mount the flash drive.
The process must have repaired the Flash Drive successfully. You can now re-use it on Windows, Linux or MacOS as per your requirements.
You may now eject the repaired flash drive from Linux system and use it on Windows. Eject the flash drive, re-login to Windows system and insert the repaired flash drive in USB slot. Open properties of the Flash Drive and check that the original capacity of the Flash Drive is restored successfully. You can now use it as earlier on Windows, Linux and other Operating Systems.
Watch the practical demonstration of above method in the video: Repair Flash Drive Damaged by Flashing Tools (Linux Method)
Method 2: Repair Flash Drive on Windows System
Login to any PC with Windows Operating System and install latest version of Rufus flashing tool from Rufus official website. Open Rufus tool and insert the damaged or corrupt bootable flash drive in the system.
Rufus tool will automatically detect the Flash Drive. Select the “Non bootable” option from Boot Selection drop down.
Select Large FAT32 (default) from File System drop down. You may choose NTFS if you need to copy a single file larger than 4 GB on your flash drive.
Let the default choice for cluster size. Click on “START” button. On successful formatting the Flash Drive will become reusable on Windows Operating System. Click “CLOSE” button to close Rufus Application.
Watch the practical demonstration of above method in following video: Repair Flash Drive damaged by Flashing tools (Windows method)
Method 3: Restore Flash Drive capacity with Fedora Media Writer
Install Fedora Media Writer on Linux or Windows or Mac operating system.
On Windows and Mac OS you can download executable file of Fedora Media Writer from its official site and install on your PC.
On rpm based systems such as Fedora, CentOS, Red Hat, etc. you can use the following command to install Fedora Media Writer if already not installed:
sudo dnf install mediawriter
Insert the flash drive in your PC and Run fedora media writer. It will display a message on top mentioning to restore your flash drive to factory settings. Click on “Restore” button.
Fedora Media writer will re-confirm from you to restore the USB drive. Click on “Restore” and proceed to restore your flash flash drive to original capacity.
i tryied your methods, but i still have crashed pendrive by rufus. 3 pendrives is crashed (2TB). it is possible to repair?
Did you try formatting the pen drives using Rufus as mentioned in this post?
Thanks, it worked perfectly!.