USB stick won't format

My mate's USB stick one day corrupted and said it needed reformatting but in XP when you try to format it it just errors with:

http://www.grabup.com/uploads/68a018...7ca.png?direct

http://www.grabup.com/uploads/992fdd...0f8.png?direct

In Mac OS X it just gets stuck there saying partitioning.

Help?

In XP I've also tried going to administrative tools and reformatting it from disk management but no luck there either.

:\

+REP to good helpers.

Don't use quick format, it's the format equivelant of adding files to the recycle bin. If you're still having problems.

Alternatively, install a small distro and force a format using:

fdisk /dev/sda
mkfs -t vfat /dev/sda1

(I haven't used linux in a long time, let someone else confirm if it's right)

Merged by Johno! (Forum Moderator): Posts merged due to forum lag.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DrLacero

Don't use quick format, it's the format equivelant of adding files to the recycle bin. If you're still having problems.

Alternatively, install a small distro and force a format using:

fdisk /dev/sda
mkfs -t vfat /dev/sda1

(I haven't used linux in a long time, let someone else confirm if it's right)

Merged by Johno! (Forum Moderator): Posts merged due to forum lag.

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Would Ubuntu work as I've already got a cd of that?

Try: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads...ting_Tool.html

and yes, Ubuntu would.

Ubuntu commands didn't work:

http://www.grabup.com/uploads/c9859d...985.png?direct
http://www.grabup.com/uploads/c9859d...00a2d23985.png

Its not sda, thats the first hard drive. I'm not sure what the mount point is, also make sure that your VMWare is giving Ubuntu access to that USB drive.

vmware is 100% giving ubuntu access.

I would just say the USB drive is broken.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stephen

I would just say the USB drive is broken.

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It's still showing up in xp, os x & linux though showing its size etc. Just won't format.

Windows even reports it as healthy.

Try the HP Program I linked to.