Read Only thumbdrive after being reformatted?

by grimgraphix Oct 13, 2007 5:00AM PDT

A friend of mine just presented me with a thumbdrive he reformatted at work which refuses to work now. I took a look at it and it states in the info panel that it is read only. There is no visible locking switch on the outside of the case. His problems began when he threw away the security software folders that came in the drive and then reformatted it with the disc utility. There is no manufacturer's name or identifying serial number on the case of the drive.

I have tried to reformat it using both the utility on my mac and the utility built into my XP windows machine. The XP says the drive is "write protected" and won't do anything with it. Mac Disc Utility gives this bit of information when I try to verify the disc...

Verifying volume ?reformatted?
Checking HFS volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Invalid directory item count
(It should be 6 instead of 0)
Invalid directory item count
(It should be 4 instead of 2)
Checking volume bitmap.
Volume Bit Map needs minor repair
Checking volume information.
Master Directory Block needs minor repair
me %@ needs to be repaired.",1)

reformatted
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit

1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair

and it gives this information when disc utility info is brought up...

Name : reformatted
Type : Volume

Disk Identifier : disk1s2
Mount Point : /Volumes/reformatted
File System : Mac OS Standard
Connection Bus : USB
Partition Type : Apple_HFS
Writable : No
Universal Unique Identifier : 8C19DA99-D815-30EA-A3A4-4C8C4E990F2C
Capacity : 981.0 MB (1,028,612,096 Bytes)
Free Space : 978.6 MB (1,026,172,416 Bytes)
Used : 2.3 MB (2,428,416 Bytes)
Number of Files : 4
Number of Folders : 3
Owners Enabled : No
Can Turn Owners Off : No
Can Be Formatted : Yes
Bootable : No
Supports Journaling : No
Journaled : No
S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
Disk Number : 1
Partition Number : 2

So... can anything be done with this thumbdrive or should I tell my friend to eat his 20 bucks?

Thanks for all advice

grim

Discussion is locked

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thumbdrive

by mrmacfixit Forum moderator Oct 13, 2007 5:25AM PDT

Given its present state, I would be tempted to use Disk Utility to erase the disk.

Select the disk and choose the Erase tab. Then select Security Options and choose Zero Out all Data.

This will write zero's to the disk, the default method just messes with the directory, and leaves the stick with no readable format on it.
Once that is complete, format the stick as you would normally do for a Mac disk.

It's worth a try.

P

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Problem is...

by grimgraphix Oct 13, 2007 6:28AM PDT

... the Security Options button is grayed out. I ejected and stuck it back in... no luck. I unmounted and mounted it from the disc utility... no luck.

Maybe I will try rebooting my computer and see if that helps.

I will let you know.

Thanks

grim

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(NT) Nope, didn't help. I'm stumped.

by grimgraphix Oct 13, 2007 7:08AM PDT

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sounds like something with a little more "juice"...

by boya84 Oct 13, 2007 7:16AM PDT

like TechTool Pro or DiskWarrior... but no guarantees...

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another option *might* be to

by boya84 Oct 13, 2007 7:19AM PDT

partition it... into two partitions. That would cause the existing partition to be completely re-written... and that *might* be the issue... Then take it back to a single partition...

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Well, none of that would work, but...

by grimgraphix Oct 13, 2007 11:07AM PDT

... I don't have the Mac repair utilities you mentioned so I took the drive and stuck it back into my winbox and took out an old copy of Norton DiscDoctor for PC on disc. It registered problems in the FAT32 allocation on the drive when I booted it up and began to repair the DOS partitions on all discs. The thumbdrive registered as Apple formatted when plugged into my mac... but registers as RAW files when Properties are checked when connected to the PC. I wasn't sure if it was registering the PC's HD or the thumb drive so I stopped it and retried the thumbdrive in my mac. Disc Utility now allows the erase function to be selected... but still fails to erase or partition because it says the disc can not be "unmounted". The thumbdrive will not eject either but Finder does allow some old files to be viewed and the info button says you can read and write to the drive.

I will try the drive again on my PC... but right now, I'm waiting for the darn thing to defrag. I use it so seldom that I figured to do the maintenance on it before I try to fix this thumbdrive.

Just for my personal information... If I am able to erase and reformat this drive, how should a thumb drive be formatted for use exclusively on a mac running OSX ? The disc utility offers a variety of choices (journalized, standard, etc).

Thanks for everyone's input so far !

grim

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So, I got the drive reformatted...

by grimgraphix Oct 13, 2007 12:35PM PDT

... using my PC. I double checked the formatting on my personal thumb drives and the mac info window listed them as FAT16 formats, so that is what I reformatted my buddies' thumb drive to be.

If anyone one could advise a better file format for this thumb drive then let me know before monday so I can make the adjustments before I give it back to my friend.

Thanks all.

grim

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Most thumbdrives come formatted

by mrmacfixit Forum moderator Oct 13, 2007 11:36PM PDT

in some form of FAT to allow for use on most platforms.

If it is exclusively for use on a Mac, try to format it as HFS+ (Journaled)

That's the current filing system for OS X

P

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(NT) Thank you

by grimgraphix Oct 14, 2007 1:10AM PDT

Read Only thumbdrive after being reformatted?

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