Solved "DiskPart/clean" hosed write-protected USB stick

Hi fellow Vistans,

This is a weird one, that no doubt delves deep into the belly of NTFS ADS technology.

I was preparing a USB stick by running the diskpart clean command. Two things are notable here. First, I started diskpart in a command window that started out being for Windows AIK Deployment Tools. I don't think that's significant, though. When I invoked DiskPart, it behaved normally.

Secondly, the USB stick had some anti-malware strategies baked in. I had two folders on it that were write-protected, and one of them was named autorun.inf. This I believe is significant.

I ran DiskPart Clean, and it seemed to go well. But the subsequent List disk command showed the stick at 8GB, with 0 GB free, which was incorrect.

Since then, clicking on the stick in Explorer hangs windows fatally. Disk Manager cannot start its virtual disk service, and diskpart in a command window will not start, so long as the stick is attached to the machine. Chkdsk /x hangs as well.

All this also holds true when I try the stick in the machine that originally formatted it, a Win7 box.

In short, I don't know how to wipe whatever has happened to the drive. I think I just hosed a very nice 8GB USB stick, and I'm not sure why.

Hi,

Look here for some formating software & see if that can recover the disk: -

SD/SDHC/SDXC Memory Card Formatting Software | Download | SD Memory Card | Digital AV | Consumer Products | Support | Panasonic Global

Download Active@ Partition Manager

Thank you. Unfortunately, I destroyed the stick today, in anticipation of recycling it. I didn't see any way to get around what I think was ADS corruption. Amazing that that was so easy to achieve. Thankfully, I was backed up, so I'm only out a $10 drive.

Be well,
p.

Ok,

Sorry about that, hoped I wasn't too late & the situation could have been resolved.

Glad your OK though!