I've broken three USB drives in just two days, and I'm really puzzled about what's going wrong. I've never had issues with USBs on Windows—just plug them in and use them! But I switched over to Ubuntu, and things have gone south.
Here's the breakdown:
1. The first USB was used with Balena Etcher, but I don't think that's the main problem.
2. The second USB originally had Linux Ubuntu on it. I deleted the files, formatted it to FAT (or something similar for general use), and now my devices can detect it in disk manager but can't access it or use it. Windows even shows an error saying "directory is invalid" and I can't reformat it.
3. The third one is a microSD that I've used like a USB before without issues. After reformatting it, my computer and flip phone no longer recognize it. I've basically just been deleting files and then trying to format the drives in disk manager. What am I doing wrong?
3 Answers
It sounds like you might just be reformatting the USB drives improperly. Using a tool like GParted to reset the partition table is usually the best way to fix issues like this—especially after using them with installer ISOs. If you write a new msdos partition table and then format it to FAT32, that should solve your problem unless the USB itself is faulty.
Keep in mind that after using direct imaging tools for an OS install on your USB drives, they get partitioned in a way that can confuse Windows. Utilizing GParted or similar software to create a new partition scheme will definitely restore them to a regular usable state. Once you do that, you can format them normally.
It’s pretty rare for USB drives to fail that quickly without a cause, but if you're using cheaper drives, they might have a shorter lifespan. The Gnome Disk Utility is a handy tool for formatting drives on Linux, and I recommend trying that as well. Sometimes formatting issues can lead to corrupted partition tables that mess things up.
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