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I installed Ubuntu (ubuntu-13.04-desktop-amd64) on a 8 gb pendrive. Because it worked pretty slow, I wanted to change it back to a normal pendrive. But this is what happened.

Windows7 can't open the usb drive, can't view files or anything, can't access attributes. When I select to format, it says it can't format it because it is write-protected. Tried the same running from an Ubuntu, and trying from a booted GParted thing. When I view the partitions, they can't be deleted either.

What should I do to get it formatted?

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  • More information on whats preventing you from it working in GParted is required. Not being able to format a Linux partition on a drive is normal Windows does not support them.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jun 27, 2013 at 22:24
  • It also says the drive is write-protected. Can't modifie anything with it really.
    – weiszam
    Commented Jun 27, 2013 at 22:27
  • There are ways to ignore the write protection. There are lots of tutorials on the subject.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jun 27, 2013 at 22:32
  • Could you send me some links? I've searched a lot for ways, tried a lot of things..
    – weiszam
    Commented Jun 27, 2013 at 22:37
  • 2
    Possible duplicate of What can I do if my USB flash drive is write-protected or read-only?
    – bwDraco
    Commented Sep 17, 2016 at 5:13

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Optionally if gparted can't delete the partitions, you could use dd to clear the device.

Type sudo bash in the terminal of gparted.

Type in dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=4k conv=notrunc

And replace sda with whatever the gparted software shows it as being, sdb, sdf, sdz, etc.

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  • Okay formatting a lot of times and stuff got me there that I can now use it, but it's still read-only. Can't delete files, but can create new ones. The response tp this dd command you gave me is dd: 'dev/sdd': Read-only something. What to do now?
    – weiszam
    Commented Jun 28, 2013 at 9:37
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    Try this command. sudo umount /dev/sdb And then sudo fsck.vfat -f -v /dev/sdb Of course replacing sdb with whatever gparted displays.
    – user88311
    Commented Jun 28, 2013 at 16:24
  • Here's the console text in: sudo umount /dev/sdc out: /dev/sdc: not mounted in: fsck.vfat -f -v /dev/sdc out: dosfsck 3.0.16 (01 Mar 2013) dosfsck 3.0.16 01 Mar 2013, FAT32, LFN Currently, only 1 or 2 Fats are supported, not 251. What do do now?
    – weiszam
    Commented Jun 28, 2013 at 21:14

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