cgsecurity.org

Hello,
I have a corrupt PNY 64GB USB, and I am not interested in recovering contents; I just want to reformat it clean.

The first diagnostic message I get in TestDisk is this:

• Partition sector doesn't have the endmark 0xAA55

Then, Both Quick and Deep Search result in this:

• Disk /dev/sdb - 64 GB / 59 GiB - CHS 7782 255 63
  The harddisk (64 GB / 59 GiB) seems too small! (< 96 GB / 89 GiB)
  Check the harddisk size: HD jumpers settings, BIOS detection...
  The following partitions can't be recovered:
  Partition Start End Size in sectors
  > HPFS - NTFS 4 52 49 7787 29 50 125032448
  HPFS - NTFS 8 73 2 7791 50 3 125032448
  HPFS - NTFS 12 93 18 7795 70 19 125032448
  HPFS - NTFS 16 113 34 7799 90 35 125032448
  HPFS - NTFS 20 133 50 7803 110 51 125032448
  HPFS - NTFS 24 154 3 7807 131 4 125032448
  HPFS - NTFS 28 174 19 7811 151 20 125032448
  HPFS - NTFS 32 194 35 7815 171 36 125032448
  HPFS - NTFS 36 214 51 7819 191 52 125032448
  HPFS - NTFS 40 235 4 7823 212 5 125032448
  [ Continue ]
  exFAT, blocksize=131072, 64 GB / 59 GiB

After that, the only option left is Quit:

• Disk /dev/sdb - 64 GB / 59 GiB - CHS 7782 255 63
  Partition Start End Size in sectors
  
  No partition found or selected for recovery
  >[ Quit ]
  Return to main menu

Is there any way to still format the USB? I do not need to recover any data.
Windows Format says that the USB is write-protected, but this USB does not have any physical switch of the sort.

Thanks a lot for any help!

TestDisk can't reformat media. If Windows can't reformat your USB device, boot from a Linux LiveCD. If you still have the problem, it means the problem is hardware.

Dear Mr. Grenier,
I am giving up, because I tried many kinds of things both in Windows and Linux, including gparted.
Thank you very much for the reply and congratulations for the great software that TestDisk is!
Best Regards.