[Nottingham] Dead USB Memory stick?

Sat Feb 13 08:20:54 UTC 2010

You can simply use the dd command to overwrite the thing with zeros
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX (where x is the relevant letter)
Leave that for as long as you think it would take to do the whole thing (I'd
give it about 10 minutes)
Then open a partition editor like gparted, and let that take care of redoing
the partition table.

Bear in mind however, that when a little bit of the flash drive repeatedly
fails, the actual firmware on the stick itsself marks it as not to be
written to,
I don't think there are any utilities that let you get round this, and
besides, there would be no point to them!

On 12 February 2010 20:13, Martin <martin at ml1.co.uk> wrote:

> Folks,
>
> First some questions, especially for anyone that has a new and *unused*
> usb memory stick to try:
>
> On a "blank" unused usb memory stick, which way are the bits set for the
> blank flash? All '1's or all '0's?
>
> Are there any utilities to let you completely (low level) erase the
> memory stick so that it is back to its unfragmented erased state as when
> first manufactured?
>
>
> I've an 8GB memory stick that survived a mere 3 months being used as a
> linux system root (including /var), alongside a second memory stick that
> is still ok. I used them as a RAID1 mirror pair with 128kByte chunks
> set. I also used ext4 with the options "noatime,commit=60,nouser_xattr".
>
> I can read from the entire memory stick without problem. Trying to write
> to it fails after about 1Gbyte from the start.
>
> So... Have I got a dodgy 1GByte memory stick out of the original 8GBytes?
>
> (And yes it is a real 8GBytes and not a resized fake.)
>
> Or can I try some clever reset/reformat trick on it?
>
> Cheers,
> Martin
>
>
> The gory log for an attempted write is attached!
>
> --
> ----------------
> Martin Lomas
> martin at ml1.co.uk
> ----------------
>
> klogd: usb 3-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 16
> klogd: usb 3-3: New USB device found, idVendor=090c, idProduct=1000
> klogd: usb 3-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
> klogd: usb 3-3: Product: USB DISK
> klogd: usb 3-3: Manufacturer: SMI Corporation
> klogd: usb 3-3: SerialNumber: AA04012700021479
> klogd: usb 3-3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
> klogd: scsi15 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
> klogd: scsi 15:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Flash    Drive SM_USB20   1100 PQ:
> 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
> klogd: sd 15:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg6 type 0
> klogd: sd 15:0:0:0: [sdf] 15858688 512-byte logical blocks: (8.11 GB/7.56
> GiB)
> klogd: sd 15:0:0:0: [sdf] Write Protect is off
> klogd: sd 15:0:0:0: [sdf] Assuming drive cache: write through
> klogd: sd 15:0:0:0: [sdf] Assuming drive cache: write through
> klogd:  sdf: sdf1 sdf2 sdf3
> klogd: sd 15:0:0:0: [sdf] Assuming drive cache: write through
> klogd: sd 15:0:0:0: [sdf] Attached SCSI removable disk
> klogd: usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 16
> klogd: usb 3-3: device descriptor read/64, error -110
> klogd: usb 3-3: device descriptor read/64, error -110
> klogd: usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 16
> klogd: usb 3-3: device descriptor read/64, error -110
> klogd: usb 3-3: device descriptor read/64, error -110
> klogd: usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 16
> klogd: usb 3-3: device not accepting address 16, error -110
> klogd: usb 3-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 16
> klogd: usb 3-3: device not accepting address 16, error -110
> klogd: usb 3-3: USB disconnect, address 16
> klogd: sd 15:0:0:0: Device offlined - not ready after error recovery
> klogd: sd 15:0:0:0: [sdf] Unhandled error code
> klogd: sd 15:0:0:0: [sdf] Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT
> driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
> klogd: end_request: I/O error, dev sdf, sector 0
> klogd: __ratelimit: 51 callbacks suppressed
> klogd: Buffer I/O error on device sdf, logical block 0
> klogd: lost page write due to I/O error on sdf
> klogd: Buffer I/O error on device sdf, logical block 1
> klogd: lost page write due to I/O error on sdf
> klogd: Buffer I/O error on device sdf, logical block 2
> klogd: lost page write due to I/O error on sdf
> klogd: Buffer I/O error on device sdf, logical block 3
> klogd: lost page write due to I/O error on sdf
> klogd: Buffer I/O error on device sdf, logical block 4
> klogd: lost page write due to I/O error on sdf
> klogd: Buffer I/O error on device sdf, logical block 5
> klogd: lost page write due to I/O error on sdf
> klogd: Buffer I/O error on device sdf, logical block 6
> klogd: lost page write due to I/O error on sdf
> klogd: Buffer I/O error on device sdf, logical block 7
> klogd: lost page write due to I/O error on sdf
> klogd: Buffer I/O error on device sdf, logical block 8
> klogd: lost page write due to I/O error on sdf
> klogd: Buffer I/O error on device sdf, logical block 9
> klogd: lost page write due to I/O error on sdf
> klogd: sd 15:0:0:0: [sdf] Unhandled error code
> klogd: sd 15:0:0:0: [sdf] Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT
> driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
> klogd: end_request: I/O error, dev sdf, sector 240
> klogd: sdf: detected capacity change from 8119648256 to 0
> klogd: usb 3-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 17
> klogd: usb 3-3: device descriptor read/64, error -110
> klogd: usb 3-3: device descriptor read/64, error -110
> klogd: usb 3-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 18
> klogd: usb 3-3: device descriptor read/64, error -110
> klogd: usb 3-3: device descriptor read/64, error -110
> klogd: usb 3-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 19
> klogd: usb 3-3: device not accepting address 19, error -110
> klogd: usb 3-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 20
> klogd: usb 3-3: device not accepting address 20, error -110
> klogd: hub 3-0:1.0: unable to enumerate USB device on port 3
>
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-- 
Rory Holland
+44 7896-352533
+44 155-9708931
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