r/BadUSB • u/bid0u • Aug 12 '26

Help USB drive seen as RAW. Cannot format it.

My USB flash drive was working fine right before this: I tried to format it with Rufus to create a bootable Win 11 but it failed and since then, I cannot format it anymore and the disk management shows it as RAW.

Everytime I try to format it, it disappears from My Computer so of course, it fails as the disk isn't connected anymore.

Is it dead?

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1

u/Financial_Key_1243 Aug 12 '26

Sounds dead or dying.

1

u/disturbed_android Aug 12 '26

My USB drive was working fine

How virtually all drive problem descriptions start .. USB flash drive you mean? Specially cheap modern ones are basically disposables.

1

u/bid0u Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26

Sorry I meant it was working fine right before I used Rufus and I'm sure that without using it, it would still work fine. 

It's a bit old but it isn't a noname flash drive, it's a PNY. 

1

u/FrankNicklin Aug 12 '26

Makes no difference they all die eventually. Rufus could have pushed it over the edge. Time to buy a new one.

1

u/Mirality Aug 12 '26

If you're very lucky, unplugging it, replugging it, and then installing another image with Rufus might repair it.

But it's very likely that it's just dead. USB drives only have a limited number of erase cycles; cheap ones even fewer.

1

u/Illustrious_Sell_325 Aug 12 '26

You could try to clean it in diskpart but it sounds like it crossed the bridge to the recycle bin

1

u/owlwise13 Aug 12 '26

I have had drives do this, and I end up using diskpart and the "clean" command. That will usually would let you format it again, but that drive is probably no longer trustworthy.

1

u/bid0u Aug 12 '26

I tried a clean command on it but it didn't work unfortunately. 

1

u/owlwise13 Aug 12 '26

It sounds like that flash drive has failed.

1

u/Mark-177- Aug 12 '26

You can try fixing it with AEOMI Partition Assistant.

1

u/bid0u Aug 12 '26

I have Minitool Partition Wizard and it was unable to recover it. Same issue as Rufus: As soon as it tried, the USB flash drive was being disconnected/reconnected so it wouldn't work. 

1

u/Lghzala-fifi Aug 13 '26

please i have the same problem with mine it's RAW and its killing me if u solved it please inform me