USB drive shows as CD

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peejayw

1841 posts

Uber Geek

#251664 5-Jul-2019 15:35

I have a USB thumb drive that appears in Windows as a CD. The files are accessible but I cannot format the drive to return it to a USB device. The format option in DIsk Management is grayed out.

I think this has been done deliberately to stop accidental erasure .

Any suggestions on how to revert it to a USB?

Thanks.

I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

1 | 2

3122 posts

Uber Geek

#2270607 5-Jul-2019 16:38

In disk management

try giving that USB a differenet drive letter . Although that wont help if the USB stick was somehow made to be read only

phantomdb

583 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2270612 5-Jul-2019 16:58

Remove the partition and re-create the partition from there, i have had a few USB "Promotional" in the past set up like you describe.

[ SIGNATURE HERE ]

peejayw

1841 posts

Uber Geek

#2270613 5-Jul-2019 17:02

Thanks, I had tried that but no luck. I think it has been somehow made only readable. I just want to format it but I cant delete the files of it or format it.

I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

peejayw

1841 posts

Uber Geek

#2270617 5-Jul-2019 17:17

I dont have the option to remove the partition in Drive Management, most options are grayed out.

I have...

Open

Explore

Change Drive Letter

Properties

and

Help.

I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

richms

28168 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2270619 5-Jul-2019 17:24

This is done by different programming of the USB controller on the drive to make it specifically like this. Also optical will often autorun on computers where other media will not.

Find the USB device identifier and google around to find who makes it. They may have flashing tools on their site but TBH all I have found are all slow low capacity crap drives so not worth the effort.

Richard rich.ms

sqishy

470 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2270630 5-Jul-2019 17:53

peejayw: I dont have the option to remove the partition in Drive Management, most options are grayed out. I have... Open Explore Change Drive Letter Properties and Help.

Can you show us a photo, normally right click, delete volume. Otherwise get EASEUS program to fix it use the free tria.

peejayw

1841 posts

Uber Geek

#2270649 5-Jul-2019 18:20

Easus Partition Manager doesnt see the drive. Here is the screen from Disk Management

I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

Lenovo

Shop now for Lenovo laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

sqishy

470 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2270670 5-Jul-2019 19:42

Do you know if this USB use to work? Note some are made like this so that they can't be erased.

sqishy

470 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2270671 5-Jul-2019 19:52

Try low level....Press "Start" + R.
Type "cmd.exe", hit enter
"diskpart", hit enter

type "list disk", find your flash drive in the list.
Type, "select disk x" (replace x with your flash drive's disk number)

Type "clean all",
Remove the flash drive, then reinsert

Repeat steps list disk sel disk then.
Type "create partition primary", this is immediate.
At this point, you need to format the drive, "format fs=ntfs quick"

kinginvercargill

124 posts

Master Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#2270672 5-Jul-2019 20:07

Try This:

Open cmd.exe as administrator. Then run the following commands:

Type in diskpart.exe and press enter. This will open command line based disk management utility, indicator will change to DISKPART>
Within diskpart, type list disk and press enter. This will show all connected disks. Notice the "Size" column and make a note of the disk # you are concerned with.
Now type select disk X where X is the numerical digit from step 2.
To see its attributes, type attributes disk and press enter.
Now that we've ensured it is indeed a read-only disk, we will need to clear the flag. Simply type attributes disk clear readonly and press enter. This should clear the read-only flag.

Now you can format using diskpart or use Windows explorer to manage it.