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Questions tagged [usb-flash-drive]

USB Flash Drives are portable USB drives that rely upon flash storage, also known as pen drives or USB sticks.

2202 questions
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Permanently delete files from a flash drive

I heard some people mention that files are deleted from flash drive for good, there is no tracing back. Is that really true? If not, how do I permanently delete files from it? I have a sensitive file on a flash drive and before passing the flash…
TPR
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Why is my USB Flash Drive Now Read-Only?

Suddenly my USB Flash Drive (8gb Corsaire Voyager) is suddenly read-only, and I'm not sure why. There is no "read-only" switch on the drive. All of the data is still there. But nothing can be written to it anymore. There are 2gb free on the…
bgmCoder
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How to clear current “read-only” state on a USB flash drive I setup with Rufus?

Three weeks ago I used Rufus 2.2 to install Windows 10 on my machine, and it has write-protected my flash drive. I’ve tried diskpart: diskpart att disk clear readonly clean create partition primary format fs=fat32 quick And it kinda worked, it…
user3146888
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Clone bootable USB drives

I want to clone bootable USB drives (Windows 7 installation with image file). What's the fastest and easiest way to do this?
Sally
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4 answers

USB stick doesn't mount, but is detected. How to repair?

I have a USB stick plugged in my PC, which is running Windows 7. In 'Computer', it won't show up. In 'Disk Management' (diskmgmt.msc) it won't show up (but sometimes it will). But in 'Devices Manager', under Universal Serial Bus Controllers, it is…
MC Emperor
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Fixing a pendrive that suffered a dog bite

A dog bit my pendrive and after that I can no longer mount the drive in Linux (Debian-based distro). I can see the light on the drive blinking and the drive is registered via USB. Is this due to a corrupted file system or is it dead? Is there any…
Ashildr
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Can I let my fake flash USB drive get its real capacity through low level format?

Recently, I bought an USB flash drive which has a cool design. The seller said it is 256GB however, I've already known that capacity would be fake. Anyway, I bought it cause of its cool design and want to use this USB flash drive anyway. What should…
KimHG
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Do USB flash drives have a unique identifier?

Is it possible to tell if a USB flash drives has been secretly exchanged for an identical device without inspecting the data on the device itself? Do USB flash drives have some form of unique identification that can be copied/written down to be…
suraj
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How do I rename the actual USB drive (not the label)?

I'm not asking how to simply change the name of the USBs label the OS shows. I would like to know how I can change the name of the actual USB stick. For example, if I try to boot from the USB I can see all the devices including my USB which is not…
TumbaBit
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2 answers

USB flash drive cannot be read only on a specific computer

I have a SanDisk Cruzer 32gb flash drive that cannot be read only on a specific computer due to some unknown reason. Do note that all my other flash drives are working fine on this computer. Here's my situation... Background Info I recently bought a…
Roy
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2 answers

Did my apartment's electronic key fob fry my flash drive?

I had a great thumb drive on my keychain (a LaCie iAmAKey), right next to the electronic key fob I use to beep myself into my apartment. Recently it's given up the ghost, refusing to be recognized on any system. It can't be read or re-initialized,…
moonslug
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6
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1 answer

How to protect copying files out of flash memory?

I have customers who want to buy large amount of flash memories but he wants to copyright all files inside it. The flash will contain files that will be delivered for his customers but they're not allowed to copy or delete any of the files the only…
Cempron Koal
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8 answers

USB flash drive showing empty but half of the capacity is in Used

Not sure if I should post my question in superuser, but it looks like the most appropriate place among all StackExchange sites. I have a 16GB Kingston DataTraveler USB drive. When I tried to use it this morning, it showed up nothing in there but yet…
tamakisquare
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Can frequent erasing of USB flash drives cause damage?

I have been told that frequently 'full erasing' memory sticks can damage them. Is this true? I work in a situation where the same sticks are re-used numerous times.
Mac
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Thumb Drive Organization

A thumb drive is obviously a chunk of EEPROM, including a controller/microprocessor to store/retrieve the files stored on it. The operating system normally communicates with the thumb drive, and all thumb drives operate in all operating systems (I…
jrdoner
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