How to Format a Bootable USB to Normal

[@AverageLinuxUser]

I forgot to explain. If your flash drive was mounted, you need to unmount it before you wipefs/dd/mkfs.vfat.
Just run:
sudo umount /dev/sdX
where /dev/sdX is your flash drive.
PS. Thanks to Troy Turner, who commented about this below.

[@ffdp654]

and then before that climbed error

[@Uchiha_Madara1224]

Love it

[@Uchiha_Madara1224]

Average Linux User Awesome 👌 👌 👌 😍

[@Georgy_47]

still doesnt work i tried it before it worked now on ubuntu 18 does work and it ruins the flash usb giving the same eroor device busy or in use

[@vishnu5773]

@@Georgy_47 same problem with me

[@mihamunda3599]

This is the most explicit comprehensive and clear tutorial for restoring an USB drive, that I ever found. Thank YOU!

[@boozarr]

Thanks, it worked perfectly!
Except for this: You forgot to say to unmount the USB drive in Disks program before entering terminal commands.. Took me a couple of minutes to figure out why I was getting error message. After unmounting USB drive, it worked.

[@AverageLinuxUser]

Oh, Sorry. I missed that. It was not mounted at the beginning, but I mentioned that one has to unmount it for the dd command. Thanks for adding this.

[@shiraz7956]

8

[@Evaporik]

Same

[@petslittleworld]

Hi ALU, thank you so much for yet another life saving video. I used to face the usb drive problem every time after trying out a new distro. Your expert tips (both graphical and command line) will help many linux users for sure. The video thumbnail was very good too.

[@AverageLinuxUser]

Hi panks103, Thank you very much :-)

[@jawbaw6471]

Three frustrating nights of searching RUclips to clean my USB stick and this worked. Thanks much. I subscribed.

[@sanchit.samuel]

You can also wipe FS via Disks, just select the driver click on the overflow menu (3 vertical dots) and select format disk or CTRL + F on the selected disk. It would give a disk with no partition.

[@AverageLinuxUser]

Thanks. I don't know what happens under the hood, but it seems to work.

[@nenadblesic4754]

Tnx! after an hour of searching and watching all that Indian videos with cars in a background and bad english finally someone that explained it very simply and very fast!

[@pradnyeshaglawe351]

Indians speak better English than you all.

[@simonemicucci9222]

i was looking for this process for week, you saved me, blessing to you

[@sahilmor8268]

thanks it worked ... I was trying this from 3 days ... and then finally I found this video .... thanks a lot

[@spaceiswater6539]

This has fixed so many pendrives I have used for installing OS's and could never seem to use them again, but now I can. Thank you for your video it was nice and clear in restoring pendrives.

[@ffdp654]

Wipefs sometimes failed with errors like 'Device or resource busy that error before

[@supremesupreme5372]

Just unmount it

[@beinglikegojo]

unmount your usb first

[@anshulchauhan6848]

thank you so much bro
i can not find anything on the internet this helpful

[@PrzyjacielMamutow]

Great!
After formatting flash drive from system file, it was freezing my boot when it was plugged in, but formatting it from terminal resolved this issue, thank you!

[@MrDoodsz]

Thanks. This is just what I needed! Also, great video! Very clear and easy to understand.

[@AverageLinuxUser]

Hi Jude. My pleasure 🙂

[@pyotrleflegin7255]

Thanks again, ALU! Your videos are always just what we need to keep our Linux boxes working well! If we were still doing stars, this would have been a five!

[@AverageLinuxUser]

Thanks a lot. 5 starts is a lot 🙂

[@Aem2512]

You saved my life and usb. Thanks a lot. I like these type of tutorials. Clear tutorial. Nice!

[@karanadhikary6078]

you save my day!!!!!! I was super worry because the pendrive was one of my friend's!!!

[@user-uj3fq9zg6b]

Thank you for this tutorial and all others. It was very usefull for me. I have fixed my USB, and now it works fine. Thank you.

[@crismo7753]

I've did what You recommend here and my Sandisk 32GB flashdrive shrinked to 28.6GB capacity. It was not possible to copy files greater than 4GB on it in Windows 7 in spite of the fact that the capacity was 28.6GB. It is better than not using it at all, that's true.

[@slamdozerkachna4584]

Finally, big THX man, you've saved many USB devices! Btw: I was always returning to Windows because of THIS! THX again :) Greeting from Slovakia

[@theguidingbeacon]

["Thank you for the help."]

[@bacabourke]

Thankyou. Very useful and very easy to understand.

[@RonaldModesitt]

Excellent video. You solved a long time problem for me.

[@JD-ot9mc]

Thank you! brought my 32gb flash drive to life :D

[@alvaromartin6301]

Thanks, saved my life!

[@ginox4884]

Fabulous tip!
Thank you for sharing this.
What an excellent way to reinstate all those little nuisance drives that went belly-up ... until now!
Best wishes,
Gino

[@mohammedhalouachi9009]

Lots of thanks for this tutorial.

[@moiserwibutso4899]

Thanks, ALU! This was so helpful.

[@erich4647]

Worked exactly as needed. Thanks!

[@zackarymckay1375]

Thanks dude helps alot, tried solo it took me forever

[@mathisblair2798]

Thank you for the tips!

[@shadovs1]

sudo wipefs --all /dev/sdb
wipefs: error: /dev/sdb: probing initialization failed: Device or resource busy can you tell me why?

[@otta4]

Make sure you do:
sudo umount /dev/sdb*
then try repeating the wipefs command.
This fixed this same error for me. (Make sure you input the correct name of YOUR drive /sdX)

[@eddiezhong7586]

Hi I dont know if you fixed this , if not, you may use
sudo umount /dev/sdX1
sudo umount /dev/sdX2
sudo umount /dev/sdX3
then all partitions of the target disk should be not mounted

[@SaifUlIslam-di5xv]

That happens when the drive or storage you are referring to is `mounted`. Go ahead and do `sudo umount /dev/sdb*`, and you should be good to go! :D

[@ayushmohite3041]

two times dash

[@intiserrahman650]

@@eddiezhong7586 thanx for the advice man...it worked fine after that

[@SuperPucker]

Excellent!!! You are the best because you explain so dummies like me can understand!

[@abrahamibizugbe477]

Thanks alot, works perfectly in November, 2022.😁

[@atps]

Thanks for the video. It's exactly what I needed. Great tutorial.

[@julianapereira8070]

Thank you so, so much! Very good and clear explanation. Good work.

[@YeasinKabirAfnan]

thanks a lot bro
it worked...love from Bangladesh

[@AverageLinuxUser]

Welcome 👍

[@ferrykurnia1955]

Thanks so much. Excellent step by step procedure. Keep up the good work

[@AverageLinuxUser]

Thank you for watching

[@skp2352]

Many many many thanks to you, for sharing such valuable information. This helps me a lot , solved my problem.

[@vardhamankalloli6125]

Thanks buddy, helped a lot!

[@JoshPedrazac]

Thank you so much!!! Excellent video!!!

[@AverageLinuxUser]

You are very welcome. Thank you for watching

[@devedee2393]

Saved my life! Thanks!

[@monasterio3320]

Thank you very much, I learned a lot.

[@mendoza6294]

Thanks saved me days

[@capedcrusader5282]

It worked! Thanks a lot bro. But I got a warning that "lower labels may not work properly in dos or windows" how to fix that?

[@svenschroder9781]

Thanks a lot. Nicely explained. Keep on the good work!

[@AverageLinuxUser]

Hi Sven. Thank for watching.

[@shubhambattoo5166]

life saver mate. great video

[@rodneycook7720]

Thanks Brother, you are a real help.

[@AmrAlserougy]

I freakin' LOVE you dude, thank you so much for this
God bless.

[@shadovs1]

you are my hero. i did it in windows couldn't do it on my new linux.thanks

[@LuisFilipeTeixeira]

Muito bom é bem completo. Thanks again

[@AverageLinuxUser]

Thank you, Luis.

[@kaswarwalaa7831]

THX man I really had a problem with that

[@ayushmohite3041]

thanks a lot !! it helped me a lot

[@fabiofilipe2]

you save me a 4GB usb drive very tkz : )

[@udoysaha9134]

thank you so much man.. you just saved my $30

[@kiitmo]

Perfect tutorial thank you!

[@CringeMax8669]

Worked! Thanks a ton man, subbed and belled!

[@khaterehazizi6877]

Great! Very helpful.

[@dodobobo3101]

I congratulate you for this video, it's the best tuto i ever followed i tried the first method once it worked , and the scend one twice it worked too and was fast i didn't tried the third becuse i didn't had another usb to format it but i'm sure it would work , thank you so much i wish you much sucsse

[@navleshcharan4340]

Thanks a lot mate...such a great help

[@cimbakahn]

Average Linux User: I am following your instructions, and i'm getting this: "probing initialization failed: Device or resource busy". This was just after i put in this command (sudo wipefs --all /dev/sdb) and typed in my password. I unmounted it and put in that command and got this: "probing initialization failed: No medium found". Help!

[@adeleke5140]

thank you sooooo much. This really helped me out

[@AverageLinuxUser]

Glad it helped!

[@asepkoharudin7515]

thank you so much brother, your video is useful for me..

[@mateusspadari5171]

Thanks so much, you're the best my brother !

[@yusufj.k4336]

Thanks mate, you just saved my life. 👍

[@anarulsk9729]

thanks man
its a very helpful video.......!

[@spartacus8214]

cool video !!! thank you so much

[@usmanahmad968]

great video I really appreciate that.

[@shivamjis]

Thanks you from India!

[@khalidsultani6006]

thank you so much it works perfectly

[@quasi_verum]

Thank a lot ALU you do really help me.

[@andrew58934]

Thanks, bro u saved my day

[@hamyog6802]

Life saver man

[@duyphantan9529]

thanks, it very helpful

[@misteraccount2862]

Thanks a lot sir it helped me

[@davishek7]

You have saved me thanks sir...😀

[@kingsway1019]

Saved my day!

[@theus_santos]

Thank you!

[@F_CGaming]

I have a bootable pen drive...which is not working in my android. Can u please tell me how to make it work as a normal pen drive. Please tell me the process of android terminal . i want to do this in android terminal.

[@mgwailwinphyo7836]

Thank you so much bro!

[@radoslavtsanev6822]

it was that easy. Thank you!

[@adityarajpurohit3794]

4:19 idk why I tried that removing partition and LOL it worked 😂😂😂 thnx for the vid LOL

[@clayjensen7864]

same : )

[@mayakhatun4400]

Helpful vdo....thank you so much

[@rysmendekadyrkulov4023]

Thank you brother!!!!!!!!!!

[@najibmansour3449]

thank u soooooo much man!!!

[@shaunaktari8473]

It works thanks 👍

[@Spiceweasel473]

great video, thank you.

[@swarpremi2361]

It worked thanku brother

[@carlcrompton8427]

excellent informative edited understandable example thanks i was struggling with this, can you do a DD tutuorial

[@AverageLinuxUser]

I have replied your previous comment. But here is more useful tips ruclips.net/video/rpGgTTFKwiU/видео.html

[@coder_369]

Thank you ALU

[@chenglalonde5154]

my usb drive became slow when transfering files
less than 1mbs
I manage to format it to fat32 by following your first method and got /dev/sdc1 in my case
note:
my other usb drive which also fat32 transfer speed is 25mbs
I wonder what happen

[@veltonangelisdsilva7766]

THANKS.THIS VIDEO REALLY WORKED FOR ME,THANK YOU SO MUCH.

[@AverageLinuxUser]

Hi Angelis, You are very welcome

[@veltonangelisdsilva7766]

@@AverageLinuxUser EVEN AFTER 2 YEARS I STILL COME BACK TO YOUR VIDOES BECAUSE THEY ARE SO MUCH EXPLANATORY. H LIKE THE GOOD WORK YOUR SHARING.... CHEERS.

[@prakashgp2911]

Thank you so much

[@mohammeda.4077]

Thanks so much.

[@drinidulaj7984]

Thank you very much

[@sza2562]

Good vid, thx

[@JohnnyOthman]

Pls more video! Good stuff!!

[@AverageLinuxUser]

More videos on the way. Thank you for watching and commenting

[@atulsharma7642]

you got your new subscriber...Thanks

[@mehmetkosem107]

Thanks a lot dude 😃😃

[@matty2269]

thanks for it since imma change my linux mint boot to ubuntu