Re: Repair bootable USB stick

["Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net>]

Hi,

(please Cc: debian-user@lists.debian.org when replying

Jon Magee wrote:
> I ran dd as you suggested, unplugged/replugged the USB, and
> started KDE partition manager. It saw it as an 'unknown device (0 B)'. I
> tried to create a new partition table and got this error:
> Create a new partition table (type: gpt) on ‘/dev/sdc’
> Job: Create new partition table on device ‘/dev/sdc’
> Creating partition table failed: Could not create a new partition table in
> the backend for device ‘/dev/sdc’.
> Create new partition table on device ‘/dev/sdc’: Error
> Create a new partition table (type: gpt) on ‘/dev/sdc’: Error

("Error" is about the most useless problem specification that i can imagine.)

What do you get from inspecting the first two blocks of the device ?
Please show the outputs of

  dd if=/dev/sdc bs=512 count=2 | od -t x1

and

  /sbin/fdisk -l /dev/sdc


> To follow-up, the previous error was when I made a GPT partition table. An
> MS-DOS table succeeded, but the device still showed as 0 B, with "No valid
> partition table found on this device." (KDE partition manager) In Disks, it
> still shows the old partitions but I can't do anything to them, format or
> otherwise.

This partitioning has probably overwritten the state after the zeroizing
dd run.  Nevertheless, the new state is of interest too.


> In Disks, it
> still shows the old partitions but I can't do anything to them, format or
> otherwise.

We will have to reduce complexity of this problem by avoiding frontend
programs which try to be smart.


Have a nice day :)

Thomas