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I was trying to install FreeBSD-Current using install image memstick provided in the site into a 7.2G flash drive. But it will not boot, and it is not detected by thunar. So i am trying to reuse the drive, but sadly i can't reformat it into a working drive, i tried to detect it using fdisk -l, and it detected as 1.5G sized /dev/loop0. And GParted can't format /dev/loop.

My Goal is to make the storage drive usable as USB-stick, or make the drive bootable .

How to do that? I am on live MX-Linux.

EDIT :

# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/loop0: 1.5 GiB, 1647960064 bytes, 3218672 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
…

omitted dev/sda and dev/sdb, one is the live distro I am using, one is my hard-disk.

$ lsblk -S
NAME HCTL       TYPE VENDOR   MODEL            REV TRAN
sda  0:0:0:0    disk ATA      M4-CT128M4SSD2  0309 sata
sdb  6:0:0:0    disk Kingston DataTraveler_G3 PMAP usb
…

dmesg looped this after detecting /dev/sda and /dev/sdb

# dmesg
[ 2703.639467]  sdc:
[ 2703.641156] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk
[ 2709.663891]  sdc:
[ 2724.176641]  sdc:
[ 2772.664139] raid6: sse2x4   gen() 11666 MB/s
[ 2772.681137] raid6: sse2x4   xor()  6000 MB/s
[ 2772.698138] raid6: sse2x2   gen() 11677 MB/s
[ 2772.715139] raid6: sse2x2   xor()  6635 MB/s
[ 2772.732140] raid6: sse2x1   gen()  9804 MB/s
[ 2772.749140] raid6: sse2x1   xor()  5680 MB/s
[ 2772.749141] raid6: using algorithm sse2x2 gen() 11677 MB/s
[ 2772.749142] raid6: .... xor() 6635 MB/s, rmw enabled
[ 2772.749144] raid6: using ssse3x2 recovery algorithm
[ 2772.761264] xor: automatically using best checksumming function   avx       
[ 2772.877620] Btrfs loaded, crc32c=crc32c-intel
[ 2773.057855] JFS: nTxBlock = 8192, nTxLock = 65536
[ 2773.206621] SGI XFS with ACLs, security attributes, realtime, quota, no debug enabled
[ 2775.092781]  sdc:
[ 2847.105454] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Synchronizing SCSI cache
[ 2847.124910] usb 3-2: USB disconnect, device number 5
[ 2905.979235] usb 3-2: new high-speed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
[ 2906.108102] usb 3-2: New USB device found, idVendor=0930, idProduct=6544, bcdDevice= 1.00
[ 2906.108108] usb 3-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 2906.108110] usb 3-2: Product: TransMemory     
[ 2906.108113] usb 3-2: Manufacturer: TOSHIBA 
[ 2906.108115] usb 3-2: SerialNumber: 9C3C21577780CF1042227B9E
[ 2906.109122] usb-storage 3-2:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 2906.109764] scsi host7: usb-storage 3-2:1.0
[ 2908.859893] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access     GENERIC  USB Mass Storage 1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4 CCS
[ 2908.860770] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[ 2908.862833] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Read Capacity(10) failed: Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
…
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  • Is that the only storage device that it detects?
    – ctrl-alt-delor
    Jan 30, 2021 at 9:48
  • /dev/loop0 is probably part of the infrastructure of the Live-MX-Linux. The outputs of lsusb, lsblk and lsblk -S would probably be more useful than fdisk -l output.
    – telcoM
    Jan 30, 2021 at 10:10
  • you say that one is your hard-dask, and one the live OS. As I get back to the start. What is is that you are trying to create a file-system on?
    – ctrl-alt-delor
    Jan 30, 2021 at 10:12
  • you see , i was trying to make a bootable installer of FreeBSD current by their memstickl.img , and i followed the handbook and use dd on my 7.2G flash drive . Usually it returns as a mountable drive on thunar , but it won't mount and it can't boot into FreeBSD installer . And after forcing bios to boot into the drive , it returns nothing just blank shell prompt that is unresponsive . So i figured i want to to reuse the drive back by formatting it and i can't do it . If i somehow wrong in the process i want to track where did i go wrong .
    – 2109cing
    Jan 30, 2021 at 10:40
  • @telcoM it wont show anything but /dev/sda and /dev/sdb which is my hard drive and my live disk
    – 2109cing
    Jan 30, 2021 at 10:46

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1 
[ 2905.979235] usb 3-2: new high-speed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
[ 2906.108102] usb 3-2: New USB device found, idVendor=0930, idProduct=6544, bcdDevice= 1.00
[ 2906.108108] usb 3-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 2906.108110] usb 3-2: Product: TransMemory     
[ 2906.108113] usb 3-2: Manufacturer: TOSHIBA 
[ 2906.108115] usb 3-2: SerialNumber: 9C3C21577780CF1042227B9E
[ 2906.109122] usb-storage 3-2:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 2906.109764] scsi host7: usb-storage 3-2:1.0
[ 2908.859893] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access     GENERIC  USB Mass Storage 1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4 CCS
[ 2908.860770] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[ 2908.862833] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Read Capacity(10) failed: Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE

The kernel is trying to present the flash drive as /dev/sdc, but as it's trying to read the size of the drive, the drive reports a failure.

Conclusion: it's dead.

Granted, if you are willing to dig deep into esoteric USB storage information, there is a Russian Windows software called ChipGenius which can identify USB flash drive controller chips. If the problem is that the controller chip has lost its firmware, and you can find the right firmware for the controller chip and the installation utility for it (most likely Windows software), then you maybe might be able to resurrect it.

But new 16G flash drives can be had by $5 each (or even less if you buy a 10-pack at once); is it really worth the trouble for you?

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  • well , my purpose was to learn . There's nothing wrong with the memstick.img file as the sha256&512 returned correctly . I was kinda afraid that this happen to the brand new stick , i was correct to use a sacrificial stick . I just want to see how to fix this problem if this happened in the real stick . And my fear is proven correct . So yeah not worth using dd an *.img into a flash drive , better stick to *.iso .
    – 2109cing
    Jan 30, 2021 at 11:46

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