Windows 10: Prompt to format USB disc

Hi,

Windows 10 Pro with all the updates up to November 15, prompts to format my WD Passport Ultra 1TB which is full of valuable data.



In Disk Management the USB drive was NTFS and now is RAW

I’ve always ejected it properly!

I’ve tried the following

1. changed drive letter

2. changed the cable

3. tried it on another PC

4. Checked for new drivers in Devices and Printers. All is latest.

5. Checked for new drivers in WD SES Device, in Device Manager

6. tried it on my Linux NAS. The message I get “Disk It is not initialized”. This was not true before in my NAS.

7. I’ve tried WD Drive Utilities and passed all tests

8. I’ve uninstalled several Universal Bus Controllers, in Device Manager

9. Followed other urban myths…

NOTHING WORKED

All those actions above were made, one step at a time.



I still cannot access my valuable data.



NOTE: Same thing happened few days back with a USB stick and I did format it, but still prompts to format… but I don’t care for that flash drive. I CARE FOR MY 1TB USB DRIVE

:)

 

Installation media boots to command prompt

I've just booted from known working install media to see exactly what it does when booting. The sequence of events is...

1. Windows logo on a black screen
2. circling dots appear beneath the logo
3. light blue 'Please wait' screen with circling dots
4. a command prompt window (very briefly)
5. the initial Setup page appears

Do you see steps 1-3? If so, it appears you have stopped at step 4, suggesting that something on the disc cannot be read.

Does the disc boot properly in another machine? If so, try cleaning the laptop's drive lens then try booting from the disc again.

If not, make new install media with Microsoft's Media Creation Tool, either as a bootable USB, on an ISO that you can burn to another disc. At Step 8 in Option One of this tutorial you can choose between making a USB or an ISO.

Download Windows 10 ISO File

 

How To Format A Write Protected Flash Memory ?

¿You already tried this one?...

Run CMD


1. diskpart
2. list disk

Then in the 3º step, put the correct number of disk in the list for the usb flash (if it's listed in disk 3, then you'll have to write select disk 3).

2. select disk #
3. clean
4. create partition primary
5. select partition 1
6. active
7. format fs=fat32
8. assign
9. exit

with that commands you will format the flash drive in fat32, if you have a large drive you can select also "format fs=ntfs" in step 7.

good luck!

 

Installing windows off of a USB stick

Step By Step from vista:
From admin cmd prompt

1. diskpart
1a. list disk
2. select disk 1 (replace 1 with your usb drive)
3. clean
4. create partition primary
5. select partition 1 (replace 1 with your usb drive)
6. active
7. format fs=fat32
8. assign
9. exit

Copy Windows Vista's DVD ROM content to the Flash Drive

xcopy d:\*.* /s/e/f e:\ (d being your vista cd and e being your usb stick)

And that's it, boot off your usb disk