USB flash drive stuck in RO after DDing ISO

Question

After I used dd to make a USB drive from an Ubuntu ISO, I am unable to format it for normal use.

I ran:

sudo dd if="ubuntu-16.04-desktop-amd64.iso" of="/dev/sdb" bs=4M

In order to create a bootable USB drive.

However, after I was done with it, I wanted to format it as FAT32 and use it like a normal USB drive.

No problem, should be easy, right? WRONG.

I have tried:

• Using the included Disks application to format it. It threw an error about corrupt GPT tables and wouldn't give me an override option.
• Using Gparted the erase the current partition table and write a new MBR table [completed successfully]
• After that I created a FAT32 partition spanning the entire volume, and remounted. [Showed up in Files, good so far]
• Attempted to copy a file to it. It thre an error saying the medium was read-only.
• Erased the partition table again in Gparted and this time created an NTFS partition spanning the entire disk. [Same RO error when attempting to copy a file onto it]
• Repeated the procedure trying this time with EXT4 [Same RO error]
• Repeated procedure trying a GTP table instead of an MBR table. {Same error]

Finally, I tried running:

sudo hdparm -r0 /dev/sdb

And remounted. Still the same error. Keep in mind that I remounted it after formatting it each time.

I am at a total loss. Has dd bricked my USB drive?

Answer 1

I can't really be sure which of the things I did fixed it, but it turns out that something must not have been synced.

Simply rebooting the computer fixed the issue. However I did try plugging it into a different Ubuntu system and it didn't work there either. So it was definitely something I did that fixed it.

---

For anyone else facing this issue, I would recommend running these commands to make sure it is usable again:

sudo dd if="/dev/zero" of="/dev/sdX" bs=1M count=10 #Replace "X" with your USB's letter
sudo reboot

Answer 2

using fdisk can be good solution(Be careful not to use wrong drive)

Find your device/disk name:

$ lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sdb      8:16   1  15.2G  0 disk 
├─sdb1   8:17   1   564M  0 part /media/user/pendrive
└─sdb2   8:18   1    31M  0 part 

unmount all of mounted partition
then you wand to select whole partition so /dev/sdb

$ sudo umount /dev/sdb1

then use fdisk to create a partition and format to specific filesystem
Be careful here in selecting disk

$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdb

then you can use m for help
create a partition table we use DOS partition so o then you can print partition table with p

Command (m for help):o

Created a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0xd745b93f.

Command (m for help):p
Disk /dev/sdb1: 564 MiB, 591396864 bytes, 1155072 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
Disklabel type: dos 
Disk identifier: 0xd745b93f

then create new partition using n
you can hit enter for default choice of one primary partion or choose according to given option

Command (m for help):n
Partition type
   p   primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
   e   extended (container for logical partitions)
Select (default p): 

Using default response p.
Partition number (1-4, default 1): 
First sector (2048-1155071, default 2048): 
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-1155071, default 1155071): 

Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux' and of size 563 MiB.

here your default partition is Linux you can change by typing t and select c for FAT32

Command (m for help): t
Selected partition 1
Partition type (type L to list all types):c
Changed type of partition 'Linux' to 'W95 FAT32 (LBA)'.

or you can use L to list all the type and select your choice
Then finally you can conform format and quit using wq

Command (m for help): wq
The partition table has been altered.
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

Now you can remove unplug and plug again
You can see new drive try writing by making folder & file
Now it must work.