Can not format USB sticks

General system Newbie
#1

Ok this just started recently not sure what’s going on. Please help!!
I get the following when trying with WoeUSB or with Gnome DISKS
I’ve tried two different Thumb drives, and 2 different USB ports

Screenshot_20200914_151921
Screenshot_20200914_1519211228×655 188 KB

#2

It seems it is related to the latest kernel update:

Seemingly it will be fixed with the next one.

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#3

Thank you for the quick response!! Ok guess I just have to be patient

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#4

:+1:t2:

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#5

Perhaps switching to LTS could be an option for the moment when it comes to this libparted issue.

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#6

here’s a terminal command for at least restoring your flash drive to factory default Then if you have Disk(gnome-disk) installed you can format it with that, or someone can post the appropriate terminal command for you.

sudo shred -s $((2048*512)) -vzn0 /dev/sdf

Replace sdf with the appropriate device
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#7

Perhaps you’re able to format it in a terminal?

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#8

Some time ago I created a utility script to format USB sticks using exfat. The script basically uses gdisk and can easily be amended to Linux and ext4

exfat

USB=/dev/sdy
printf 'o\ny\nn\n\n\n\n0700\nw\ny\n' | sudo gdisk "$USB" && sudo mkexfatfs "$USB"1

ext4

USB=/dev/sdy
printf 'o\ny\nn\n\n\n\n8200\nw\ny\n' | sudo gdisk "$USB" && sudo mkfs.ext4 "$USB"1
Complete script 
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# format USB device to exfat

# ensure a device is given
if [[ -z "$1" ]]; then
    echo "No device specified ..."
    echo "Usage: format-usb.sh /dev/sdy"
    exit
fi

# get the last part of device path
device="$(echo $1 | cut -d'/' -f3)"
echo "Checking device on => $device"

# create list of available devices
devices="$(lsblk -o NAME | egrep '^sd')"

# check if device is valid - abort if not
if ! [[ $devices =~ (^|[[:space:]])$device($|[[:space:]]) ]]; then
    echo "$1 not found"
    echo "Aborting"
    exit 1
fi

# check if device is removable - abort if not
[[ $(echo $(lsblk -no RM "$1" | head -n 1)) = '0' ]] && \
    echo "Non removable device detected!" && \
    echo "Aborting" && \
    exit 1

# Ask for confirmation
read -r -p "Confirm reformat of '$1' [y/N] " resp
if [[ "$resp" =~ ^([yY][eE][sS]|[yY])$ ]]; then

    # Repeat confirmation question
    read -r -p "Irrevocably format  '$1' [y/N] " resp2
    if [[ "$resp2" =~ ^([yY][eE][sS]|[yY])$ ]]; then

        # will do
        echo "Formatting $1 ..."

        # use gdisk to create new partition table
        # and a single Microsoft basic data partition type
        printf 'o\ny\nn\n\n\n\n0700\nw\ny\n' | \
            sudo gdisk "$1" && \
            sudo mkexfatfs "$1"1

        # done
        echo "Done"
        exit
    fi
    echo "Formatting aborted"
else
    echo "Formatting aborted"
fi
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