I have an 8 gig ,kingston usb stick that I am unable to delete contents or format.It contains approx 4 gig of game of thrones vids .When trying to perform quick or extended format ,windows says its unable to complete format.Ive used disk part command line to check for any read only /write protection.It reports it as clean with no protection.I can delete/move the contents of the usb stick and look at computer>kingston and the drive shows as empty with 7.20 gig free space.I can click on the kingston usb folder and windows shows nothing in it.However on removing the usb stick and reinserting ,the contents are there again?.Ive tried various 3rd party programmers like low level usb format,gparted in linux ,and disk management in windows but no matter what ive tried ,like deleting ,partitioning,(which all seem to be successful with no errors )as soon as i reinsert the usb ,the contents are there again.Ive performed chkdisk,error checking ,bad sector etc on the usb and surface scan and results say there's nothing wrong with the usb stick and that its working fine.Anyone have any experience with this? Forgot to mention ,I ve also virus scanned the usb which comes back as clean. thanks
Hi Stapp... The recycle bin is on my laptop (windows 7) and works fine.There isn't a recycle bin on the usb stick only a games of throne folder with 11 files inside 1 txt file.2 avi files and 8 mp4 files.When I select to delete the files it says that it will permanently delete the files so doesn't go to my laptop recycle bin.The laptop shows it as deleted but when the usb is reinserted ,its not.
IObit Unlocker is worth a try -- use the "Unlock and Delete" Option. Always has worked well for me: https://www.iobit.com/en/iobit-unlocker.php
Another "Hail Mary" Zero-out the USB Drive You can try a free trial of O&O Safe Erase: https://www.oo-software.com/en/safeerase-hard-drive-data-secure-deletion
Hi Hawki... Im not sure whether those tools will fix the problem ,as Ive already used that sort of deletion technique with Privazor donors version.Again like the other tools Ive tried,they all say completed successfully and the usb drive (in pic 2) is empty,but upon insertion nothing has changed.I will try those tools you mention later though ,as ive nothing to lose.Im starting to think that the usb needs reflashing, as I cant copy anything to it.Its almost as if its read/write protected but disk part command line says its not.
Do you have ''Hide protected operating system files'' ticked in folder options? If yes, untick it and then look at your usb drive as only when 'Hide protected...etc' is unticked will you be able to see if it has a recycle bin. If it does, just follow instruction here for Win 7 and substitute your usb drive letter as shown in the example. https://www.vistax64.com/threads/recycle-bin-corrupted-cannot-delete-file-or-folder.131294/
Hi Stapp.. Ive unticked and checked the usb and it doesn't have a recycle bin only 11 games of thrones files .I can copy the files ok from the usb stick but cant copy to it or delete,format or generally do anything else with it. I used gparted again earlier in linux to delete the partition ,and according to the log it was successful.However after removing the usb and plugging in again ,nothing has altered.Its most confusing ............................................................................................. GParted 0.25.0 --enable-libparted-dmraid --enable-online-resize Libparted 3.2 Delete /dev/sdg1 (fat32, 7.21 GiB) from /dev/sdg 00:00:01 ( SUCCESS ) calibrate /dev/sdg1 00:00:00 ( SUCCESS ) path: /dev/sdg1 (partition) start: 63 end: 15130079 size: 15130017 (7.21 GiB) delete partition 00:00:01 ( SUCCESS ) ========================================
Use Check Flash 1.17.0 http://www.mikelab.kiev.ua/index_en.php?page=PROGRAMS/chkflsh_en Run as admin and select the following options: Access type = As a physical device (NT-based systems only) Action type = Full erase Test lenght = 1 full pass The first run will fail if you have not removed the drive letter of the partition. If you see the first block red (= error) stop the test unplug the usb and then replug it (windows will ask to format the drive but you should not perform a format). Then run the test a second time with the previous settings. When completed unplug/replug the usb and run a second test: Access type = As a physical device (NT-based systems only) Action type = write and read test -> verify pattern -> pattern = FF Test lenght = 1 full pass If it finishes without errors the drive is ok. If not it means that it is a problematic one and you should replace it.
Hi.. Ive downloaded and followed instructions,but im just getting red blocks (errors)right through the test.You mentioned that the test will not run if there's a drive letter.Im not sure how to remove the drive letter? EDIT Ive removed drive letter ,(z) but the tool now cannot detect the usb stick to perform any tests.Also plugging unplugging the usb doesn't prompt windows to ask for any formatting. Thanks
You need to exit the program and re-run it again. There is no need to manually remove the drive letter. On the first run the program will delete the partition table but it will report red blocks... it happens with windows 7 and 10 (the OS seems to remember the partition table and does not update/report the current deleted status of the drive). Stop the program and close it. Then unplug and after 5-6 seconds replug the usb flash drive (you do not have to use windows safe remove for this) After you plug-in the drive again (windows should ask to reformat but you should ignore it), re-run the program and use the same settings. On a drive with good physical surface state, the previous red dots should be reported now as purple on the second run. If they are still reported as red then those cells have become write protected (either problematic drive or you have written on them thousands of times and reached their life write limit = they cannot be modified/written anymore). Panagiotis
I had a kingston data traveller some years ago. It came with their own encryption already set up and it was difficult to remove. I found a utility on the Kingston website that formatted it.
@ellison64 Also give a try with kingston format utility https://www.kingston.com/us/support/technical/downloads/111247 It works with many kingston flash drives and is the only tool that succesfully formated my kingston datatraveler micro.
It's likely the FAT meta data table is corrupt. Under Windows cmd with admin privilege, type: diskpart list disk select disk x (x is the drive letter of your kingston disk) clean create partition primary format fs=ntfs quick assign Then eject your usb stick and reinsert it. Check the used space again. Most likely the ghost content should be gone.