Memory stick... cannot wipe it

[HundertzehnGustav]

i have a 4 gigabyte memory stick, wich i cannot format.

the reason i wish to format is that i have had trouble with the thing last summer.
i used it to transfer files from the internet cafe to my home PC because i had no internet connection.

At one point i have had trouble opening the stick - appearently a virus had snuck in and was running itself everytime i plugged it in to a USB port.

:kilroy:??

huge mess, with popup Windows all over the place, anti porno and prostitution messages in slovakian and such things...

a few days i had everything cleared by Norton antivirus... things be running fine ever since.

i was also able to access the stick and get hold of the files that i wanted to get off it.

I was able to delete said files from the stick.

Still, every time i plug that said stick in, Vista asks me if i want to repair the stick... wich leads to nothing.

I then tried to format the thing, via the Vista menues and via the cmd.exe prompt.
None works.

Is that the Virus files still being on the stick? any way to save that stick, or should i trash it for safety reasons?

:help:?

:wave::ernae:

[Silver Fox]

Given the cost of a 4GB stick these days... what was the questions again? You were asking how to properly dispose of a coffee stir stick? :)

Seriously... unless there is something irreplaceable on it... toss it.

[HundertzehnGustav]

yea but still... 4 gigs is almost a DVD!
andits cost me a lot.... had it for two years and paid 30 bucks for it.
its clean, has survived my washing machine multiple times and is older than most of my hardware, PC, monitor and all that included.

You know what? im gonna recicle it. Put it in a frame or something.

and buy a 16 or 32Gigs one...:mixedsmi:

[GT182]

I was gonna say trash it yesterday but held back. Unless you can do a virus scan on the stick, it's pretty much scrap. Like Slver fox said, memory sticks are a lot cheaper these days. And will last longer than a tank of gas. ;)

[Moparmike]

110G,

Another thing you might be able to do to salvage that flash drive is to download a Linux-based "Live CD" and use it's drive management tools to repartition and reformat your flash drive.
Basically you boot your computer with the LiveCD in the CD/DVD drive (or even on another flash drive) and it'll load up it's own operating system complete with a good set of utilities.

SystemRescueCD is one that I carry around, but there are others out there too if you do a little Googling.
http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page
You can find the same tools in any of the Linux LiveCD distros such as Knoppix or Ubuntu but if you want just the basic tools then a "lite" version like SystemRescueCD is a lot smaller of a package.


It will be easiest to just delete the partition on the flashdrive, create a new partition, then format.

Good Luck!

[HundertzehnGustav]

Thank you for that tip, mike! i will give it a shot, and if it works, spead the word.
:ernae: