Rufus nor any other software can fix my 16GB usb drive after using RUFUS

Question

I wanted to make a bootable USB drive using Rufus. I opened the program went with all the default options and I clicked start BUT what I forgot to do is to select an iso because I thought it would just make the disk bootable without selecting anything. Unfortunately it did not. It gave me an error. I do not remember it because this was about 6 months ago after I gave up in fixing it. Anyway I tried to reformat it again using diskpart and it fails. With Rufus it says "ERROR while partitioning drive" and I think that was the initial error as well. Also during the struggle I got messages from windows saying that the disk is write protected and NO, there is no switch for that on the USB pendrive.

More info:
Transcend 16 GB
Rufus 1.4.9,
Frustrated student :/

Solution

I got messages from windows saying that the disk is write protected and NO, there is no switch for that on the USB pendrive

A very common indicator that the flash memory on your USB drive became defective, and that the USB controller switched to read-only mode to give you a chance to read your data, if possible. Flash memory is not everlasting and will fail as you use it, eventually. This can happen while using Rufus or while simply copying files using Windows Explorer.

If you still have concerns that it was Rufus that damaged your flash, please see this.

Comments

[IskandarG]

Thenks for the reponse but I am not familiar with fdisk. Googling what it is right now!

[IskandarG]

I am using windows... What I have seen is that its only available in linux ? Should I go with process using vmware to install linux ? and go from there ? or any other suggestions before proceding.

[Paul]

No, sorry, I missed the OS. Can you add the result of a list partition in diskpart once you have selected the usb?

[IskandarG]

Done...but I made a link because I can't post images as of yet.

[ganesh]

Inlined the image. Nice trick to learn is cut and pasting it without image: Right click in the cmd shell, select mark. Use the mouse to mark all relevant text. Then copy. If markup gets in the way then prefix with four spaces or encapsulate in <pre> and </pre>.

[IskandarG]

Cool thsnks...so nobody knows how to fix this :( Goodbye memstick...

[GeekyDaddy]

I have had the same problem and tried this before. How to delete a partition on a USB drive?

[barlop]

@IskandarG can you quote and at least mention a name, when you write a comment. 'cos otherwise people can delete comments and comment threads no longer make sense. Who mentioned fdisk to you?

[Akeo]

Rufus gets downloaded about 2 million times a month. If it broke flash drives, it would be exceedingly obvious. Please inform yourself about what formatting and repartitioning a drive really boils down to if you still need to be convinced that it is simply not possible for an application like Rufus to damage hardware.

[IskandarG]

I hope you know what I mean by 'broke'? it is a figure of speech. When this happens to consumers they will think its broken and throw it away because it does not work anymore which is the same as broken but technically it is not. My flash drive is still working by the way. Your right and I am right but the consumers will unfortunately, in most cases, will not think so.

[Overmind]

Agreed with Akeo. Theres way more probable that actually windows or something in it broke it, not Rufus itself.