Recovery doesn't see my flash drive!

I have a perfectly good flash drive plugged into a USB port but Recovery
doesn't list it as a possible target for making a recovery drive.

I say "perfectly good" because I can see it in Windows Explorer.

What can I do to correct this?

KenW wrote on 5/20/2017 6:33 PM:
On Sat, 20 May 2017 17:58:13 -0400, Alek
wrote:

I have a perfectly good flash drive plugged into a USB port but Recovery
doesn't list it as a possible target for making a recovery drive.

I say "perfectly good" because I can see it in Windows Explorer.

What can I do to correct this?

Check how it is formatted. Flash drives can be flaky will windows.


KenW



What should I use, FAT32?

KenW wrote:
On Sat, 20 May 2017 19:58:45 -0400, Alek
wrote:

KenW wrote on 5/20/2017 6:33 PM:
On Sat, 20 May 2017 17:58:13 -0400, Alek
wrote:

I have a perfectly good flash drive plugged into a USB port but Recovery
doesn't list it as a possible target for making a recovery drive.

I say "perfectly good" because I can see it in Windows Explorer.

What can I do to correct this?
Check how it is formatted. Flash drives can be flaky will windows.


KenW


What should I use, FAT32?

That is what I always use. Like bios updates use fat32 and other stuff
I have used.


KenW

The actual output of recoverydrive.exe is FAT32.
I have such a finished USB stick, sitting in front of me right now.

I used an 8GB stick, and a bit more than 4GB was used.
The largest file was "reconstruct.wim" at 3.66GB, within
the FAT32 largest-file-limit.

There might be some partition structure on the device
that is so screwed up, it is upsetting recoverydrive.exe .
For example, transferring a Linux LiveDVD hybrid to a USB
flash stick, leaves strange partitions. And the fake CDROM
partition in that case, mis-declares the sector size. The
stick can be difficult to clean off, too. I use "dd" and
just zap the MBR, as a quick way to erase it. If you got
yourself into this mess, you'll know how to get yourself
out again :-) That's why I'm not going into details here.

dd if=/dev/zero of=put_the_proper_identifier_here bs=512 count=1

That is the diskpart equivalent of "clean". I don't know
if diskpart can be used on a USB stick, which is where I
normally run into trouble.

If RecoveryDrive.exe was any good, it would format the thing itself.
If the USB stick partition table is a mess, the "declared size" of
2MB or so, throws things off. That's why the USB stick needs
to be cleaned up a bit, if you had some weird stuff on it.

I sometimes wish the Microsoft utilities had more output options,
so you can just output an .img and leave the physicality until
later. In my case, RecoveryDrive.exe beat the **** out of that
USB stick. It must have taken half an hour to transfer the OS,
and it was probably doing it in teeny-tiny 512 byte chunks or
something. I wasn't all that amused with the whole process,
as I don't want to ruin my only SLC stick.

Paul

Paul wrote on 5/20/2017 10:03 PM:
KenW wrote:
On Sat, 20 May 2017 19:58:45 -0400, Alek
wrote:

KenW wrote on 5/20/2017 6:33 PM:
On Sat, 20 May 2017 17:58:13 -0400, Alek
wrote:

I have a perfectly good flash drive plugged into a USB port but Recovery
doesn't list it as a possible target for making a recovery drive.

I say "perfectly good" because I can see it in Windows Explorer.

What can I do to correct this?
Check how it is formatted. Flash drives can be flaky will windows.


KenW


What should I use, FAT32?

That is what I always use. Like bios updates use fat32 and other stuff
I have used.


KenW

The actual output of recoverydrive.exe is FAT32.
I have such a finished USB stick, sitting in front of me right now.

I used an 8GB stick, and a bit more than 4GB was used.
The largest file was "reconstruct.wim" at 3.66GB, within
the FAT32 largest-file-limit.

There might be some partition structure on the device
that is so screwed up, it is upsetting recoverydrive.exe .
For example, transferring a Linux LiveDVD hybrid to a USB
flash stick, leaves strange partitions. And the fake CDROM
partition in that case, mis-declares the sector size. The
stick can be difficult to clean off, too. I use "dd" and
just zap the MBR, as a quick way to erase it. If you got
yourself into this mess, you'll know how to get yourself
out again :-) That's why I'm not going into details here.

dd if=/dev/zero of=put_the_proper_identifier_here bs=512 count=1

That is the diskpart equivalent of "clean". I don't know
if diskpart can be used on a USB stick, which is where I
normally run into trouble.

If RecoveryDrive.exe was any good, it would format the thing itself.
If the USB stick partition table is a mess, the "declared size" of
2MB or so, throws things off. That's why the USB stick needs
to be cleaned up a bit, if you had some weird stuff on it.

I sometimes wish the Microsoft utilities had more output options,
so you can just output an .img and leave the physicality until
later. In my case, RecoveryDrive.exe beat the **** out of that
USB stick. It must have taken half an hour to transfer the OS,
and it was probably doing it in teeny-tiny 512 byte chunks or
something. I wasn't all that amused with the whole process,
as I don't want to ruin my only SLC stick.

Paul


Success! I used a 16GB drive. The result was 8.28GB in FAT32 format.

Alek wrote:
Paul wrote on 5/20/2017 10:03 PM:
KenW wrote:
On Sat, 20 May 2017 19:58:45 -0400, Alek
wrote:

KenW wrote on 5/20/2017 6:33 PM:
On Sat, 20 May 2017 17:58:13 -0400, Alek
wrote:

I have a perfectly good flash drive plugged into a USB port but Recovery
doesn't list it as a possible target for making a recovery drive.

I say "perfectly good" because I can see it in Windows Explorer.

What can I do to correct this?
Check how it is formatted. Flash drives can be flaky will windows.


KenW

What should I use, FAT32?
That is what I always use. Like bios updates use fat32 and other stuff
I have used.


KenW
The actual output of recoverydrive.exe is FAT32.
I have such a finished USB stick, sitting in front of me right now.

I used an 8GB stick, and a bit more than 4GB was used.
The largest file was "reconstruct.wim" at 3.66GB, within
the FAT32 largest-file-limit.

There might be some partition structure on the device
that is so screwed up, it is upsetting recoverydrive.exe .
For example, transferring a Linux LiveDVD hybrid to a USB
flash stick, leaves strange partitions. And the fake CDROM
partition in that case, mis-declares the sector size. The
stick can be difficult to clean off, too. I use "dd" and
just zap the MBR, as a quick way to erase it. If you got
yourself into this mess, you'll know how to get yourself
out again :-) That's why I'm not going into details here.

dd if=/dev/zero of=put_the_proper_identifier_here bs=512 count=1

That is the diskpart equivalent of "clean". I don't know
if diskpart can be used on a USB stick, which is where I
normally run into trouble.

If RecoveryDrive.exe was any good, it would format the thing itself.
If the USB stick partition table is a mess, the "declared size" of
2MB or so, throws things off. That's why the USB stick needs
to be cleaned up a bit, if you had some weird stuff on it.

I sometimes wish the Microsoft utilities had more output options,
so you can just output an .img and leave the physicality until
later. In my case, RecoveryDrive.exe beat the **** out of that
USB stick. It must have taken half an hour to transfer the OS,
and it was probably doing it in teeny-tiny 512 byte chunks or
something. I wasn't all that amused with the whole process,
as I don't want to ruin my only SLC stick.

Paul


Success! I used a 16GB drive. The result was 8.28GB in FAT32 format.

What I tested on, didn't have a lot of stuff installed.

The reason I made mine, is I wanted a WIM to feed DISM for another
little project, and that project sorted itself out before I could
use it.

Maybe you selected an option when making yours, that
included more user-related data ? I made mine just for
the system files.

Paul

On Sat, 20 May 2017 16:33:33 -0600, KenW wrote:

On Sat, 20 May 2017 17:58:13 -0400, Alek
wrote:

I have a perfectly good flash drive plugged into a USB port but Recovery
doesn't list it as a possible target for making a recovery drive.

I say "perfectly good" because I can see it in Windows Explorer.

What can I do to correct this?

Check how it is formatted. Flash drives can be flaky will windows.

People always say this but I have used flash drives extensively over
the years, including as backups*, and only once I think ever
experienced a problem. Are they not more reliable than hard drives as
they have no moving parts?

* That said, I usually keep two on the go just in case.

Scott wrote:
On Sat, 20 May 2017 16:33:33 -0600, KenW wrote:

On Sat, 20 May 2017 17:58:13 -0400, Alek
wrote:

I have a perfectly good flash drive plugged into a USB port but Recovery
doesn't list it as a possible target for making a recovery drive.

I say "perfectly good" because I can see it in Windows Explorer.

What can I do to correct this?
Check how it is formatted. Flash drives can be flaky will windows.

People always say this but I have used flash drives extensively over
the years, including as backups*, and only once I think ever
experienced a problem. Are they not more reliable than hard drives as
they have no moving parts?

* That said, I usually keep two on the go just in case.

I've got a couple dead ones in front of me.
Would you like them ? :-(

The TLC flash ones will last less long than the
SLC ones. I have an SLC one here that's a champ.

This means there is a lot of variation in lifespan.

Don't be fooled by what you see. That next stick from
Walmart could die in a year on you.

With the current shortage of Flash, there may be
a temptation to put more "floor sweepings" quality
chips, into a USB Flash. Lots of factors come into play.

Paul

Paul wrote on 5/21/2017 1:48 AM:
Alek wrote:
Paul wrote on 5/20/2017 10:03 PM:
KenW wrote:
On Sat, 20 May 2017 19:58:45 -0400, Alek
wrote:

KenW wrote on 5/20/2017 6:33 PM:
On Sat, 20 May 2017 17:58:13 -0400, Alek
wrote:

I have a perfectly good flash drive plugged into a USB port but Recovery
doesn't list it as a possible target for making a recovery drive.

I say "perfectly good" because I can see it in Windows Explorer.

What can I do to correct this?
Check how it is formatted. Flash drives can be flaky will windows.


KenW

What should I use, FAT32?
That is what I always use. Like bios updates use fat32 and other stuff
I have used.


KenW
The actual output of recoverydrive.exe is FAT32.
I have such a finished USB stick, sitting in front of me right now.

I used an 8GB stick, and a bit more than 4GB was used.
The largest file was "reconstruct.wim" at 3.66GB, within
the FAT32 largest-file-limit.

There might be some partition structure on the device
that is so screwed up, it is upsetting recoverydrive.exe .
For example, transferring a Linux LiveDVD hybrid to a USB
flash stick, leaves strange partitions. And the fake CDROM
partition in that case, mis-declares the sector size. The
stick can be difficult to clean off, too. I use "dd" and
just zap the MBR, as a quick way to erase it. If you got
yourself into this mess, you'll know how to get yourself
out again :-) That's why I'm not going into details here.

dd if=/dev/zero of=put_the_proper_identifier_here bs=512 count=1

That is the diskpart equivalent of "clean". I don't know
if diskpart can be used on a USB stick, which is where I
normally run into trouble.

If RecoveryDrive.exe was any good, it would format the thing itself.
If the USB stick partition table is a mess, the "declared size" of
2MB or so, throws things off. That's why the USB stick needs
to be cleaned up a bit, if you had some weird stuff on it.

I sometimes wish the Microsoft utilities had more output options,
so you can just output an .img and leave the physicality until
later. In my case, RecoveryDrive.exe beat the **** out of that
USB stick. It must have taken half an hour to transfer the OS,
and it was probably doing it in teeny-tiny 512 byte chunks or
something. I wasn't all that amused with the whole process,
as I don't want to ruin my only SLC stick.

Paul


Success! I used a 16GB drive. The result was 8.28GB in FAT32 format.

What I tested on, didn't have a lot of stuff installed.

The reason I made mine, is I wanted a WIM to feed DISM for another
little project, and that project sorted itself out before I could
use it.

Maybe you selected an option when making yours, that
included more user-related data ? I made mine just for
the system files.

Paul


The only option I saw was whether or not to include system files.

....
I've got a couple dead ones in front of me.
Would you like them ? :-(

The TLC flash ones will last less long than the
SLC ones. I have an SLC one here that's a champ.

This means there is a lot of variation in lifespan.

Don't be fooled by what you see. That next stick from
Walmart could die in a year on you.

With the current shortage of Flash, there may be
a temptation to put more "floor sweepings" quality
chips, into a USB Flash. Lots of factors come into play.

I noticed various brands, models, and sizes had various life ranges. I
had a SP and PNY 64 GB USB flash drive that died in a year. A SanDisk 1
GB drive died. I have had very old tiny generic brand 64 MB and 128 MB
still work today!
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