Should list the drive in a way, so that you can identify it. The drive must also be recognized as a mass storage device for example by the command line tool lsblk. You get more details with the verbose option lsusb -v The drive cannot be found: In order to use the tools for repair and partitioning, that are available to normal users like you and me, the drive must be recognized by the computer's system and listed for example by the command line tool lsusb or lspci. There is a limit, when you have to accept that the pendrive is damaged beyond repair, at least with tools available to normal users like you and me. If you still cannot wipe the first megabyte of the drive, and the drive is read-only, it is probably 'gridlocked', and the next stage is that it will be completely 'bricked'.Try another operating system (Windows, MacOS) in another computer.Try other USB ports, and/or other card adapters.Sometimes USB devices can disturb the function for each other. Reboot the computer and try again to restore or wipe the first megabyte with mkusb.You might have set it read-only without intention. On some pendrives and on many memory cards there is a small mechanical switch for write protection, that can toggle between read/write and read-only.This might be caused by some help system or competing system, so it is worthwhile to try according to this list, The drive is read-only: I do not mean that there is a read-only file system, but that the drive is readable but not writable (like a CDROM or DVD). It is usually enough to wipe the first megabyte, the megabyte at the head end of the drive. In this case you can simply 'wipe' part of the drive (overwrite with zeros). The term 'drive' can refer to a USB pendrive as well as a memory card (and the memory card can be connected via a USB adapter or a built-in slot in the computer).Ĭonfusion: There is some data in the drive, that makes the partitioning tool confused, to think that the drive does not work. Memory cards and USB pendrives have the same kind of hardware inside, so the same methods are relevant to both kinds of devices.