Possible USB pendrive hardware corruption

Question

I have a USB pendrive, with 8 GB storage, and recently I tried to open (mount) it and wasn't able to ("bad superblock" error message). I tried to format it directly using dd and fdisk but no success. Here's what I tried:

• Mount the partitions (same error message for all 3 partitions)

# mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/pendrive

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb1,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error

       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail or so.

• Listed the partitions

# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sdb: 7.8 GiB, 8394899456 bytes, 16396288 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xc3072e18

Device     Boot   Start     End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1          2048 2099199 2097152   1G  b W95 FAT32
/dev/sdb2       2099200 4196351 2097152   1G 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3       4196352 6293503 2097152   1G 83 Linux

• Wrote zeroes to the device

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb

• Tried to open it with fdisk (to setup the new partitions)

# fdisk /dev/sdb

fdisk: cannot open /dev/sdb: Read-only file system

• Checked the device with hdparm (notice the garbage data in some fields)

# hdparm -I /dev/sdb


/dev/sdb:
SG_IO: bad/missing sense data, sb[]:  f0 00 05 00 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 00 26 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

ATA device, with removable media
    Model Number:       �t:�
                                �����VK�P{��b)0F�
                                                   0����]�ܖV
    Serial Number:      �����P��鵸���$��

    Firmware Revision:  q�yd��X
    Media Serial Num:   �J����L�`:��
Z��(w�#��V�]�@q�ցKWo��
    Media Manufacturer: }�0V3��"������N �lu
    Transport:          0x3d6c; Revision: 0xe78e
Standards:
    Used: unknown (minor revision code 0x47d5) 
    Supported: 13 12 11 10 7 5 
    Likely used: 13
Configuration:
    Logical     max current
    cylinders   52907   0
    heads       36467   0
    sectors/track   31048   0
    --
    LBA    user addressable sectors: 1039713155
    Logical/Physical Sector size:           512 bytes
    device size with M = 1024*1024:      507672 MBytes
    device size with M = 1000*1000:      532333 MBytes (532 GB)
    cache/buffer size  = unknown
Capabilities:
    LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
    Queue depth: 13
    Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, with device specific minimum
    R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 88  Current = ?
    Recommended acoustic management value: 41, current value: 229
    DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma3 mdma4 *mdma5 *mdma6 *mdma7 *udma0 *udma1 udma2 *udma3 *udma4 udma5 *udma6 *udma7 (?)
    PIO: unknown
       *    reserved 69[2]
       *    reserved 69[6]
       *    reserved 69[7]
       *    DOWNLOAD MICROCODE DMA command
       *    SET MAX SETPASSWORD/UNLOCK DMA commands
       *    WRITE BUFFER DMA command
       *    READ BUFFER DMA command
       *    DEVICE CONFIGURATION SET/IDENTIFY DMA commands
       *    CFast specification support
        Removable Media Status Notification feature set supported
Security: 
    Master password revision code = 59124
        supported
        enabled
        locked
    not frozen
    not expired: security count
    not supported: enhanced erase
    Security level high
Logical Unit WWN Device Identifier: 2615dee561ae10a3
    NAA     : 2
    IEEE OUI    : 615dee
    Unique ID   : 561ae10a3
Integrity word not set (found 0x1145, expected 0x7ca5)

• Tried to turn off the read-only property of the device

# hdparm -r0 /dev/sdb

/dev/sdb:
 setting readonly to 0 (off)
 readonly      =  0 (off)

• Tried to open it again with fdisk

# fdisk /dev/sdb

fdisk: cannot open /dev/sdb: Read-only file system

• Unplugged the USB and plugged again
• Tried fdisk again

# fdisk /dev/sdb

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.28.2).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.


Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sdb: 7.8 GiB, 8394899456 bytes, 16396288 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xc3072e18

Device     Boot   Start     End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1          2048 2099199 2097152   1G  b W95 FAT32
/dev/sdb2       2099200 4196351 2097152   1G 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3       4196352 6293503 2097152   1G 83 Linux

• Partitions still there even after the dd from /dev/zero.
• Deleted all partitions, then tried to write the changes to the device

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered.
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
/dev/sdb: close device failed: Input/output error

Looks like some sort of hardware corruption. Is there a way to confirm it?