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I accidentally set a passphrase on my USB drive using Ubuntu Disk Utility and I don't remember it. I tried formatting the USB drive, but it doesn't allow it.
I've tried to do it in both Ubuntu and Windows. What should I do?
hey
Posted 2012-07-17T00:58:30.193
Reputation: 1 616
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Try to call up the Disk Utility again on the same computer which you used to encrypt the external disk. If you have used the "Remember forever" option the passphrase will still be there:
If this doesn't work and you absolutely don't remember the passphrase, the contents of the disk are lost since they were encrypted using this passphrase. Your only remaining option is then to use the Disk Utility to format the volume again to remove the encryption, therefore losing all data (but at least regaining an empty and usable disk).
harrymc
Posted 2012-07-17T00:58:30.193
Reputation: 306 093
This screenshot shows the mouse over "Change Passphrase" though the item you will want to choose to erase the USB stick is Format Volume. – Michael Hampton – 2012-07-19T07:34:44.677
@harrymc: I can swear I did this 2 days ago and it didn't work, I tried it now, and it worked! Thanks! – hey – 2012-07-19T11:49:52.360
@harrymc: Actually it doesn't work. Now I tried to transfer my files to Windows and it asks me to Format USB and it says it's unable to do so. – hey – 2012-07-19T11:57:18.500
Windows requires NTFS as disk format (also supported by Ubuntu). – harrymc – 2012-07-19T13:04:18.383
@harrymc I formatted as NTFS, still the same problem. Maybe I broke my USB somehow. – hey – 2012-07-20T20:53:27.663
Does the NTFS-formatted USB work correctly in Ubuntu? You should add to your post the description of what you have done and the error message you are getting (also screenshot). – harrymc – 2012-07-21T06:57:35.777
@harrymc: Yes, in Ubuntu it seems to work. – hey – 2012-07-23T10:10:05.457
1You could try formatting it in Windows instead, then see if it works in Ubuntu. – harrymc – 2012-07-23T14:23:00.730
@harrymc It doens't allow me to format it in Windows. – hey – 2012-07-25T05:53:24.183
Windows might not know how to handle this partition. Try in Linux to delete ALL partitions, so leaving the entire disk as unallocated space, then format in Windows. If this doesn't work, then see if your disk has a read-only external switch that Windows might obey (but not Linux). Otherwise, the disk is defective. – harrymc – 2012-07-25T06:05:54.203
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Assuming your data is gone and lost, I would format the drive using dd
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/USB_DEVICE
changing USB_DEVICE to the correct one (on my ubuntu, the only pen drive plugged is said to be /dev/sdb)
mind not to type numbers after the device, because that will only erase the single partition, while you probably want to have at out-of-factory status
Federico Fissore
Posted 2012-07-17T00:58:30.193
Reputation: 111
I would do this. But this method won't format the drive, it will just erase it's contents. After this you would be able to format it using the Disk Utility. – fmanco – 2012-07-25T20:44:42.707
yes. it's very similar (if not identical) to what HD specific utilities called "low level format" – Federico Fissore – 2012-07-25T21:18:33.283
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You should be able to completly format the USB drive with GNU parted from the Ubuntu system. If you are not sure which /dev the drive gets assigned just keep an eye on /var/log/messages when plugging it using sudo tail -f /var/log/messages. A message will appear there when you plug the drive so you can identify it in order to format it with parted.
Then format the partition with /sbin/mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sdc1 (if you want ext3 of course) . Perhaps this step is the only real necessary.
iamc
Posted 2012-07-17T00:58:30.193
Reputation: 354
What USB drive is it? How did you set the passphrase? – None – 2012-07-17T01:04:23.663
@RandolphWest It's 4GB DataTraveler G2 Kingston. I set passphrase in Ubuntu Disk Utility. – hey – 2012-07-17T01:16:57.613