# How to reuse a balena-etched usb drive without destroing it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Product support\ **Created:** [October 25, 2019, 9:08am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-reuse-a-balena-etched-usb-drive-without-destroing-it/39833 "2019-10-25T09:08:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mab](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@mab](https://forums.balena.io/u/mab)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 9:08am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-reuse-a-balena-etched-usb-drive-without-destroing-it/39833/1 "2019-10-25T09:08:38Z")
Hi, already destroyed 3 USB drives by trying to re-format them after having them used with balena Images. I could not reactivate them, allthough I tried all options as described in the “how to recover broken usb drive” topic. Now I have a new 64GB USB drive flashed with Balena Etcher, which works. But I would like to bring it back to default state and format it with FAT32 - without destroying it. What’s a save way? thx, Martin ---
**Author:** ![shaunmulligan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/shaunmulligan/32/34_2.png) [@shaunmulligan](https://forums.balena.io/u/shaunmulligan)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2019, 4:19pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-reuse-a-balena-etched-usb-drive-without-destroing-it/39833/2 "2019-10-27T16:19:17Z")
Hi @mab . I think the answer will depend on what OS your laptop is running, but there should be a number of tools to format usb drives to FAT32. I think one that comes up often for windows is Rufus: [https://rufus.ie/](https://rufus.ie/) ---
**Author:** ![mab](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@mab](https://forums.balena.io/u/mab)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2019, 10:04am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-reuse-a-balena-etched-usb-drive-without-destroing-it/39833/3 "2019-10-30T10:04:22Z")
Hi shaun, I got Windows, Debian and OSX. I already tried it on all systems with the advices on your hp. I already tried it with rufus on windows for another broken usb device, which was not recoverable for me. That’s why I’m afraid to destroy this new device too. Which one would you prefer? kr, Martin ![image001.jpg](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/balena/original/1X/2485d26919316b1d80aa60f5ca8e2cb5bc0275fe.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![hedss](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/hedss/32/210_2.png) [@hedss](https://forums.balena.io/u/hedss)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2019, 1:23pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-reuse-a-balena-etched-usb-drive-without-destroing-it/39833/4 "2019-10-30T13:23:04Z")
Hi @mab You should very easily be able to format a USB stick to FAT32 on macOS (OSX) by using the built in Disk Utility tool (Applications-\>Utilities-\>Disk Utility). Once loaded, insert the USB stick you want to format and then select it in the list of ‘External’ media in the left hand panel (it will be called ‘flash-boot’ if it previously had a balenaOS image flashed to it). Once selected, go to the ‘Erase’ icon at the top of the Disk Utility pane, and then select `MS-DOS (FAT)` as the disk type. Give it a name, if you require. Finally, select ‘Erase’. This will format the USB stick as FAT32. Best regards, Heds ---
**Author:** ![mab](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@mab](https://forums.balena.io/u/mab)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2022, 9:00am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-reuse-a-balena-etched-usb-drive-without-destroing-it/39833/6 "2022-08-29T09:00:36Z")
Hello, I still got the same troubles with USB flash drives, that has once been used by balena. All of them are not recoverable and abviously damaged… It is not possible to format them, it is not possbile to erase them completely. Believe me, I’m working in the IT… I tried diskpart.exe and other diskmanagers. The USB drives that are “infected” by Balena are not getting healthy again, if you want to use them for usual Data storage. Only the Balena Image is working, but never try to bring the Flashdrive back to a usual one again… kr, Martin ---
**Author:** ![mpous](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/mpous/32/4742_2.png) [@mpous](https://forums.balena.io/u/mpous)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2022, 10:44am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-reuse-a-balena-etched-usb-drive-without-destroing-it/39833/7 "2022-08-29T10:44:26Z")
Hello @mab welcome to the balena community. First of all, apologizes for the experience. Having said that, did you try to recover your USB flash drives following our instructions here? → [Etcher broke my USB stick … or did it?](https://www.balena.io/blog/did-etcher-break-my-usb-sd-card/) Let us know if that works ---
**Author:** ![mab](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@mab](https://forums.balena.io/u/mab)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2022, 11:10am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-reuse-a-balena-etched-usb-drive-without-destroing-it/39833/9 "2022-08-29T11:10:45Z")
Hello @mpous I’m not sure if your read my actual posting or maybe my old postings before… For sure I tried everything with diskpart.exe and other operating systems. And NO, it did not work. kr, Martin ---
**Author:** ![mab](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@mab](https://forums.balena.io/u/mab)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2022, 11:12am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-reuse-a-balena-etched-usb-drive-without-destroing-it/39833/10 "2022-08-29T11:12:34Z")
as I described: Using the Etcher works fine! Using the image works fine. But if you want to go back to a usual data storage device, it does not work and destroys the flash disk. ---
**Author:** ![mpous](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/mpous/32/4742_2.png) [@mpous](https://forums.balena.io/u/mpous)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2022, 11:15am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-reuse-a-balena-etched-usb-drive-without-destroing-it/39833/11 "2022-08-29T11:15:05Z")
Thanks for the clarification @mab What you say is that once your drive is formatted it doesn’t work? What OS are you using now? ---
**Author:** ![mab](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@mab](https://forums.balena.io/u/mab)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2022, 11:38am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-reuse-a-balena-etched-usb-drive-without-destroing-it/39833/13 "2022-08-29T11:38:34Z")
Hello @mpous no, what I say is, that once you try to format it, you get an error and will never be able to format it correctly again. And if you try to delete the partitions and create new ones, it will only let you create a partition, but it won’t let you format it. In no operating system, not windows, not linux debian, not osx. kr, Martin ---
**Author:** ![mab](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@mab](https://forums.balena.io/u/mab)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2022, 11:40am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-reuse-a-balena-etched-usb-drive-without-destroing-it/39833/14 "2022-08-29T11:40:00Z")
I’m using win10, debian 10 and ubuntu 22.04 at the moment. kr, Martin ---
**Author:** ![Sonofman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Sonofman](https://forums.balena.io/u/Sonofman)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2024, 4:38am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-reuse-a-balena-etched-usb-drive-without-destroing-it/39833/17 "2024-02-14T04:38:19Z")
Hi I was having the same problem and the solution that worked for me is the following that you can try. I am using windows system and any windows system shoud produce the same results. I will try to explain it step by step so that anyone should be able to follow along and obtain the solution to this annoying but solvable problem. Right click windows and select: **Command Prompt (Admin)** On the terminal write: **diskpart** Once DiskPart opens Type: **list disk** It will list the disks. At this point you can plug the USB into the pc and again type: **list disk** Now you should be able to correctly identify your USB as you can compare with the previous list. **For this example I will say Disk 1 is the USB** Make sure you have the correct USB selected and if you are not sure you can just unplug it and type list disk again until you are sure it is appearing. **WARNING. if you select the wrong disk it can erase or destroy your pc.** Type: **select disk 1** **Terminal will confirm with message:** Disk 1 is now the selected disk. Or whatever disk number applies to your USB. Type: **clean** **If terminal won’t clean and gives an error message. You need to do the following.** Type: **convert gpt** Terminal will confirm: successfully converted the selected disk to GPT format. Again Type: **clean** If at this point you don’t get the message: Succeeded in cleaning the disk. Again type: **convert gpt** It may not work the first time so if needed you may have to repeat the clean, convert gpt, clean command until you get the message, **succeeded in cleaning the disk** which should appear if you followed the instructions. \*\*Then if all is well \*\* **you should get the confimation: succeeded in creating the specified partition.** **and succeeded in cleaning the disk** Now Type: **create partition primary** Now you can open a documents folder and select: **This PC** Locate the USB you have been working on and right click and select Format You can use th FAT32 (Default) or one of the other options if you require it. When you are ready you can select Quick format and Start. Your USB should now be ready to use again for whatever you want as it has successfully been cleaned and reformatted. Hope this helps, ---
**Author:** ![pdmasonnz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecae2f/32.png) [@pdmasonnz](https://forums.balena.io/u/pdmasonnz)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 7:10pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/how-to-reuse-a-balena-etched-usb-drive-without-destroing-it/39833/18 "2026-04-22T19:10:35Z")
I’ve had the same issue and was stuck with a USB drive that I thought was done. I tried all this with no success. The error was persistent. Then I found a video that did much the same but via the command prompt available in the windows recovery at startup. From the recovery menu’s command prompt it took the ‘clean’ command without the need to ‘convert gpt’ and was successful first time. See here; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKiJZ7k0yqs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKiJZ7k0yqs)