# Unusuable USB stick after flashing **URL:** \ **Category:** balenaEtcher\ **Created:** [November 21, 2020, 12:44am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/unusuable-usb-stick-after-flashing/214423 "2020-11-21T00:44:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![byKeksYT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/90db22/32.png) [@byKeksYT](https://forums.balena.io/u/byKeksYT)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2020, 12:44am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/unusuable-usb-stick-after-flashing/214423/1 "2020-11-21T00:44:44Z")
So I tried to flash my USB stick with a version of Linux Mint. I aborted it after Etcher said that there was an error. Now Windows doesn’t even detect the stick if I put it in the computer. Does anyone know what I can do to fix my USB stick? I actually want to keep using it. ---
**Author:** ![shawaj](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/shawaj/32/8203_2.png) [@shawaj](https://forums.balena.io/u/shawaj)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2020, 2:33pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/unusuable-usb-stick-after-flashing/214423/4 "2020-11-21T14:33:47Z")
Hi @byKeksYT You should be able to recover the drive using some of the methods listed [here](https://www.balena.io/blog/did-etcher-break-my-usb-sd-card/) or [here](https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/blob/master/docs/USER-DOCUMENTATION.md#recovering-broken-drives) Hopefully this should help. (P.S. welcome to the forums!) ---
**Author:** ![bassgoonist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c2a13f/32.png) [@bassgoonist](https://forums.balena.io/u/bassgoonist)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 5:43am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/unusuable-usb-stick-after-flashing/214423/6 "2020-11-30T05:43:41Z")
I’m having a similar issue and tried using clean. I saw the issue tracker about clean not always working, but I’m pretty perplexed as to what I can try. DISKPART\> clean DiskPart has encountered an error: Access is denied. See the System Event Log for more information. System log entry: Cannot zero sectors on disk \?\PhysicalDrive7. Error code: 5@0101000F Using 1.5.111 ---
**Author:** ![zvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a5b964/32.png) [@zvin](https://forums.balena.io/u/zvin)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 12:36pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/unusuable-usb-stick-after-flashing/214423/7 "2020-11-30T12:36:04Z")
@byKeksYT If you use Linux Mint, just install gparted then recreate a partition table and a partition on that disk. You can follow these instructions: [https://linuxhint.com/gparted\_ubuntu/](https://linuxhint.com/gparted_ubuntu/) . ---
**Author:** ![zvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a5b964/32.png) [@zvin](https://forums.balena.io/u/zvin)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 12:36pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/unusuable-usb-stick-after-flashing/214423/8 "2020-11-30T12:36:30Z")
@bassgoonist are you running `diskpart` as an administrator ? ---
**Author:** ![bassgoonist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c2a13f/32.png) [@bassgoonist](https://forums.balena.io/u/bassgoonist)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 2:11pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/unusuable-usb-stick-after-flashing/214423/10 "2020-11-30T14:11:01Z")
Most definitely running as admin. I can probably just boot from a linux live disk and fix it. I don’t normally have a linux device on hand, but it shouldn’t be too hard. Probably no way to do this with the linux on windows subsystem ---
**Author:** ![angeljs](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/angeljs/32/5081_2.png) [@angeljs](https://forums.balena.io/u/angeljs)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 1:10pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/unusuable-usb-stick-after-flashing/214423/12 "2020-12-13T13:10:56Z")
I had exactly the same problem, and none of the suggestions that I could find worked. On a hunch, I downloaded Rufus and used that to partition the USB and now I have it back. 😁