Error formatting USB stick. (Solved)

[Toonman]

I am having difficulty formatting my Lexar 16gb usb stick.   I get 'Error formatting disk'. Error synchronizing after initial wipe: Timed out waiting for object (udisks-error-quark, 0)

Also I cannot un mount it.

Any ideas?

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

Read this:
http://itsfoss.com/how-to-format-a-sd-card-or-usb-drive-in-ubuntu-12-10/

Then install gparted:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get install gparted

and use that to format the USB stick


Unmount it from the command line with:

sudo umount -f /dev/sdbX

where bX is the drive/partition number.

Or just don't mount it in the first place

[Toonman]

Thanks Mark. I completely forgot about Gparted. 

Works now. 

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

You're welcome

[LJ_Dude]

I have a hard drive I am trying to use for my Ubuntu PC, and I got the same response when trying to format it. Specifically, there is one partition that does not erase itself. I looked at it in GParted, but it does not show that there are any partitions on the disk. It shows an exclamation point within a large red dot, and when I right-click "unallocated" and click information, it tells me: /dev/sdb: unrecognized disk label
I have no idea what that means. Can I get some help?

[LJ_Dude]

Nevermind, I fixed the disk. I asked a friend to help and they added a partition in GParted and it cleared up. Wierd, but it's fine. (For the most part.)