ERASE partitioned Windows 7 USB Install Disk

[MacHackPunk]

Hello everyone, I am trying to ERASE a 8GB Kingston USB stick that came as a replacement OS for a Dell and contains Windows 7. It's much more useful to me as an empty disk.

The Disk is formatted into two partitions, one of which I have successfully erased. I'm familiar with a variety of the diskutil commands in terminal and have been trying my hardest to erase it through there, as the actual diskutility can't do anything to it.

When I type diskutil eraseVolume or diskutil mergePartitions (with all the proper format and locations following the command) I get an error message that tells me "Couldn't modify partition map" I have included screenshot for your convenience.



If someone could please tell me how to bypass this anti-erase junk it would be much appreciated! I just want to erase it and merge the partitions!

[drambuie]

Have you tried to erase it using Windows? You didn't say what model it is, but Kingston has extensive FAQs for their various USB flash drives, including solutions for issues with OS X.

[Quad5Ny]

Are you sure none of the OS X tools work?

Assuming they don't, here is how to erase, initialize, partition and format it on Windows Vista/7/8:

1. Click the Start button
2. Type "cmd"
3. Right click "cmd" and choose "Run as a Administrator"
4. In the now open Command Prompt type:
   • diskpart
   • list disk (make note of which disk is your flash drive)
   • select disk # (where # == your flash drive)
   • clean (this will completely erase the ThumbDrive)
   • convert mbr
   • create partition primary align=4096
   • active
   • format fs=FAT32 unit=4096 label="Kingston" quick override
   • assign
   • exit
   • exit

[MacHackPunk]

I am no good with a PC and don't have easy access to one. When I went to the Kingston website they don't have the USB drive I have listed, it came as a Windows install, with the serial number and barcode on it (like the OS sticker on the bottom of a PC laptop). I didn't turn it into one myself. The install files of the DELL_OS_HP disk seem to be protected, when I click get info the permission is set to read-only and there's no way to edit it.

I'm basically looking to see if there's a terminal command i can use to ignore/remove the protection that keeps me from modifying the drive.