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@krisbolton
Last active February 28, 2025 08:38
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How to fix a USB drive showing up as two drives (fragmented into multiple partitions) on Windows

How to fix a USB drive showing up as two drives (fragmented into multiple partitions) on Windows:

  1. Hold the Windows key and press X, select PowerShell (Admin), select Yes to the pop-up. You can also use Command Prompt.
  2. In the Powershell interface type diskpart to enter the disk partition tool.
  3. Type list disk to see all disks listed.
  4. Select the USB drive by typing select disk [NUMBER]. Be careful to select the correct drive.
  5. Type clean. An error will occur if you have the drive folder open, close the window and repeat the command if this happens.
  6. Type create partition primary.
  7. Type format fs=ntfs quick to format the drive (you can also choose to set fs=fat32).
  8. Type active.
  9. Type assign.
  10. Type list disk and confirm your drive looks healthy.
  11. Type exit to exit.

You can get visual confirmation by typing ‘disk manager’ into the windows search bar in the bottom left. Select the USB to view.

@Merloff
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Merloff commented May 25, 2024

Thank you for your help!

@Dumitru-Zlotea
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Thank you USB guru. You shall be remembered forever at least by me

@dilirity
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Nice! Thank you very much for this <3

@GabrielDuschl
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Worked, thank you!

@Nabilhossain01859
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thank you brother you saved my 2 pendrive

@ee-maniac
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thank you!

@kareemX
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kareemX commented Jul 18, 2024

when excuting 'active' command it gives me this
The selected disk is not a fixed MBR disk.
The ACTIVE command can only be used on fixed MBR disks

@devlumba
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ty!

@PsychoFox11
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PsychoFox11 commented Aug 3, 2024

Hmm for me it is listed as 2 drives in PS as well. Maybe it is how this thumbdrive is built. 32GB that came with a driver on it with a wifi dongle. Just trying to reclaim it all if even possible.

@mozzammal2
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great!! worked for me

@Injo-18
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Injo-18 commented Aug 6, 2024

Thank. You

@anilkachhadiya
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Great... Thank you 👍

@paolo2000h
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thanks!

@arteson-mec
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thanks! this saved me from throwing my pc out the window and trying to burn down google hq!

@SrDmitrov
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Thank you!

@Shariar-Hasan
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thank you

@noah-hw-kim
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Thank you so much!

@Marius385
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Thank you sir!

@damian-cozma
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Very useful!

@jacekrudek
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Great instruction!

@GabinoJeri
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Thanks a bunch, bud. Was wondering why I had difficulties formatting.

@ShubhamShakyawal
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It worked!!. Thank you.

@marchetti-design
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Genius, thank you!

@theguywhocodes96
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Saved the day for me, thank you for the solution.

@HMClever
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Format timing is too long why ?

If u don't use the "quick" line as the post says that happen

@fahshed
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fahshed commented Jan 29, 2025

life saver

@minh1231231
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Thank you very much!

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