[Mike.Bowden]

First things first, you will need a Windows computer. I know, I hated it too, but I had to drag out my old Windows notebook.

Then you'll need a free application that does a low level format on the drive.
This can be found here HDDGURU: HDD Low Level Format Tool

After you've installed the application, make sure the flash drive has been plugged in for at least 5 minutes and that Windows is at least seeing it in the device manager. Then run the program and select the flash drive in the list.

The next screen will have three taps at the top, select the low level tab and then click format or next, can't remember exactly what it says.

****BTW THIS WILL EARASE EVERYTHING ON THE FLASH DRIVE WITH NO WAY TO RECOVER****

You will more than likely see a bunch of errors, that's normal from what I can tell. Once the program has finished, 2 gigs took me a minute. Go to the disk management tool located in the administrative tools and you should see the new flash drive with no partition. Initialize the drive and then partition it however you'd like.

I did FAT32 and then removed it properly from the computer. Then I plugged it into my Mac and erased the drive and changed it to a Mac Journaled drive and change the name to something I like.

That's it, drag the drive to the trash and you can now remove it. BTW this only took me a year and a half to figure out. Really it only took me a few hours cause I tried for about 20 minutes a year ago and couldn't get it working and decided to just put it away. I got it out today hoping I'd find a way to fix it and after an hour of reading and searching I figured it out.

[Cadaver]

I have a 4GB flash drive that seems to be DOA out of the package. Unfortunately, this little app didn't help.
But I will keep it on hand - looks like it might come in handy.

[Mike.Bowden]

Yeah, not sure what to tell you on that front. Other than doing an RMA with who you bought it through, or at least through the manufacture. I've heard from a lot of people that flash drives tend to come in DOA a lot. I normally get one from a retail store for this reason, so it's a simple walk in and swap deal, instead of a 2 week processes. You pay a little more for it, unless you can find a sale, but it's a lot less hassle. I got mine on sale when I purchased it, I think I paid right at $80 or $90 bucks for it and it retailed for $150, so it was a nice savings.

[ghporter]

Unfortunately, while it's a great app, it can't tell you that "your hardware is hosed". It tried its best to fix an old PNY 128MB stick I had, but the flash chip is (to use a technical term) goobered. There were several screens full of "cannot format sector" errors by the time it was done. Oh well, it was a thought.

Any idea how to UN-read only a flash drive that doesn't have a read only switch?