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Few days ago, I wanted to install CentOS 7 on my computer, without passing through a VM.

I downloaded Win32diskmanager to make a bootable disk with an installer for CentOS from an ISO I downloaded on their repo. It was working fine, until a moment where the process failed, no message, nothing.

Until then, my USB hard drive is not visible in Windows. Well, not really because I can see it in the Disk Manager. I see my HD, it is "Online", but when I try to format it, a message tell me that the HD is offline and I can't to that. I tried to understand why through "diskpart" on cmd, and I was that that was the partition that was offline.

Now, I don't really know what to do. Does someone have any idea about what I should look to, what I should try ?

Thank you !

ISMAIL S.
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  • Can you delete the existing "volumes" (partitions) on your flash drive? – Albin Jul 31 '18 at 06:58
  • Yeah, I can delete them, create them, but not format them. When I try to format the volume, it tells me that it is offline, and that I should assign it a letter. And when I try to assign it a letter, it tells me that the volume can't be found. – ISMAIL S. Aug 01 '18 at 06:46
  • Never had that behaviour before, does this happen to all flash drives (using the same USB port)? Also, have you tried to delete the entire Harddrive (all sectors including MBR - not just inside the partitions?) so the "volume" itself has to be reinitialized by windows? Also did you check the flash drive for any hardware problems? – Albin Aug 01 '18 at 09:57
  • It happened only once for me, it's only this USB HD. And yeah it make it on every port or computer. Albeit, I didn't try with my personal computer (only with computer in my office). I'll try what you said, and also on my own personal computer ! I'll keep you informed, thx – ISMAIL S. Aug 02 '18 at 09:23
  • great, let me know – Albin Aug 02 '18 at 10:15
  • Hello @Albin ! Sorry for this long period without any answer. I finally went through the problem, and you were right ! **I have deleted everything, including MBR**... and now my USB HD is working. To do that I have used **Rufus 3.1** ( https://rufus.akeo.ie/ ). I selected "Non bootable key", "MBR" and "NTFS", started the program and now I can see my USB hardrive. Thank you :) – ISMAIL S. Sep 10 '18 at 13:23
  • Glad I could help. I posted my comment as an answer, feel free to "accept" it. – Albin Sep 15 '18 at 14:45

1 Answers1

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First try to delete the entire Harddrive (all sectors including MBR - not just inside the partitions?) so the "volume" itself has to be reinitialized by windows.

One option to do that would be to used 3rd party sorftware, e.g. Rufus, currently Version 3.1:

Selected the following and start the program:

  • "Non bootable key"
  • "MBR"
  • "NTFS"
ISMAIL S.
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Albin
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