SanDisk 128g USB not being detected.

bob_java_edition wrote:

So I tried this on 2 other new laptops, and they didn't work either. Any ideas on how to fix the sandisk?

You probably can't fix it; it's most likely a hardware failure. My advice would be to contact SanDisk, as den.thed, referred to, and talk to them about the problem.

It sounds to me like the SanDisk has failed. Do you have access to another system on which you can try it?

SanDisk/WD is currently replacing some of their external SSDs.

see > https://www.sgtlaw.com/cases/sandisk-extreme-solid-state-drive-defect-litigation

and > https://www.yahoo.com/tech/western-digital-responds-claims-sandisk-202210473.html

Within Disk Utility click "View" and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drives appear on the left pane of Disk Utility. Select the physical SanDisk drive and erase it with the partition type & file system you want.

Sometimes a USB boot disk can be confusing to macOS & Disk Utility. In those cases even the method I just mentioned may not work to erase the drive. In that case, using Windows Drive Management to delete all partitions would be the easiest option if you have access to a Windows computer.

Otherwise, you will need to use the command line to write zeroes to the beginning of the SanDisk drive. I highly recommend you first physically disconnect all external drives to minimize the chances of wiping out the wrong drive and to make it easier to get the device identifier for the specified SanDisk drive.

You can use Disk Utility to get the device identifier for the physical drive, or you can get it using the following Terminal command:

diskutil  list  external  physical

This will give you the information regarding the physical drives.

Before writing zeroes to the drive, you may need to first unmount all volumes on that external drive making sure to replace "diskX" with the proper device identifier for your SanDisk drive:

diskutil  unmountDisk  diskX

Now you can write zeroes to the beginning of the drive with device designation "diskX" where again you replace "diskX" with the proper device identifier for the SanDisk drive:

sudo  dd  if=/dev/zero  of=/dev/diskX  bs=100m  count=10

This command will prompt you for your admin user password. Nothing will appear on the screen as you type the password, so press the "Return" key to submit the password.

If this completes without any errors, then you should now be able to use Disk Utility to erase the physical drive.

That means the physical USB stick is not seen by the system assuming you had the USB stick connected at the time you ran that command. That means the USB stick is bad, or you have a bad USB port on the computer, or a bad adapter. Or if you have an M-series laptop, then perhaps the USB stick was not approved to connect.

If your Mac asks you to allow an accessory to connect - Apple Support