How To Unboot Pendrive
This tutorial will show you how to unboot a pendrive in case you find yourself in a position where your drive can boot and you want to return it to its usual storage state.
Step 1: Backup Your Data:
First, make sure you have a backup of your data before you begin the process of unbooting the bootable pendrive. Make a copy of all the important documents and save them in a secure spot on your hard drive or external storage. This safeguards your data and keeps it accessible even after you’ve unbooted.
Step 2: Insert the Pendrive:
Second, insert the bootable pendrive into a free USB port on the computer. Patiently wait for the computer to find the pendrive and load its contents. In Windows, it will show up as a disk drive in the “Computer” or “My Computer” folder.
Step 3: Open Disk Management:
The third step is to launch the operating system’s Disk Management application in order to remove the pendrive’s boot loader. Select “Disk Management” from the menu that appears when you right-click the “Start” button. When you click this, the Disk Management window will pop up, showing the various storage media you have attached to your computer.
Step 4: Identify the Bootable Pendrive:
Disk Management is where you’ll see your bootable flash drive listed. The flash drive will be identified by its drive letter and may display a partition with the name “Active” or “Boot.” Keep in mind the drive letter that corresponds to the bootable flash device.
Step 5: Remove the Bootable Flag:
The fifth step in unbooting a USB flash drive is to remove the bootable flag from the relevant partition. Select “Mark Partition as Inactive” from the menu that appears when you right-click the “Active” or “Boot” partition. The bootable flag is cleared, rendering the flash disk useless.
Step 6: Format the Pendrive:
Once the bootable flag has been removed, Step 6 involves formatting the pendrive to remove any boot-related data or settings. You may format the flash drive by right-clicking on its partition (not the system reserved partition if it exists) and choosing “Format” from the menu that appears. Follow the on-screen instructions to format the drive using the file system of your choice (FAT32 or NTFS, for example).
Step 7: Verify Unbooting:
After formatting the flash drive, it will revert to its original storage status. By inspecting the pendrive’s attributes or reading its data, you may ensure that the unbooting process was successful. Remove any boot-related files from the flash device and rename its boot partition to anything other than “Active” or “Boot.”
Conclusion:
To unboot a flash drive, you must first back up your data, then open Disk Management, then unmark the partition as bootable, and then format the device. Following these instructions, a bootable flash drive may be restored to its normal storage state and used for file storage or other applications. Take care while making any modifications to your storage devices and remember to regularly back up your data.