USB drive not recognized Ubuntu 14.04

Solution 1:

As your pendrive is visible in "Disk Utility" and

mount /dev/sdb /mnt

command returns

mount: /dev/sdb is not a valid block device

Therefore, your OS can detect the pendrive.

Now, open up terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and type in the command:

sudo su

to get root privileges.

Next, type:

mkfs.xfs /dev/sdb1 && mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt -t auto

This got to solve the problem. But if it doesn't please comment below. Thank You!

MAKE SURE TO DD THE CORRECT DEVICE INSTEAD OF ZEROING OUT YOUR ACTUAL SYSTEM

Completely zero out your USB device with

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=4M

Then create a partition with a disk utility of your choice (fdisk /dev/sdb)

Then format the partition

mkfs.vfat /dev/sdb1