Flash Drive Problem

I have a generic 8gig USB stick. I was in the middle of a format on it when the drive was pulled free of the port mid-format. It wasn't pulled free in a violent way. Now, I put the drive back in and it was unreadable. So I'm thinking I need to finish the format. I attempt that, but Vista tells me it's unable to complete the format. I reboot and try again. No go. I change ports; no go. I try Vista's Computer Management partitioning; it won't let me do anything with the partitions. I download HP's USB Format software. No go. It claims write-protection on the drive (it has no switch for write-protection). I download Ninja Software's USB Partitioning Software and attempt the format again. No go. I boot into Damn Small Linux, it doesn't find the drive. Now, nothing happened to the drive physically, short of it being removed from the port. So despite the fact that all leads on the internet point to hardware failure, it seems unlikely for hardware to have failed at that moment when nothing happened physically. I can understand if the partition table was damaged, but I'm not sure what else to attempt to repair it at this point and could use some advice.

I actually waited a month for this stick to ship to me from Hong Kong, so I'd like to avoid shelling out the cash AND waiting another month for a replacement.

Thank you for any help you could give,
Thraprod

 

There is a very real chance that, if the drive was actually writing at the time it was unplugged, it may have damaged the write circuitry and then it is toast.
But; as a real test, get FRHED ( http://www.kibria.de/frhed.html ) and fill the partition table ( sector zero ) on the USB drive with 0's (zeros).
That should clear any oddities in its partition or MBR so you can repartition and then format it. If it refuses to let you, there is either some soft write protect function (check the manual) or it is toast.

 

Or you can format it in a compatible camera/protable/gadget. Sometimes it works.

 

*sigh*

Well, I tried FRHED, I tried Knoppix, I tried an XP comp, I tried some "USB Repair software". I even tried getting one of the registers at my work to format it. All in all, looks like the writing circuitry may indeed have been killed. These things are heavy enough to classify as paperweights like a dead Hard Drive. *L* Bookmarks maybe?

Thanks for the attempts anyway,
Thraprod