USB booting :: USB key destroyed by DSL installation

I tried to install DSL from the live CD using the "Install to USB using USB-HDD" script. The script went through fine, but after rebooting DSL notified me that there was no Knoppix filesystem to be found. After I booted the live CD again I retried the installation, but it couldn't use the device anymore.

Now it seems I can't repartition the device. It comes up in the syslog under /dev/sda instead of /dev/sda1 and a command fdisk /dev/sda results in "Unable to open /dev/sda".

Have I destroyed something internally somehow or am I just looking over something insanely stupid?

Edit: mke2fs -j /dev/sda also fails miserably

Perhaps

sudo fdisk /dev/sda

I tried it as root already. It didn't work.

Did you try starting with a zero partition table? i.e. sudo cfdisk -z /dev/sda

If it is still useless, then the USB device was probably going to die soon anyways.

That was worth a try, but it gives me a big fat "FATAL ERROR: Cannot open disk drive". I guess I will need to buy a new one tomorrow.

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