How to fix flash drive

[catch_sam]

Hi folks,
I've got a kingston 32GB flash drive,it's new....it wasn't working from beginning...wen i got it there some files in it....wierd.....but i tried deleting it ....cudn't....formatting also din't wrk coz it said it's right protected.....so i did it thru dos.....now it's in the RAW format.....basically no format....i really need to make this back to FAT 32 or NTFS.....researched alot on net.....thing is in disk management i can't delete the partition to create again......so really dunno wat to do..

Thanx....sorry for the long post......Hoping HELP...

[Sinner]

1. Download the free Active Kill Disk from http://www.killdisk.com/

2. Unzip and run Active Kill Disk. It will display the message that it supports "[ONE PASS ZEROES]" method only. Remember this.

3. Scroll down the list to view your drives. You will probably find a message of a drive not being ready, if you find this message, highlight that drive, otherwise highlight the drive that does not have the drive letters of the workable drives of your computer.

4. Erase the disk using that [One Pass Zeroes] method mentioned earlier

5. Go into the Administrative Tools (this guide is assuming Windows XP) and select Computer Management. Double-click on Disk Management.

6. Go down the list of disks until you find the new healthy partition of the USB drive. Right click it and say format. If after the attempted format it says something like "I can't do this because the partition is write-protected," ignore this message.

7. Now safely remove your pen drive. Restart your PC.

8. Insert your USB drive again. Even though disk management said you couldn't format it, it did most of the reformatting and you will be able to recover any undamaged files from the combination of reformatting/erasing.

P.S I suggest u read the users manual that u get while installing killdisk.

here is the direct link to make sure that u download the windows version and not the bootable one.

http://download2.lsoft.net/KillDiskSuiteFree-Setup.exe

report back if this did not solve ur problem

[catch_sam]

Actualli i had tried this too.....nope it din't help......

P.S. I don't wanna recover anything......Just wanna bring the flash to a working state..
Also whenever i try to format...it reaches till 100 % and then tells format did not complete successfully.

Thanx

[Sinner]

hey Raymond..!! can u help here..??

[catch_sam]

Yea Raymond....plz........a hand would be appreciated

[ha14]

Hi

If you want to format just try
HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool - v2.1.8

http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=197

This utility will format any USB flash drive, with your choice of FAT, FAT32, or NTFS partition types.

Optionally you can also make the disk BOOTABLE by specifying a file location. Use the Windows 98 system files available here.

FIXES:

Allows creation of a FAT32 volume larger than 32 GB.
Fixes installation issue where installation process stopped after the earlier version of software was uninstalled and the new software was not automatically installed. The installation process now restarts automatically to install the new software after uninstalling the older version.

[catch_sam]

thanx dude for the software...but it says in the status it's partitioning....then says device media is write protected

Also it actually doesn't detect it as a Kingston....it loads the generic drive driver....

[luffy]

Do you have the receipt? The last resolve is try to exchange for another one. 'Cause you have tried Format Tools as suggest above.

[Raymond]

Try to format the flash drive on other computer. If it also fails, then very likely you have a faulty flash drive.

[ha14]

Hi

Try
Flash Disinfector in order to be sure that you dont have some hidden virus inside.
http://www.precisesecurity.com/tools-resources/adware-tools/flash-disinfector/

then use Hp Tool to format againe and be sure that write is enabled on your device USB thet should be lock-unlock key!

or
HDD Low Level Format Tool
This freeware Low Level Format utility will erase, Low-Level Format and re-certify a SATA, IDE or SCSI hard disk drive with any size of up to 281 474 976 710 655 bytes. Will work with USB and FIREWIRE external drive enclosures.

Low-level formatting of Flash Cards is supported too. Low Level Format Tool will clear partitions, MBR, and every bit of user data. HDD Low Level Format Tool will utilize Ultra-DMA transfers when possible

Here are some key features of "HDD Low Level Format Tool":

· Supported interfaces: S-ATA (SATA), IDE (E-IDE), SCSI, USB, FIREWIRE. Big drives (LBA-48) are supported.
· Supported Manufacturers: Maxtor, Hitachi, Seagate, Samsung, Toshiba, Fujitsu, IBM, Quantum, Western Digital.
· The program also supports low-level formatting of FLASH cards using a card-reader

http://hddguru.com/


http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/registry-hack-to-disable-writing-to-usb-drives/


Start > Run > type ‘regedit’ (without the speachmarks) > Enter
- Single-click on ‘My Computer’ > File > Export > save it to the Desktop (Always best to have a backup!!)
- Go to the following:[/COLOR]
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDeviceP olicies

*There seems to be some spaces here in 'StorageDevicePolicies' in the text above, there shouldn't be, OK*

- Double click on the string ‘WriteProtect’ and change the ‘Value Data’ box to ‘0’
- Then: File > Export > save somewhere useful as something like ‘StorageDevicePolicies001.reg’
- You also need to do this for the strings in any folders called ‘ControlSet***’ (* = any Digit, i.e. 001, 002) – for example: Everything is the same, just change ‘CurrentControlSet’ to ‘ControlSet***’
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\StorageDevicePolic ies

*There seems to be some spaces here in 'StorageDevicePolicies' in the text above, there shouldn't be, OK*

- Save these to the same place as before as ‘StorageDevicePolicies00*’

The saves are in case it reverts at a later date, just double click (saying ‘yes’ to importing these to the registry) on all of the files and it will all work again!