1.

Solve : Flash drive issue?

Answer»

Couple of days ago, I bought 2gig SanDisk Cruzer USB FLASH Drive, and strange thing happened.
At first, I connected it to my Vista computer, and everything was nice.
It was listed as Flash Drive with whole 2gig.
Then, I connected it to my Win 2K computer, which has only USB 1.1 port. Flash drive requirements says USB 2.0, but I just thought, it's gonna be slower with USB 1.1.
While plugged into Win 2K, it showed only 5.45MB CAPACITY with no free room.
I brought it back to Vista, and now, it's listed as:
CD Drive (K:) U3 system
with same 5.45MB capacity:

Any ideas?Apparently the U3 drive has two partitions on it, a system partition (small - read only) and a data partition (rest of drive).  Two drive letters should be assigned, one for each partition.  Is it possible the second drive letter is being masked by a network drive using same letter?  I don't KNOW why bringing it back to Vista should give you a different presentation of drive. 

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U3

    http://www.everythingusb.com/u3.html

There is also mention of a security feature that requires password to access the second data partition.

You should know that I have no practical experience with a U3 flash drive, so maybe there is someone out there with first hand knowledge.
Quote

Apparently the U3 drive has two partitions on it, a system partition (small - read only) and a data partition (rest of drive).  Two drive letters should be assigned, one for each partition.
Right on the money, sir! Thank you very much
Data partition was listed, as just plain "M:" drive (no DESCRIPTION), and it is listed as 2gig.
Now I need to check my Win 2K.
I appreciate your help. With Win 2K, data partition was also listed as another letter, so everything is good, now A good thing to do with thumb drives is to assign them a volume label and a drive assignment that is out of the normal range of drives.
I have 3 sticks and they are Q: R: and S:
This eliminates any problems when i swap them from machine to machine especially on my testbench machine which has 2 physical HDD's with a total of 8 partitions and 2 burners which takes me all the way up to L: as the last drive... Quote
A good thing to do with thumb drives is to assign them a volume label and a drive assignment that is out of the normal range of drives.
Aha! Thanks P.S. The volume label keeps any OS from CHANGING it on the fly...


Discussion

No Comment Found

Related InterviewSolutions