• Welcome to Tux Reports: Where Penguins Fly. We hope you find the topics varied, interesting, and worthy of your time. Please become a member and join in the discussions.

restore SD card capacity

F

Firewalker

Flightless Bird
I have 16GB microSd card that I just received and after I formatted it on XP,
it only says it has a capacity of 961MB. When I put it into my phone, it is
also shows as 961MB.

I then went into the disk management tool in the control panel and found my
disk. The disk still showed up as having a 16GB capacity. So, I figured I
could format it from here. Instead, it changed the capacity to also read
16GB.

I found a tool that seemed to wipe the card clean (called diskerase from
these forums). But, it's still at 961MB. I'm out of ideas now. Any
suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
S

Shenan Stanley

Flightless Bird
Firewalker wrote:
> I have 16GB microSd card that I just received and after I formatted
> it on XP, it only says it has a capacity of 961MB. When I put it
> into my phone, it is also shows as 961MB.
>
> I then went into the disk management tool in the control panel and
> found my disk. The disk still showed up as having a 16GB capacity.
> So, I figured I could format it from here. Instead, it changed the
> capacity to also read 16GB.
>
> I found a tool that seemed to wipe the card clean (called diskerase
> from these forums). But, it's still at 961MB. I'm out of ideas
> now. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


How is it formatted? FAT32?

Can your phone format it?

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
 
J

John Inzer

Flightless Bird
Firewalker wrote:
> I have 16GB microSd card that I just received and after I formatted
> it on XP, it only says it has a capacity of 961MB. When I put it
> into my phone, it is also shows as 961MB.
>
> I then went into the disk management tool in the control panel and
> found my disk. The disk still showed up as having a 16GB capacity.
> So, I figured I could format it from here. Instead, it changed the
> capacity to also read 16GB.
>
> I found a tool that seemed to wipe the card clean (called diskerase
> from these forums). But, it's still at 961MB. I'm out of ideas now.
> Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

==============================
No guarantees but maybe the following
freeware can format your card.

***Proceed at your own risk***

HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool
http://tinyurl.com/yc42amj
or.....
http://download.cnet.com/HP-USB-Disk-Storage-Format-Tool/3000-2094_4-10974082.html

--

J. Inzer MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk
 
P

Paul

Flightless Bird
Firewalker wrote:
> I have 16GB microSd card that I just received and after I formatted it on XP,
> it only says it has a capacity of 961MB. When I put it into my phone, it is
> also shows as 961MB.
>
> I then went into the disk management tool in the control panel and found my
> disk. The disk still showed up as having a 16GB capacity. So, I figured I
> could format it from here. Instead, it changed the capacity to also read
> 16GB.
>
> I found a tool that seemed to wipe the card clean (called diskerase from
> these forums). But, it's still at 961MB. I'm out of ideas now. Any
> suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


There are such things as counterfeit flash devices, and a major source is Ebay.

Paul
 
F

Firewalker

Flightless Bird
Thanks for the suggestions, guys.

When I ran the diskerase, it left my card as a raw data card. When I
inserted it into my phone (Tilt 2), it formatted it, but it's still 960MB.
There doesn't seem to be an option to format it again on my phone.

I've also tried the HP tool, but it did not work. There didn't seem to be
an option to change the storage to 16GB. I also tried a software called SD
Formatter. But, it also wouldn't allow me to change the capacity to 16GB.

I also noticed I had an error in my original message. After i formatted the
card in disk management in the control panel, it changed the capacity to also
read 960MB.

Any other suggestions, anyone? Thank you again for the suggestions so far.

"John Inzer" wrote:

> Firewalker wrote:
> > I have 16GB microSd card that I just received and after I formatted
> > it on XP, it only says it has a capacity of 961MB. When I put it
> > into my phone, it is also shows as 961MB.
> >
> > I then went into the disk management tool in the control panel and
> > found my disk. The disk still showed up as having a 16GB capacity.
> > So, I figured I could format it from here. Instead, it changed the
> > capacity to also read 16GB.
> >
> > I found a tool that seemed to wipe the card clean (called diskerase
> > from these forums). But, it's still at 961MB. I'm out of ideas now.
> > Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

> ==============================
> No guarantees but maybe the following
> freeware can format your card.
>
> ***Proceed at your own risk***
>
> HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool
> http://tinyurl.com/yc42amj
> or.....
> http://download.cnet.com/HP-USB-Disk-Storage-Format-Tool/3000-2094_4-10974082.html
>
> --
>
> J. Inzer MS-MVP
> Digital Media Experience
>
> Notice
> This is not tech support
> I am a volunteer
>
> Solutions that work for
> me may not work for you
>
> Proceed at your own risk
>
>
> .
>
 
C

C.Joseph Drayton

Flightless Bird
Hi Firewalker,

If you use the freeware application FAT32Format (command-line)

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/FAT32format.shtml

you can than format the SD card as FAT32. A lot of portable devices will
still format as FAT16 or in some cases NVFS. If you format that card as
FAT32 on your PC then use it in your phone.

I just Googled the HTC Tilt 2 and apparently by default it does format
as FAT16, so the recommendation listed above will work for you. The HTC
Tilt 2 will handle up to a 32GB microSDHC card (if formatted as FAT32).

Sincerely,
C.Joseph Drayton, Ph.D. AS&T

CSD Computer Services

Web site: http://csdcs.site90.net/
E-mail: c.joseph@csdcs.site90.net


On 1/10/2010 10:37 PM, Firewalker wrote:
> Thanks for the suggestions, guys.
>
> When I ran the diskerase, it left my card as a raw data card. When I
> inserted it into my phone (Tilt 2), it formatted it, but it's still 960MB.
> There doesn't seem to be an option to format it again on my phone.
>
> I've also tried the HP tool, but it did not work. There didn't seem to be
> an option to change the storage to 16GB. I also tried a software called SD
> Formatter. But, it also wouldn't allow me to change the capacity to 16GB.
>
> I also noticed I had an error in my original message. After i formatted the
> card in disk management in the control panel, it changed the capacity to also
> read 960MB.
>
> Any other suggestions, anyone? Thank you again for the suggestions so far.
>
> "John Inzer" wrote:
>
>> Firewalker wrote:
>>> I have 16GB microSd card that I just received and after I formatted
>>> it on XP, it only says it has a capacity of 961MB. When I put it
>>> into my phone, it is also shows as 961MB.
>>>
>>> I then went into the disk management tool in the control panel and
>>> found my disk. The disk still showed up as having a 16GB capacity.
>>> So, I figured I could format it from here. Instead, it changed the
>>> capacity to also read 16GB.
>>>
>>> I found a tool that seemed to wipe the card clean (called diskerase
>>> from these forums). But, it's still at 961MB. I'm out of ideas now.
>>> Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

>> ==============================
>> No guarantees but maybe the following
>> freeware can format your card.
>>
>> ***Proceed at your own risk***
>>
>> HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool
>> http://tinyurl.com/yc42amj
>> or.....
>> http://download.cnet.com/HP-USB-Disk-Storage-Format-Tool/3000-2094_4-10974082.html
>>
>> --
>>
>> J. Inzer MS-MVP
>> Digital Media Experience
>>
>> Notice
>> This is not tech support
>> I am a volunteer
>>
>> Solutions that work for
>> me may not work for you
>>
>> Proceed at your own risk
>>
>>
>> .
>>
 
F

Firewalker

Flightless Bird
Thanks for the reply, guys.

I just noticed that my original post was slightly wrong. After I
reformatted the card in the disk management section in the control panel, it
changed the capacity to also read 16GB. So, I can't get anything to read it
as 16GB.

I believe the card is formatted as a FAT32. But, i think I also tried FAT.
I tried formatting on my phone after using diskerase to make the card raw.
But, it still showed up as 961MB.

I've also tried the HP tool, but it did not work. Another software I tried
was SD Formatter, but that did not work either. None had the option to
change the capacity to 16GB.

Thanks again for the suggestions so far. Any other ideas, anyone?

"John Inzer" wrote:

> Firewalker wrote:
> > I have 16GB microSd card that I just received and after I formatted
> > it on XP, it only says it has a capacity of 961MB. When I put it
> > into my phone, it is also shows as 961MB.
> >
> > I then went into the disk management tool in the control panel and
> > found my disk. The disk still showed up as having a 16GB capacity.
> > So, I figured I could format it from here. Instead, it changed the
> > capacity to also read 16GB.
> >
> > I found a tool that seemed to wipe the card clean (called diskerase
> > from these forums). But, it's still at 961MB. I'm out of ideas now.
> > Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

> ==============================
> No guarantees but maybe the following
> freeware can format your card.
>
> ***Proceed at your own risk***
>
> HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool
> http://tinyurl.com/yc42amj
> or.....
> http://download.cnet.com/HP-USB-Disk-Storage-Format-Tool/3000-2094_4-10974082.html
>
> --
>
> J. Inzer MS-MVP
> Digital Media Experience
>
> Notice
> This is not tech support
> I am a volunteer
>
> Solutions that work for
> me may not work for you
>
> Proceed at your own risk
>
>
> .
>
 
S

smlunatick

Flightless Bird
On Jan 11, 1:37 pm, Firewalker <Firewal...@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote:
> Thanks for the reply, guys.
>
> I just noticed that my original post was slightly wrong.  After I
> reformatted the card in the disk management section in the control panel,it
> changed the capacity to also read 16GB.  So, I can't get anything to read it
> as 16GB.
>
> I believe the card is formatted as a FAT32.  But, i think I also tried FAT.  
> I tried formatting on my phone after using diskerase to make the card raw..  
> But, it still showed up as 961MB.
>
> I've also tried the HP tool, but it did not work.  Another software I tried
> was SD Formatter, but that did not work either.  None had the option to
> change the capacity to 16GB.
>
> Thanks again for the suggestions so far.  Any other ideas, anyone?
>
> "John Inzer" wrote:
> > Firewalker wrote:
> > > I have 16GB microSd card that I just received and after I formatted
> > > it on XP, it only says it has a capacity of 961MB.  When I put it
> > > into my phone, it is also shows as 961MB.

>
> > > I then went into the disk management tool in the control panel and
> > > found my disk.  The disk still showed up as having a 16GB capacity.
> > > So, I figured I could format it from here.  Instead, it changed the
> > > capacity to also read 16GB.

>
> > > I found a tool that seemed to wipe the card clean (called diskerase
> > > from these forums).  But, it's still at 961MB.  I'm out of ideas now.
> > > Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

> > ==============================
> > No guarantees but maybe the following
> > freeware can format your card.

>
> > ***Proceed at your own risk***

>
> > HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool
> >http://tinyurl.com/yc42amj
> >      or.....
> >http://download.cnet.com/HP-USB-Disk-Storage-Format-Tool/3000-2094_4-...

>
> > --

>
> >       J. Inzer MS-MVP
> > Digital Media Experience

>
> >             Notice
> > This is not tech support
> >       I am a volunteer

>
> >  Solutions that work for
> > me may not work for you

>
> > Proceed at your own risk

>
> > .


How long have you "owned" this microSD card? As with most Flash
"memory" card / drives, these have a "finite" time limit where the
"flash" memory will no longer work correctly.
 
F

Firewalker

Flightless Bird
Hmm. For some reason, my response has not showed up. This is my 3rd time
posting. If there is suddenly 3 repeat posts that show up, I apologize in
advance.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. In answer to the questions:

The formatting on the card is FAT32 (I also tried FAT). I formatted the
card on my phone after I used diskerase to turn the card into raw media. It
still showed up as 961MB.

I also used the HP Disk Format Tool. It still shows up as 961MB. Another
tool I used was SD Formatter, but that did not work either.

I noticed I had an error in my first post: When I reformatted the card in
the disk management tool, it changed the capacity to 961MB, too. So, now
there is no where that I can get the card to show a 16GB capacity.
 
T

Tim Slattery

Flightless Bird
Firewalker <Firewalker@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>I noticed I had an error in my first post: When I reformatted the card in
>the disk management tool, it changed the capacity to 961MB, too. So, now
>there is no where that I can get the card to show a 16GB capacity.


My guess is that there is only one partition on the device, and it's
only 961MB. Use Disk Management to check the partition structure on
the device. If it's as I suspect, you'll be able to delete the
existing partition and create a new one that spans the entire device.

--
Tim Slattery
Slattery_T@bls.gov
http://members.cox.net/slatteryt
 
F

Firewalker

Flightless Bird
This sounds like an interesting suggestion, but I need a little help
understanding. If my phone formats in FAT16 by default, would formatting in
FAT32 work?

"C.Joseph Drayton" wrote:

> Hi Firewalker,
>
> If you use the freeware application FAT32Format (command-line)
>
> http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/FAT32format.shtml
>
> you can than format the SD card as FAT32. A lot of portable devices will
> still format as FAT16 or in some cases NVFS. If you format that card as
> FAT32 on your PC then use it in your phone.
>
> I just Googled the HTC Tilt 2 and apparently by default it does format
> as FAT16, so the recommendation listed above will work for you. The HTC
> Tilt 2 will handle up to a 32GB microSDHC card (if formatted as FAT32).
>
> Sincerely,
> C.Joseph Drayton, Ph.D. AS&T
>
> CSD Computer Services
>
> Web site: http://csdcs.site90.net/
> E-mail: c.joseph@csdcs.site90.net
>
>
> On 1/10/2010 10:37 PM, Firewalker wrote:
> > Thanks for the suggestions, guys.
> >
> > When I ran the diskerase, it left my card as a raw data card. When I
> > inserted it into my phone (Tilt 2), it formatted it, but it's still 960MB.
> > There doesn't seem to be an option to format it again on my phone.
> >
> > I've also tried the HP tool, but it did not work. There didn't seem to be
> > an option to change the storage to 16GB. I also tried a software called SD
> > Formatter. But, it also wouldn't allow me to change the capacity to 16GB.
> >
> > I also noticed I had an error in my original message. After i formatted the
> > card in disk management in the control panel, it changed the capacity to also
> > read 960MB.
> >
> > Any other suggestions, anyone? Thank you again for the suggestions so far.
> >
> > "John Inzer" wrote:
> >
> >> Firewalker wrote:
> >>> I have 16GB microSd card that I just received and after I formatted
> >>> it on XP, it only says it has a capacity of 961MB. When I put it
> >>> into my phone, it is also shows as 961MB.
> >>>
> >>> I then went into the disk management tool in the control panel and
> >>> found my disk. The disk still showed up as having a 16GB capacity.
> >>> So, I figured I could format it from here. Instead, it changed the
> >>> capacity to also read 16GB.
> >>>
> >>> I found a tool that seemed to wipe the card clean (called diskerase
> >>> from these forums). But, it's still at 961MB. I'm out of ideas now.
> >>> Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
> >> ==============================
> >> No guarantees but maybe the following
> >> freeware can format your card.
> >>
> >> ***Proceed at your own risk***
> >>
> >> HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool
> >> http://tinyurl.com/yc42amj
> >> or.....
> >> http://download.cnet.com/HP-USB-Disk-Storage-Format-Tool/3000-2094_4-10974082.html
> >>
> >> --
> >>
> >> J. Inzer MS-MVP
> >> Digital Media Experience
> >>
> >> Notice
> >> This is not tech support
> >> I am a volunteer
> >>
> >> Solutions that work for
> >> me may not work for you
> >>
> >> Proceed at your own risk
> >>
> >>
> >> .
> >>

>
>
> .
>
 
F

Firewalker

Flightless Bird
This memory card is actually brand new. It "should" work.
 
F

Firewalker

Flightless Bird
I suspect somewhere around here is where my problem lies. I went to disk
managemtn after I formatted it the first time. It originally showed the card
had a capacity of 16GB even though only 960MB was available. But, when I
formatted it, that's when the 16GB capacity also turned into 960MB. How do I
delete the partition or see if one is there? The layout says "partition",
but when I right click on the drive, the "delete partition" option is grayed
out.

> My guess is that there is only one partition on the device, and it's
> only 961MB. Use Disk Management to check the partition structure on
> the device. If it's as I suspect, you'll be able to delete the
> existing partition and create a new one that spans the entire device.
>
> --
> Tim Slattery
> Slattery_T@bls.gov
> http://members.cox.net/slatteryt
> .
>
 
F

Firewalker

Flightless Bird
I also suspect that this is a possibility. How do I check? When I received
the card, the card reader was set to lock. So, I made the mistake of
thinking I should format the drive, which caused the capacity to fall to
960MB. But, when I went to disk management, it showed a 16GB capacity
(before I made the next big mistake and formatted again which turned this
capacity to 960M8).

"Paul" wrote:

> Firewalker wrote:
> > I have 16GB microSd card that I just received and after I formatted it on XP,
> > it only says it has a capacity of 961MB. When I put it into my phone, it is
> > also shows as 961MB.
> >
> > I then went into the disk management tool in the control panel and found my
> > disk. The disk still showed up as having a 16GB capacity. So, I figured I
> > could format it from here. Instead, it changed the capacity to also read
> > 16GB.
> >
> > I found a tool that seemed to wipe the card clean (called diskerase from
> > these forums). But, it's still at 961MB. I'm out of ideas now. Any
> > suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

>
> There are such things as counterfeit flash devices, and a major source is Ebay.
>
> Paul
> .
>
 
C

C.Joseph Drayton

Flightless Bird
Hi Firewalker,

Yes it will work according to the spec sheet for the HTC Tilt 2, it can
read both. What we are seeing is something that happened years ago with
WindowsXP a number of manufacturers like Compaq formatted the disk as
FAT32 on their machines that came pre-installed with WindowsXP. Of
course WindowsXP (original) could read/write NTFS but the manufacturer
chose FAT32. WindowsXP also would not format a partition that was larger
than 32GB (I think that was the number), but it would read and write to
the FAT32 partition that was larger than 32GB if the format was done
with a different program (that is why I looked around and found the
application I gave you the link to.

Sincerely,
C.Joseph Drayton, Ph.D. AS&T

CSD Computer Services

Web site: http://csdcs.site90.net/
E-mail: c.joseph@csdcs.site90.net



On 1/11/2010 5:29 PM, Firewalker wrote:
> This sounds like an interesting suggestion, but I need a little help
> understanding. If my phone formats in FAT16 by default, would formatting in
> FAT32 work?
 
F

Firewalker

Flightless Bird
I ran a chkdsk in DOS on the disk. It looks like it's also showing 1GB.
I'm very worried now. Is it possible for a format to physically alter the
capacity of the drive?
 
P

Paul

Flightless Bird
Firewalker wrote:
> I suspect somewhere around here is where my problem lies. I went to disk
> managemtn after I formatted it the first time. It originally showed the card
> had a capacity of 16GB even though only 960MB was available. But, when I
> formatted it, that's when the 16GB capacity also turned into 960MB. How do I
> delete the partition or see if one is there? The layout says "partition",
> but when I right click on the drive, the "delete partition" option is grayed
> out.


So it is not partitioned then.

There are a couple ways to prep a storage device. Various OSes restrict how easy
it is to do these things. If you alternate between OSes (I use Windows some times
and Linux other times), you can easily do both.

These are the two options I've seen. The first would correspond to my hard
drives right now. The first sector contains the MBR (a sector is 512 bytes).
The MBR has four entries that point to up to four primary partitions. There
is also a mechanism, for extended (logical) partitions, to allow even more
partitions than the four shown. I generally stick with the primary type.

+------+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
| MBR | Partition #1 | Partition #2 | Partition #3 | Partition #4 |
+------+----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+

The second option just writes a file system, without an MBR sector. For example,
I've done a copy of a 1440KB floppy diskette, sector by sector, to a 1GB flash
stick, and after that, the flash stick said it was 1440K in size, and I could
not store any more than 1440K in it, even though it was a whole gigabyte in
size. When I trash the info stored in that flash stick, where those 1440K
of storage are located, it stops doing that :) So I got all my capacity
back, after erasing it.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Partition |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+

My guess is, yours isn't erased yet.

Get a copy of the Windows port of "dd". "dd" stands for disk dump, originally
written for Unix. This one has one tiny but irritating bug, but nothing
serious.

http://www.chrysocome.net/dd

You use the executable in a DOS (Command Prompt) window. CD to the directory
containing the executable. The first command to try, is this

dd --list

That will give the names of all the storage devices and their sizes. Since
the labels or drive letters won't be shown (this is physical level info),
you must use the size info to figure out what is what.

Since your drive is currently formatted in some FATxx format, chances are
"dd" is not going to get into a snit about permissions. You should be able to
write to it. I have trouble with "dd" sometimes, working with NTFS partitions,
or trying to overwrite the system partition :)

After listing all the drives, you look for a likely entry. For example,
I picked this out as being my 8GB flash stick. Partition0 refers to the size
of the whole stick 8,019,509,248 bytes. Partition0 is the "raw" device and that
is the one that is going to make the erasure attempt work right. The file system
(FAT32) in the first partition is 8,013,233,152 bytes.

\\?\Device\Harddisk3\Partition0 <----- represents the whole stick
link to \\?\Device\Harddisk3\DR15
Removable media other than floppy. Block size = 512
size is 8019509248 bytes
\\?\Device\Harddisk3\Partition1 <----- my FAT32 partition
link to \\?\Device\Harddisk3\DP(1)0-0+10
Removable media other than floppy. Block size = 512
size is 8013233152 bytes

If I run PTEDIT32 by double clicking it, it shows me the contents of the MBR.

ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip

Since my flash stick currently has an MBR, PREDIT32 works, and shows one partition.
My stick is currently bootable and has Linux on it. 15650846*512= 8,013,233,152 bytes
in the first partition.

+------+-----------------------------------------+
| MBR | FAT32 Partition1 8,013,233,152 bytes |
+------+-----------------------------------------+

Type Boot Starting Cyl Head Sector Ending Cyl Head Sector Sectors before Sectors
0C 80 0 0 1 1021 246 62 62 15650846

Now, if my flash stick didn't have an MBR on it, chances are PTEDIT32 wouldn't even
show the device. It would likely be ignored.

Anyway, now it is time to erase my flash stick. I could erase the whole thing, but
this would take many minutes. In the case of this port of "dd", in fact the command
would foul up (it runs past the end and that is a bit unnerving - it scared me the
first time it happened). So don't do this to a flash memory. This command would
behave nicely if the device was a hard drive. But for some reason, it doesn't
work quite right on flash.

dd if=/dev/zero of=\\?\Device\Harddisk3\Partition0

I recommend an alternative command syntax, where you specify the size. To make
the stick "unallocated" again, try just erasing 10000 sectors. This shouldn't
take too long. The product of bs * count, is how much space will be erased (about 5M8).

dd if=/dev/zero of=\\?\Device\Harddisk3\Partition0 bs=512 count=10000

If I wanted to erase the whole stick, I'd cook up values for bs and count, such
that the whole stick would be erased. This is what I'd do if I only had the
Windows version of dd. But I don't think erasing the whole thing, is going
to make Windows behave any different, than just erasing the start of the
storage device. The block size "bs" is selected to not exceed the maximum
block size the device might support in a single write command, and I aim for
somewhere around a quarter megabyte or so. I use the Linux "factor" program,
to factor the number and make it easier to work out a value.
262144*30592 = 8,019,509,248 so the whole stick gets erased.

dd if=/dev/zero of=\\?\Device\Harddisk3\Partition0 bs=262144 count=30592

Anyway, give "dd" a try, erase the start of the 16GB device, then
go back into Disk Management and see if you can format it to your
liking.

When the "dd" command is finished, it reports the number of blocks it
processed. That too, gives some hint as to whether the device size
is correct or not. For example, if I gave bs*count of 10GB and the
device was only 5GB in size, the count returned would be only half
of what I specified. (I made a mistake just yesterday with the command,
and it is always important to verify the returned count. I nearly
flubbed a backup I was making.)

My flash stick was prepared in Linux the last time I used it, which is
why it has an MBR. Otherwise, it might not have been given one.

HTH,
Paul

>
>> My guess is that there is only one partition on the device, and it's
>> only 961MB. Use Disk Management to check the partition structure on
>> the device. If it's as I suspect, you'll be able to delete the
>> existing partition and create a new one that spans the entire device.
>>
>> --
>> Tim Slattery
>> Slattery_T@bls.gov
>> http://members.cox.net/slatteryt
>> .
>>
 
F

Firewalker

Flightless Bird
For some reason, your latest response didn't show on this board, but on
another board (htfc.com), but I am going to reply to you on this one (windows
xp general group) since this is how I have been posting from the beginning.
I hope this gets to you.

Anyway, thank you very much for the detailed help, Tim.

I tried this command:

dd if=/dev/zero of=\\?\Device\Harddisk3\Partition0 bs=512 count=10000

It returned:
10000+0 records in
10000+0 records out

But, when I went into disk management, it still shows up as having 961MB.
It did at least remove the file system specification on the card. So, I
think we might be on the right track? Should I try this command (or perhaps
double the bs or count) to erase the whole disk?

dd if=/dev/zero of=\\?\Device\Harddisk3\Partition0 bs=262144 count=30592
 
P

Paul

Flightless Bird
Firewalker wrote:
> For some reason, your latest response didn't show on this board, but on
> another board (htfc.com), but I am going to reply to you on this one (windows
> xp general group) since this is how I have been posting from the beginning.
> I hope this gets to you.
>
> Anyway, thank you very much for the detailed help, Tim.
>
> I tried this command:
>
> dd if=/dev/zero of=\\?\Device\Harddisk3\Partition0 bs=512 count=10000
>
> It returned:
> 10000+0 records in
> 10000+0 records out
>
> But, when I went into disk management, it still shows up as having 961MB.
> It did at least remove the file system specification on the card. So, I
> think we might be on the right track? Should I try this command (or perhaps
> double the bs or count) to erase the whole disk?
>
> dd if=/dev/zero of=\\?\Device\Harddisk3\Partition0 bs=262144 count=30592
>
>


When you do "dd --list", what size is it showing there ? Paste this kind of
stuff for the device.

Removable media other than floppy. Block size = 512
size is 8019509248 bytes

I would expect the size detection in "dd" is the same as the size detection
in Windows. If Windows sees 961MB, then "dd" probably will too. I believe
"dd" at least has to go through the normal drivers to get to the device,
so it can't "invent" anything on its own.

If you try "bs=262144 count=30592", it should stop at the point it thinks it
hit the end. Due to the end detection bug for flash devices, I can't really
predict what it will do. Maybe it will stop at 3844 ? (961M8)

You can certainly try it. I don't expect it will do anything to the device,
any more than crafting a command that exactly erases 961MB would have.

What we're relying on here, is for the driver for that device, to be doing
the right thing. I don't know if there is a way around that, as in something
more "raw" that looks at device registers.

On IDE devices, there is a command called SETMAX, that allows redefining the
size of a drive (in the downward direction). But most modern machines will
prevent you from playing with that. The BIOS is supposed to "close the door"
to changes, for security reasons. If the BIOS did not provide a mechanism
for locking out SETMAX, then malware could use it to ruin disks for people.
I don't know if your storage device would support that or not.

See in particular, the "Identification methods" section here. Apparently
Linux can detect an HPA (done by SETMAX). Whether such concepts apply to
your flash device, I can't tell you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_protected_area

Paul
 
F

Firewalker

Flightless Bird
Sorry for the late response. Thanks for the continued support. This is
getting very complicated to understand now. When I ran dd0 --list, it
returned:

\\?\Device\Harddisk1\Partition0
link to \\?\Device\Harddisk1\DR20
Removable media other than floppy. Block size = 512
size is 1007681536 bytes
\\?\Device\Harddisk1\Partition1
link to \\?\Device\Harddisk1\DP(1)0-0+15
Removable media other than floppy. Block size = 512
size is 1007681536 bytes

I'll do some research on the HPA to see if I could find a potential solution
there.

-Toby
"Paul" wrote:

> Firewalker wrote:
> > For some reason, your latest response didn't show on this board, but on
> > another board (htfc.com), but I am going to reply to you on this one (windows
> > xp general group) since this is how I have been posting from the beginning.
> > I hope this gets to you.
> >
> > Anyway, thank you very much for the detailed help, Tim.
> >
> > I tried this command:
> >
> > dd if=/dev/zero of=\\?\Device\Harddisk3\Partition0 bs=512 count=10000
> >
> > It returned:
> > 10000+0 records in
> > 10000+0 records out
> >
> > But, when I went into disk management, it still shows up as having 961MB.
> > It did at least remove the file system specification on the card. So, I
> > think we might be on the right track? Should I try this command (or perhaps
> > double the bs or count) to erase the whole disk?
> >
> > dd if=/dev/zero of=\\?\Device\Harddisk3\Partition0 bs=262144 count=30592
> >
> >

>
> When you do "dd --list", what size is it showing there ? Paste this kind of
> stuff for the device.
>
> Removable media other than floppy. Block size = 512
> size is 8019509248 bytes
>
> I would expect the size detection in "dd" is the same as the size detection
> in Windows. If Windows sees 961MB, then "dd" probably will too. I believe
> "dd" at least has to go through the normal drivers to get to the device,
> so it can't "invent" anything on its own.
>
> If you try "bs=262144 count=30592", it should stop at the point it thinks it
> hit the end. Due to the end detection bug for flash devices, I can't really
> predict what it will do. Maybe it will stop at 3844 ? (961M8)
>
> You can certainly try it. I don't expect it will do anything to the device,
> any more than crafting a command that exactly erases 961MB would have.
>
> What we're relying on here, is for the driver for that device, to be doing
> the right thing. I don't know if there is a way around that, as in something
> more "raw" that looks at device registers.
>
> On IDE devices, there is a command called SETMAX, that allows redefining the
> size of a drive (in the downward direction). But most modern machines will
> prevent you from playing with that. The BIOS is supposed to "close the door"
> to changes, for security reasons. If the BIOS did not provide a mechanism
> for locking out SETMAX, then malware could use it to ruin disks for people.
> I don't know if your storage device would support that or not.
>
> See in particular, the "Identification methods" section here. Apparently
> Linux can detect an HPA (done by SETMAX). Whether such concepts apply to
> your flash device, I can't tell you.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_protected_area
>
> Paul
> .
>
 
Top