Comments on: Mysterious AMD USB drive

By: Roo

Roo — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 02:59:43 +0000

This was ages ago (original post from 2008). I still have the key, and never figured out how to fix it. In the course of looking into the problem I came across the fascinating world of ‘fake flash drives’.

http://reviews.ebay.com/HOW-TO-TEST-FOR-FAKE-USB-DRIVE_W0QQugidZ10000000003664934

http://caprolibra.com/B10g/images/20080410-usb-flash-fake-capacity/USB-Flash-Drive-Scam-Hotfix.html

This is using basically a similar trick, but instead of partitioning the drive into 2 areas – they are pretending the drive volume is bigger than it should be.

Of course, the programs to do this will vary from flash controller to flash controller.

[Edit]
Ooh, look this link may be a solution http://forums.hak5.org/index.php?showtopic=8614 something I’ll have to poke at when I’m running Windows.

By: Fred M.

Fred M. — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 06:07:43 +0000

That’s brilliant on AMD’s part if it takes so much effort to delete a partition and reformat. I hope you find a fix, but nowadays 1GB USB flash is nothing.

By: Ken Walker

Ken Walker — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 23:39:30 +0000

(Ken who was strip searched going through customs because of this USB stick) says: Not sure if there’s anything on the mac that might help? Could always plug it into McQ’s or mine. Likely not if you’ve tried those other tools.

By: KL

KL — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 19:18:44 +0000

I haven’t had the opportunity to try the tools you mentioned. However, a correction on my part. It was Partition Manager that I used. It worked for me, as it had features that xp didn’t have.

By: Roo

Roo — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:35:56 +0000

Your assumption is incorrect, but I wasn’t clear as to what I had tried thus far.

I’ve tried to repartition using windows and linux (fdisk). I’ve tried various usb tools (such as the HP USB disk format tool http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,64963-order,3-page,1-c,peripherals/description.html) which has been useful to me in the past to make a USB drive bootable. I played around with some tools from hddguru.com that claim to allow low-level formatting, but still no dice.

There is a fairly popular issue similar to this with the U3 enabled drives. http://www.u3.com – and these folk supply a removal tool. This may be a similar type of technology, but of course the U3 removal is not likely to work.

By: KL

KL — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 17:19:47 +0000

Hi there.
I am assuming you are trying to format by right clicking the drive letter in windows and selecting format, correct? This method is for formatting only, not re-partitioning.

I think windows will let you do this. Treat it like a harddrive. Right click on the “My Computer” icon either on your desktop or in the Start Menu and select “Manage.” Once there, you can remove the 2 partitions and create one overall partition.

However, my preference, PartitionMagic. It makes things a lot easier than the windows way.

Good luck.