Why is it not possible to partition a USB Flash Stick?

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I have a 1GB FlashStick from cnmemory de
(The same as Lexar Jumpdrive)
It came without any setup software!

Because other vendors ship Software with their sticks to
create a secure partition on a second partiton I would
like to do the same using a commercial software.
In order to be able to use the software I need two
partitons on the stick.

-- so far for the theory --

First of all I used the windows andministration console to
delete the partition that was already on the stick from
shipping time.

After that I wantet to create two partitions on the stick
but the administration console only offered making one
single partition over the whole size of the usb drive.

To be able to use the stick again I did that.

Now the funktion to delete this partition was greyed out by
windows.

Frustrated and in need to handle the problem I bought
Partition Manager 2005 from 7Tools/Paragon Software.
This manager was the only one I found able to handle
USB Flash Drives. Partition Magic can´t !!!

Using this Partition manager I´m able to create whatever
I want on the stick. The problem now is that after assigning
a drive letter to one partition I´m not able to do the same
with the second. Windows tells me that it needs a restart in
order to finish the changes but when it is restarted the second
partition still has o drive letter :-(

How am I going to take care of this?

Maybe there is someone who managed to have two partitions on one
stick without using the software of the sticks vendor to
accomplish this.
Or someone knows such a setup tool that works with any stick.

Neither cnmemory now lexar provides this for my stick, only
drivers.

Many thanks

Ciao

Moongate
 
USB Partitions

IT IS Possible to make partitions on a usb flash stick, i dont think RealBlackStuff actually understood what you where asking - Yes HP USB Boot tool will create a bootable flash stick - but that is not the question.

The Question is how to assign a drive letter/make accessible a USB Stick's Second or Other Partition; And if there is a tool for it.

- you CANT use HP USB Boot tool to make partitions accessible - it creates one large fat/fat32/ntfs partition - and will remove ALL of your custom partition work. (Probably not what you want)

- I have had the exact same problem - How on earth do you get Windows XP Professional to Assign a Drive letter to a USB Partition. Linux and DOS both recognise the other partitions and assign drive letters automatically/natively.

How I Created 2 Bootable partitions on a USB Flash stick.
-I used BootItNg to create 2 partitions on my 2 GB Generic "My Flash" USB 2.0 stick.

The Second Partition is not accessible from Windows XP. However Win98SE DOS and Linux(Fedora core 5) recognise Both partitions fine. and are accessible.

The question remains unanswered. As far as I know it is not possible to make the second/or other partition on any USB Flash stick accessible in Windows XP. I have tryed the Administrative Tools > Disk Management - but recieved the same error that moongate experienced "the volume or partition is not enabled. restart to enable...". Restarting does not fix the problem or allow you to assign a drive letter to the partition as moongate pointed out.

Any Help on the matter would be greatly appreciated; as this kind of information is few and far between. ive spent hours searching for a answer. hopefully someone here will be able to answer it.

~ShaZ
 
Dual boot Linux and XP from single USB

Actually i hav two USB drives, in first one i hav installed linux as a boot from USB drive, and in anothere drive i hav installed XP OS as boot from USB drive,, now i wanted to install both in single USB PEN DRIVE so that i can have dual boot option in my single pen drive,,so for that which bootloader i should use? if any documents or steps anyone have, then help me out ,,,,

Will grub help me out,, how can i install grub in my pen drive, and which tool is good for partitioning the USB drive

Thnks in advance,,
 
Ok XP can only see one partition on a removable USB but if change the USB driver to a fixed disk driver then XP will see it as a hard drive then we can have lay down multiple partitions as we like. Now open regedit and goto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\USBSTOR
and double click on USBSTORE and you see a subkey below it, select the first subkey below USBSTORE and right click and select Copy Key Name

Here is mine, yours maybe different.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_Generic&Prod_USB_Flash_Disk&Rev_0.00

Now we need only need this part:

USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_Generic&Prod_USB_Flash_Disk&Rev_0.00

Copy and paste it temporarily into notepad.

You will now need this driver. http://www.xpefiles.com/viewtopic.php?t=92
Unpack it to a folder on your desktop. Inside the folder is the file cfadisk.inf. You need to open this file and scroll down to you see the line %Microdrive_devdesc% = cfadisk_install, specific data
Now you need to replace all lines %Microdrive_devdesc% = cfadisk_install, specific data with
the line you copied from your registry like so.

%Microdrive_devdesc% = cfadisk_install,USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_Generic&Prod_USB_Flash_Disk&Rev_0.00

There could be more lines so replace all and save the file.

Goto Device Manager and click on disk drives. You see your USB listed, dbl click on it and goto the driver tab and click update driver and install from a specific location and choose the driver to install and click on Have Disk and browse to the cfadisk.inf file your modified driver on your desktop and force that to replace your existing driver. It might ask you to reboot. You should now have your USB showing as Local Disk

More info here

Its Work :)
 
It is possible. (not recommended though). Go disk control panel and disk management. You can do it from there.
 
You need to be using a flash drive of 1 GB or larger, and of the more recent technology. For Partition Magic, you must be using Partition Magic 8.0, then with a valid license, you can call tech support to follow up on the issues. I don't think you can do a partition smaller than 55 MB with the partitioning software.
 
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