my dumb bf formatted his 256 usb drive & gave it to me after he killed it. I was able to partition it in Disk Management & now I get to keep it!! Thanks!!

no problem, just delete the old partition, and create a new partition!

the USB drive is treated like a mini- hard drive.
tell your boyfriend thanks!

[Color=Indigo]All the answers led me to discover the MMC and its formatting ability (thank you), but no one answered the question as to how large the partition sizes should be. I also need this information, as I accidently quick formatted my 128mb generic usb mp3 player. I wound up with nothing in Fat16 root sector, and nothing but data in a fat32 sector (and many "this sector is too large!" :eek: msgs. I also have a 256mb with the same problem, the firmware formatted out of existance. This information isn't as readily available with a google search.[/Color]

you don't enter and tracks or sectors for a flash drive. They're aren't any.

Go into disk management under windows and raw format the flash drive. You can use fat32 for a style type.

once the flash drive is formatted, you're in business.

[COLOR=DarkRed] the way I originally killed the 128mb flash mp3 was by quick-formatting it. A helpful person suggested that the fat16 boot sector couldn't read the quick-formatted fat32, and I kept getting errors saying it was too large. Though that wasn't the only problem (who knows what happened to the firmware?).

[URL=http://www.geocities.com/sam8988378/sam8988378_index.html?1123265222558]

is where you will find screen captures of TestDisk.exe & win xp pro properties of the 256mb without firmware ( : wouldn't you know its Buslink, a place with perpetually busy tech support nontollfree phone #, and apparently not in the habit of answering their email). Both show sectors.

I used the MMC to format the 256 to fat. Now it just reads as one vast, open space, no partitions. Yet I know there must have been partitions at another time and place. This is from a diskcheck of the 128mb:
Volume Serial Number is 1AFC-2A2B
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

128882688 bytes total disk space.
2048 bytes in 1 hidden files.
124309504 bytes in 38 files.
4571136 bytes available on disk.

2048 bytes in each allocation unit.
62931 total allocation units on disk.
2232 allocation units available on disk.
Checking file system on G:
The type of the file system is FAT.

When I would open the drive in Windows Explorer, unless I put data on the drive, it would show nothing there. Yet, as you can see from above, there was. Now its all just so , and I'm gymslacking (totally new behavior :eek: ) or crating cd's around, or trying to decide what to put on cd (not the same oh-well-this-doesn't-work-I'll-delete-it-and-put-something-else-on.) [/QUOTE][/COLOR]

if you follow my instructions, you will have it back.

GO TO disk control panel
goto administrative tools
go to computer management
go to disk management

find the letter of your flash drive
low level format it under FAT32

BAM! you have it back

whatever you had on your flash drive is gone.
if you can't read your flash drive and you haven't tried my fix, assume your data is lost.
you can try a tool like PC inspector smart recovery, but if your computer recognizes your flash drive, yet won't access it, your data is gone.

An easy way this happens is:
1. You formatted the flash drive by accident thinking it was another hard disk. (Always remove flash drives when partitioning other hard disks.)
2. You failed to STOP the flash drive before removing it and the flash drive became corrupted.

Im trying to format mine but its unable to format using the disk administrative tool ...

Any other suggestions ?? (The partition thing is not highlighted for my Sandisk Cruzer Mini)

Need help urgently !!!!!

then it's dead

Is there another program that i could use ??

Cuz this thing is brand new ... i jus used it for a couple of minutes ....

I use HP Format Utility for HP Drive Key or DiskOnKey USB Device, it works fine with other USB sticks too.

The HP program says "The Media Is Write Protected" ...

How do i remove the write protection ??
(It dosent have a notch on the side or anything ...)

I URGENTLY need to fix it ...

THANK YOU for your KillDisk fix! I didn't know that app existed, and it brought my poor little 64MB flash drive to 62MB of strength! Of course, it's still down 2MB, but its better than 47!

Thank god for bigger geeks than me

then you still have a partition issue.

Go to disk management and find that usb drive.

format the remaining parition, or delete the existing one and do a total format.

You have to be careful with USB drives.

if they're really stubburn, it's much better to just get a new one. heck. you can get a 1gig USB drive for $50

xtremepcgear.com has them

[COLOR=DarkOliveGreen]I followed your instructions, then tried the buslink. "No Music" it said, although I had loaded some music. I moved the side toggle to voice. "no Music" it replied. The response was the same when I went through music, voice, information, music, & format :knock:

I said harsh things to it, then put it into the USB port. I wanted to check it out with windows explorer, which told me that the drive wasn't formatted ???

I've pretty much given up on it but hate the idea of something happening and not knowing why or what. After all, if you don't know w or w, how can you make sure it doesn't happen again?

On a more positive note, the generic 128mb mp3 (which had been quick-formatted into oblivion), is now operating, using the Lyra firmware update. Go figure! [/COLOR]

I have a generic no-mane brand flash drive that was "stuck" in RAW format mode and Windows XP was unable to do a thing with it.

This HP flash drive formatter fixed it in an instant, and as far as I'm concerned it was a miracle worker — and it was FREE!

Thank you very much Mictlantecuhtli

I need help as well! My 4gb usb key was formatted by my stupid self...now when i plug it in, XP loads a "generic usb storage device driver" and when i try to click on the drive (E: ) in "My Computer," it says to "insert a disk in drive E:"

Now i can't re-format it, or even find it in the Device Manager, Killdisk, or anything else related to solving this problem.

Sorry guys, but i'm lost...

Vince

I have a similar. My Sony VAIO 2GB USB Flash was in FAT format. Since it was making errors (files and folders could not be opened, or opened with data as 0's), I re-formatted it in FAT32. I tried to copy about 1.5GB of data onto it, but not everything was copied. Then I tried to re-format it again but the message "Insert a disk in drive E:" appeared. In Windows Explorer it appears as a removable drive, but when one clicks on it, that insert disk message appears.

I DO NOT need to recover any data from it. All I want is to totally erase/kill all the files on it before returning it to the seller because there are some sensitive data among the files copied onto this USB Flash. Any low-cost/free solution would be whole-heartedly appreciated. Many thanks in advance!

who can halpp me
i have USB My Flash 512 and it's write protected, I tried to solove the problem by killdisk and HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool but itisn't worked

I have similar problem with this guy but I have 2 GB instead of 4 can anyone help me

Usually the write protection is a switch on the side of the stick. Is this not the case here?

It could also be that USB devices have been set read-only in Windows as a security measure. Have you tried it as an administrator?