Need to format a pen drive with protected content
 

I have a 1 GB pen drive which has mysteriously turned into a locked pen drive. I have no idea what the contents are and really don't care all that much. Unfortunately, I can't even get it to show up when I plug it in.

HELLLP!!!

If you are running on Windows, I'd suggest you to connect the pen driver to your PC, go to the Device Manager (press the left-window button and Pause, then select the Hardware tab and finally press the Device Manager button), find your pen drive on the list, click the right button and select Uninstall.

After doing these steps, unplug the device and reattach it again. The operating system will reinstall the drivers and hopefully you will be able to use the pen drive again.

[QUOTE=alpertron;118366]If you are running on Windows, I'd suggest you to connect the pen driver to your PC, go to the Device Manager (press the left-window button and Pause, then select the Hardware tab and finally press the Device Manager button), find your pen drive on the list, click the right button and select Uninstall.

After doing these steps, unplug the device and reattach it again. The operating system will reinstall the drivers and hopefully you will be able to use the pen drive again.[/QUOTE]If you are running Windows, I suggest you boot a Linux CD and then format the pen drive from there. :wink:


Paul

When I stuck the pen drive into my grandmother's computer I saw something called 'The safe', which I assumed, incorrectly, was the pen drive, since it wasn't showing up anywhere else.

I now believe I have a zombie pen drive. When I stick it in USB ports, it blinks, but there are no other signs of life.

[quote=jasong;118394]
I now believe I have a zombie pen drive. When I stick it in USB ports, it blinks, but there are no other signs of life.[/quote]

What other signs of life do you expect to see? That's all mine does. I also suggest you try Alpertron's suggestion.

[QUOTE=bsquared;118396]What other signs of life do you expect to see?[/QUOTE]
Well, I usually expect an icon to show up in the usual places. Does Alperton's method work if no icon is available?:mellow:

[quote=jasong;118398]Well, I usually expect an icon to show up in the usual places. Does Alperton's method work if no icon is available?:mellow:[/quote]

You shouldn't need the pen drive at all. But it assumes that it has been used successfully before in the past. If that is the case, the driver should show up in the device manager under disk drives, and you can uninstall at any time. If you've used multiple USB drives, they will all show up in the list. Make sure you select the right one to uninstall.

That depends on the Device Manager configuration. On the computers I have access, the Device Manager only shows the current devices, so the pen drive must be inserted in order to see it.

Maybe the partition information somehow got messed up, and the partition on the thumb drive got removed--thus, it wouldn't show up in My Computer. You might want to try checking for it in Disk Manager by clicking Start>Run, entering "diskmgmt.msc", and pressing Enter. It should show up in Disk Manager as a disk drive--you can then make a new partition on it, spanning the entire drive. You'll need to format the partition then; I think Disk Manager asks you whether you want to do so immediately after you create the partition.

Thanks, Anonymous, I got it working a few hours ago with your idea.

Sorry for being so late with the thanks. :)

Okay, either the pen drive is so buggy it needs to be thrown away, or the 'Linux to Linux pen drive installation' instructions have something screwy going on, although maybe only with my particular drive.

The website is pendrivelinux.com and it's a grey 1GB Memorex traveldrive.

I should've posted this other thing earlier so I wouldn't've forgotten it, but Ubuntu complained about old "something" tables, and said it would be corrected after a reboot.

I hope you understand that you must always "eject" (from the Ubuntu desktop for example) (or umount) the pen drive before you pull it of its socket, as, usually, information needs to be written to it -- otherwise it might become corrupted.

[QUOTE=paulunderwood;118494]I hope you understand that you must always "eject" (from the Ubuntu desktop for example) (or umount) the pen drive before you pull it of its socket, as, usually, information needs to be written to it -- otherwise it might become corrupted.[/QUOTE]
That's a good point. There was a point where I didn't see the drive represented in the desktop, but when I pulled it out I got a window mentioning what you just said.

On that note, I'll try again. Fingers crossed. (legs crossed, arms crossed, toes crossed, sign of the cross, trying not to become cross ;) )

Edit: I have now decided that pendrivelinux.com is actually a site developed to screw with people's heads.(Not really :) )

continued edit: I keep seeing references to the fact that(I hope I'm saying this correctly) the logical cylinders and their actual location are two different numbers. Well, actually, 3 different numbers, depending on what's being defined. Could that be my problem? I think it may be connected with me trying to make a part on the thumb drive that stores changes to the envirornment through a reboot.

I am going to fix the drive one more time, then wait for a response to this thread before doing anything else.

Hi, is it possible to install windows in pen drive and boot the computer from that pendrive?I have a 4 GB pendrive and the motherboard of my pc also supports booting from USB. If windown can be installed in this pen drive than in the event of windows crashing in the hard disk I can boot my PC from this pen drive.

[quote=berthani;190801][Hi, is it possible to install windows in pen drive and boot the computer from that pendrive?I have a 4 GB pendrive and the motherboard of my pc also supports booting from USB. If windown can be installed in this pen drive than in the event of windows crashing in the hard disk I can boot my PC from this pen drive.[/quote]
[URL]http://www.google.com/search?q=install+windows+on+usb+drive[/URL]
Or, even better (or not, depending on your purpose):
[URL]http://www.google.com/search?q=install+linux+on+usb+drive[/URL]