USB flash drive error

chaosharliquen · 02-13-2008, 07:14 PM

hi, i just got a 8gb generic usb flash drive and the first time i plugged it in the drive opened and i was able to view 8gb of space i formatted it everything worked fine, i tried installing linux onti the drive but the installation got to the disk partitioning screen and when i hit next it said it was unable to initialize drive, i went to school and when i plugged it in the only thing that showed up was a raw partition containg 102mb, the rest of it showed up in disk management but whenever i try to fortmatt/enable or changethe drive path it tells me "The operation did not complete because the partition or volume is not enabled. to enable partion or volume please restart computer" i have done so again and again, also under linux only the 102mb partiton is visible and the rest is nowhere to be found, i also tried acronis and it cannot detect the drive at all. I also tried deleting the first partition which is not an option, cant merge them either. any input would be most appreciated

**Fox** · 02-13-2008, 07:36 PM

I would search google for whatever brand this thing is, because I'm guessing they modified the device's firmware to make it look like it's larger than it is. I've only heard about this with cheap mp3 players, but I'm guessing that's not the only place where this kind of thing pops up.

chaosharliquen · 02-13-2008, 08:23 PM

i figured out one way although it was a pain, i had to resize one of my sata partitions with enouph space for my fedora installation to begin, at the partititon setup screen i slected my flash dive and deleted all partions and reformatted it to vfat, i then started the installation on the sata drive and when it said it was done formatting i unplugged the drive and plugged it into my windows system, sure enouph it was all there and accessible. im not sure why my actuall linux and windows installations were unable to touch that partition but it worked.....4 hours of troubleshooting later bleh...

02-13-2008, 07:14 PM	#1 (permalink)
chaosharliquen Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 2 OS: xp sp3, ubuntu 7.10/7.04, fedora core 8, win2k3	USB flash drive error hi, i just got a 8gb generic usb flash drive and the first time i plugged it in the drive opened and i was able to view 8gb of space i formatted it everything worked fine, i tried installing linux onti the drive but the installation got to the disk partitioning screen and when i hit next it said it was unable to initialize drive, i went to school and when i plugged it in the only thing that showed up was a raw partition containg 102mb, the rest of it showed up in disk management but whenever i try to fortmatt/enable or changethe drive path it tells me "The operation did not complete because the partition or volume is not enabled. to enable partion or volume please restart computer" i have done so again and again, also under linux only the 102mb partiton is visible and the rest is nowhere to be found, i also tried acronis and it cannot detect the drive at all. I also tried deleting the first partition which is not an option, cant merge them either. any input would be most appreciated

02-13-2008, 07:36 PM	#2 (permalink)
Fox TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: NJ Posts: 7,752 OS: XP Pro, CentOS My System	Re: USB flash drive error I would search google for whatever brand this thing is, because I'm guessing they modified the device's firmware to make it look like it's larger than it is. I've only heard about this with cheap mp3 players, but I'm guessing that's not the only place where this kind of thing pops up. __________________ Antec Neo Power 500W, ABIT IP35-E, Intel E2180@2.66Ghz, Corsair XMS2 2x1GB DDR2-800, PNY 8800GT, 320GB Seagate * lazy college student alert *- If I've inadvertently ignored a thread, please Let me know about it Have I helped you solve your problem? Donate to Techsupportforums Klart Skepp!

02-13-2008, 08:23 PM	#3 (permalink)
chaosharliquen Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 2 OS: xp sp3, ubuntu 7.10/7.04, fedora core 8, win2k3	Re: USB flash drive error i figured out one way although it was a pain, i had to resize one of my sata partitions with enouph space for my fedora installation to begin, at the partititon setup screen i slected my flash dive and deleted all partions and reformatted it to vfat, i then started the installation on the sata drive and when it said it was done formatting i unplugged the drive and plugged it into my windows system, sure enouph it was all there and accessible. im not sure why my actuall linux and windows installations were unable to touch that partition but it worked.....4 hours of troubleshooting later bleh...