I really need ya'lls help on this one. I have a PNY 16 GB flash drive and it worked just fine up until about 5 min ago. I was creating a bootable flash drive so that I could reinstall Linux on my friend’s netbook. I used the program unetbootin to make the bootable flash drive. Now my flash drive only registers that is has a total of 164mb of space. I tried to reformat it but it is now acting like it is a 164mb flash drive rather than a 16 GB flash drive. How can I get it back to 16 GB?
[SOLVED] Help!!! My 16gb Flash drive only registers it has 164MB!!!
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Re: Help!!! My 16gb Flash drive only registers it has 164MB!!!
I Tried to reformat it but it only registers that there is 164MB of space to reformat it to. when i pulled up the flash drive in computer management > Disk management it does register that there is 14gb of unallocated space on it. How could that have happened. Also I don't thing it is a problem with the flash drive being faulty cause i tried using the same program and .iso on a different flash drive and it did the same thing.
I Tried to reformat it but it only registers that there is 164MB of space to reformat it to. when i pulled up the flash drive in computer management > Disk management it does register that there is 14gb of unallocated space on it. How could that have happened. Also I don't thing it is a problem with the flash drive being faulty cause i tried using the same program and .iso on a different flash drive and it did the same thing.
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Re: Help!!! My 16gb Flash drive only registers it has 164MB!!!
It sounds like you have two partitions on this flash drive. Windows is really not prepared to deal with this. Windows can only see one partition.
I have two partitions on my camera memory, and it is intentional (google CHDK, the Canon Hack Development Kit -- I need 2 partitions for camera memory over 4 Gigs; my SD card is 8 GB).
Linux can probably see both partitions (depending on factors like the chipset used in your SD card reader, my linux machine sees both). Linux fdisk would let you delete the partitions. Then Windows would let you format it fresh, or you could try using unetbootin again, or whatever.
Hope this helps. Let us know how it turns out.
It sounds like you have two partitions on this flash drive. Windows is really not prepared to deal with this. Windows can only see one partition.
I have two partitions on my camera memory, and it is intentional (google CHDK, the Canon Hack Development Kit -- I need 2 partitions for camera memory over 4 Gigs; my SD card is 8 GB).
Linux can probably see both partitions (depending on factors like the chipset used in your SD card reader, my linux machine sees both). Linux fdisk would let you delete the partitions. Then Windows would let you format it fresh, or you could try using unetbootin again, or whatever.
Hope this helps. Let us know how it turns out.
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Silly 15 minute limit!
A 2 hour limit would work better for me. Anyway, a few added notes:
1. Windows (XP and prior) can only see one partition on removable media. Later versions might offer only limited support for multiple partitions, I don't know.
2. I looked briefly at the unetbootin page at sourceforge, but I have to leave the computer now. I suspect, but did not confirm, that unetbootin created two partitions on your flash drive to overcome the 4 GB file size limit of FAT.
3. Linux fdisk can probably delete the partitions so Windows can format it again, or unetbootin can be used again.
Let us know if this helps!
A 2 hour limit would work better for me. Anyway, a few added notes:
1. Windows (XP and prior) can only see one partition on removable media. Later versions might offer only limited support for multiple partitions, I don't know.
2. I looked briefly at the unetbootin page at sourceforge, but I have to leave the computer now. I suspect, but did not confirm, that unetbootin created two partitions on your flash drive to overcome the 4 GB file size limit of FAT.
3. Linux fdisk can probably delete the partitions so Windows can format it again, or unetbootin can be used again.
Let us know if this helps!
Joined
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16 Posts
Re: Help!!! My 16gb Flash drive only registers it has 164MB!!!
Most linux ISOs are over 4 Gigs, that's why you need some other partition (not FAT32) on the flash media. Unetbootin probably created two partitions.
(Sorry to be so forgetful, maybe I have Alzheimer's like President Reagan.)
Most linux ISOs are over 4 Gigs, that's why you need some other partition (not FAT32) on the flash media. Unetbootin probably created two partitions.
(Sorry to be so forgetful, maybe I have Alzheimer's like President Reagan.)
Re: Help!!! My 16gb Flash drive only registers it has 164MB!!!
@ Ronald Reagan That did the trick thanks so much i cant even begin to thank you enough. I am just learning how to use and administer Linux in school and my teacher has not covered things like that but that is really cool that you are able to do that with Linux. I was able to unmount and delete that partition and reformat it to the whole capacity of the drive. Again thanks so much.
@ Ronald Reagan That did the trick thanks so much i cant even begin to thank you enough. I am just learning how to use and administer Linux in school and my teacher has not covered things like that but that is really cool that you are able to do that with Linux. I was able to unmount and delete that partition and reformat it to the whole capacity of the drive. Again thanks so much.
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