[TK31]

Hi there.

I recently bought a 4GB USB and decided to put linux on it. After i put linux on it, i installed linux to my HD then went back to windows and did a format. It worked, for a while. Then all of a sudden, it starts failing and showing me 4MB instead of 4GB.

Moreover, checking the device properties out, it looks like im getting access to the MBR of the device, rather than the actual storage which is invisible.



EDIT: After more research, im trying to use such programs as Partition Table Doctor to try and erase the MBR and get the invisible disk space back.

[Officer Dibble]

Once these things die, that's it. The equipment to retrieve data from these devices following the death of the controller chip costs thousands. If the flash memory is dead then forget it.

If you manage to fix this then please remember to tell us how you did it, but this is just my opinion, I think it's dead. If you recently bought it try and exchange it or get your money back.

[computerguy1990]

try using a partition manager program or like gparted to set it back to a fat system as many usb keys dont run on ntfs had this same problem with my key after putting linux on it, most times it doesnt like going from fat to ext3 then back at least that was what I found and I had this exact prob after taking linux off my 8gb was showing only 76mb of room.

[TK31]

Well i suspect the memory chip isnt dead but more rather a corrupt MBR. So i cleaned out the MBR and wrote a blank one... well that just made it unformattable. i dont even see the disk anymore. its a 0 byte disk now.

Before, every partition manager couldnt see anytihng but the 4mb. Now Windows says it cant format the drive.

For everyone's info, GParted also couldnt see past the 4mb.

From this Paragon Partition Manager, i got the following info on the disk

Partition 0, hard disk 1
 
Volume label:       
File system:        Unformatted
Drive letter:       *:
Serial number:      00000000
 
Sectors / boot:     0
Sectors / cluster:  0
 
Size (capacity):    4.0 MB (4.193.792 )
Used space:         2048 GB (52435200%)
Free space:         4.0 MB (100%)
 
Physical sectors: 
 
  First:         1 (Cyl      1, Hd    0, Sec    1)  
   Last:      8191 (Cyl   8191, Hd    0, Sec    1)  
 
HDD info:           Cyl   8192, Hd    1, Sec    1

it seems really messed up. for one thing, i havent used 2TB of data on a 4GB stick.




Okay, heres the warning i get from the program TestDisk. I tried changing it, but it doesnt seem to want to save changes, or am i doing it wrong?

[computerguy1990]

You could try like hirens boot cd tools and try fixing the mbr and other stuff you should be able to get it working again and if not 16gb usbs are only about 50$ now.