6 replies to this topic

[edborg]

While experimenting with RMprepUSB different USB formatting types (FDD, HDD, ZIP) on a 2 GB USB stick and after succeeding in some attempts, I ended up with a 28.5 MB pendrive!!!

I am posting this here and not in the lengthy RMprepUSB thread (that I haven't had the time to read yet) because before even trying and understand why this happened I would like to recover this stick, if only possible.

Are there tools to force the size or fully wipe the stick from anything may have been written on it (not only MBR) so that it may be detected correctly again?

Thanks for any suggestion,

edborg

Some more background:
At a certain point the stick became undetectable and freezed Windows when inserted, with messages like "writing operation to stick delayed" or similar. After a while it started being detected by RMprepUSB as "unmounted" and with the wrong size, but not by Explorer.
After numerous attempts and SEVERAL minutes wait for each detection attempt it was finally detected by Computer Management as a removable drive of 28.5 MB. Atfer formatting, it was again detected quickly by Windows, seen in Explorer and working, but with that reduced size.

The stick is a DaneElec with OTi controller, Vid&Pid 090c&1000, 2 GB.

[steve6375]

RMPrepUSB has a Quick Size Test button - what does this say?
It sounds like you stick is faulty. From experience with these faulty sticks, I would not bother trying to fix it. Even if you do manage to fix it, then it will go wrong sometime soon and you will risk losing anything important that was kept on it.
Tutorials #7 and #27 at www.rmprepusb.com may be of value to you...

[edborg]

RMPrepUSB has a Quick Size Test button - what does this say?
It sounds like you stick is faulty. From experience with these faulty sticks, I would not bother trying to fix it. Even if you do manage to fix it, then it will go wrong sometime soon and you will risk losing anything important that was kept on it.
Tutorials #7 and #27 at www.rmprepusb.com may be of value to you...

Thanks for your reply!

Quick Test detects the stick as USB DISK 2.0 USB Device 29 912 576 bytes and says:

USB device quick test was OK *** PASSED***
NOTE: Drive filesystem has been erased -please partition and format it then test with H2TESTW for thorough test.

Same message even after repartitioning it , and H2TESTW says "Error accessing target".

The stick was working perfectly before, and still is ... unless it's 28.5 MB large!
I'll have a look at those tutorials, thanks, though I don't think it's a fake pendrive.

How can one force size? Beeblebrox sees it as 3 (not 246) cylinders! It wasn't like that before.

edborg

[steve6375]

It sounds like the stick is reporting it's size incorrectly. Try Tutorial #39 - you can try reprogramming it - but most of those utilities only work under XP and not Vista or Win7. Try one of the SMi tools...

http://www.flashboot...es-file-61.html

[edborg]

It sounds like the stick is reporting it's size incorrectly. Try Tutorial #39 - you can try reprogramming it - but most of those utilities only work under XP and not Vista or Win7. Try one of the SMi tools...

http://www.flashboot...es-file-61.html

THANKS!!!

I had already discovered (and followed) your Tutorial #39, before reading your reply!

I've found the right Mass Production Tool for my stick (the same you suggest) and successfully reprogrammed it.
Beeblebrox now sees 243 cylinders, 1.91 GB.
Thanks again!

edborg

P.S. Now it becomes interesting to understand WHY this has happened.
I was using RMprepUSB 2.0.807

[steve6375]

RMPrepUSB does not do anything at the same level as the MP tools - it is quite safe to use (as safe as any other format tool anyway!). You will probably find that the stick will fail again in the future. I would not use it for anything important! It could have a bad solder joint (poss. on the USB connector) or bad crystal or memory.
P.S. What OS did you run the MP tool on (XP or Win7?).

[edborg]

RMPrepUSB does not do anything at the same level as the MP tools - it is quite safe to use (as safe as any other format tool anyway!). You will probably find that the stick will fail again in the future. I would not use it for anything important! It could have a bad solder joint (poss. on the USB connector) or bad crystal or memory.
P.S. What OS did you run the MP tool on (XP or Win7?).

Yes, I agree it may be a hardware problem.
RMprepUSB seems not at all responsible for the failure, and I have used it again with success.

I have run the MP tool under XP pro SP2.

edborg