Partitionining / reformating USB driveForum: USB booting Topic: Partitionining / reformating USB drive started by: msiegy Posted by msiegy on Nov. 09 2005,20:48
Hey all, the other day i tried to install dsl to my usb drive, its a U3 1 Gig Geeksquad jump drive, i noticed when id id it created a new partition i was fine with that, however now when i plug in my usb drive all i have is that one 50mb partition and 960mb unpartitioned space that i can seem to partition with windows Disk manager.... any ideas of how to either delete the one partition or create an extended one? thanks... edit: well i was able to reformat with Hp's USB reformating Tool, however now i just have one big partition, id still like to be able to say have 2 partitions, one with DSL on it, and the 2nd for sotring documents and data in windows. is this even possible? read sumwhere on the forums that i might be able to format using QTparted which sounds like its a linux version of partition magic... i tried to install it while in dsl, but couldnt get it to work... Posted by cbagger01 on Nov. 10 2005,06:50
Try doing a USBHDD installation.It creates a single partition that is usable by both Windows and DSL Posted by msiegy on Nov. 11 2005,02:17
True, but the partition it creates is only 50 Mbs, leaving ya (in my case) with 940MB of unpartitioned space that windows cant use....with QTparted ive tried to hide the DSL partition of the usb drive while making the 940mb partition of Fat16 Active, however everytime i go to see if it really worked in windows, it just comes up as a 50mb jump drive with 940 unpartitioned space.... Any ideas anyone? i just want to be able to have one partition so i can boot up DSL, and another so i may save data while in windows.... is this even possible? Posted by mgmont on Nov. 11 2005,02:56
Have you tried cfdisk? You can boot up DSLwith the USB key plugged in, open up bash terminal screen as su and type: cfdisk /dev/sda This should tell you the size and types of partitions on the USB key and allow you to create or delete partitions of different types. After creating the partitions, then you have to format them so they will be usable. I hope this will help. Posted by doobit on Nov. 11 2005,16:21
FYI, and maybe this should be put in the FAQ:FAT16 can make and use partitions up to 2GB, and can use partitions that are less than 512MB. FAT32 can make partitions that are more than 2GB, but not less than 512. So don't try to make a 512MB or smaller partition on a Pen Drive using FAT32. Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Nov. 11 2005,16:30
Also, windows can only see the first partition on your usb key.
Posted by cbagger01 on Nov. 12 2005,00:12
No, you are confusing the USBZIP install versus the USBHDD install.The USBHDD install should create a SINGLE large data partition that can be read by either DSL or Windows. Posted by Conor on Nov. 13 2005,00:57
Hey Guys,I have a sony 4gb stick. I tried making it bootable using the HP Format Tool, however it stop all that way at the end and said that the drive was too big. Then, when I tried to format it regularly, now it's telling me it's a 128GB drive. It won't format at all, is in RAW. I tried to create a partition using windows xp startup cd. However... still doesn't work. Anyone know how I can get this back to a working 4GB drive? Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Posted by cbagger01 on Nov. 13 2005,04:57
1) Boot from DSL livecd with USB drive inserted.2) Download "dosfstools.dsl" from the "system" area using the myDSL gui. 3) Open up an terminal window and type: sudo su cfdisk /dev/sda (this assumes that your USB drive is device name sda. It might also be sdb or sdc for example) Create a single large FAT32 data partition. Save and exit. mkdosfs -F 32 /dev/sda1 sync exit exit Make sure that the "F" is an uppercase letter in the mkdosfs command line. Posted by dsquared on Dec. 07 2005,23:14
the above did not work for me - however I found this site that helped me restore a USB drive that only showed up as a 50 mg drive where as it is really 256 mg.< http://www.mobymemory.com/Content....78.html > Posted by JeffElkins on Jan. 05 2006,04:37
Please don't tell this to my 128MB and 256MB CF and SD cards that are formatted with fat32. They might stop working! |