[Castigador]

I've got a Sony Vio 1g USB 2.0 Flash Disk which worked fine for a week, until my cousin plugs it out without doing the "Safely Remove" thing. Now when I can't access it.

My computer can recognize the device, how ever it's now at 0gig and has a RAW file system. When ever I format it via My Computer, I get the Windows cannot format this device.

Now I've tried the following to remedy this, but none work.

-Disk Management via Computer Management
-HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool
-chkdsk e:\f\r via cmd
-format e: /a:512 /fs:fat via cmd

The first two cannot complete the format. chkdsk doesn't work on RAW file systems, and the fourth comes up with this:

Insert new disk for drive E:
and press ENTER when ready...
The type of the file system is RAW.
The new file system is FAT.
Verifying 1024M
The specified cluster size is too small for FAT16/12.

I'm running on XP SP2. The files on the USB aren't important, I just want to be able to use it again. Any suggestions?

Edited by Castigador, 08 January 2008 - 07:55 AM.

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This worked on one flash drive for me.

from a commandline with the flash drive plugged into the computer.

type in format (flash Drive disk letter): /a:512 /fs:fat

ie format f: /a:512 /fs:fat

While this did not format the drive i was able to then go to computer management and format the drive as fat 32 and be able to use it. This was on a older 128 MB flash drive.

SRX660

[SRX660]

This worked on one flash drive for me.

from a commandline with the flash drive plugged into the computer.

type in format (flash Drive disk letter): /a:512 /fs:fat

ie format f: /a:512 /fs:fat

While this did not format the drive i was able to then go to computer management and format the drive as fat 32 and be able to use it. This was on a older 128 MB flash drive.

SRX660

[Castigador]

Tried that already, the disk management still didn't work.

[SRX660]

Try this then,

http://www.pcworld.c...s/download.html

This is the H-P USB disk storage utility.

SRX660

[Castigador]

Tried it before, didn't work. Tried it again, still wont.

[SRX660]

I would not waste any more time on the drive. Perhaps you could return it and see if they will exchange the drive for one that works.

SRX660

[happyrock]

if you can't get it exchanged you can try the USB Troubleshooter...located here..
still no joy
try using linux to format it...
get puppy linux...Get puppy-2.16-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso download it and burn it to cd ...if you don't have a burning program that will burn .ISO files go here and get burncdcc ..a small FAST no frills iso burning program...make sure in the bios the cd drive is the first boot device....put the cd in the cd drive..plug in the flash drive...boot your computer....puppy will boot and run totally in ram...
after you get to puppy desktop..
click on the drives icon...looks like a flash drive...top row..it will list all the drives connected to your computer...

click on the red icon for the drive you want to mount...in this case its a flash drive ...puppy will

mount the drive..the drive icon turns green when its mounted...

Edited by happyrck, 09 January 2008 - 08:40 AM.