Compact flash
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OK, this has me beat... I have a 1GB CompactFlash card I want to use in my camera, and it shows up fine in Windows explorer with a single 61 MB partition and 923 MB of free unallocated space. 1) I right click on the allocated space and the option delete the volume is greyed out. I can format it, but I can't repartition the card at all. 2) All I can do on the unallocated space that shows up is a few options about adding spanned, stripped, and mirrored volumes. 3) The card itself has no switch on it to place it into 'read only mode' or 'protected mode' and I assumed that would have also blocked the formatting so... I have formatted CF cards on my machine before without issues... but this Lexar card is kicking my butt for some reason. Keep in mind that it DID start out with this 61 MB partition as a bootable one (originally used as a HD for a small scale embedded VM system) and was running a a copy of ROM DOS. Any one out there with any ideas? Hate to just toss a 1 GB CF card in the trash if I can save it and use it with my camera.
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OK, this has me beat... I have a 1GB CompactFlash card I want to use in my camera, and it shows up fine in Windows explorer with a single 61 MB partition and 923 MB of free unallocated space. 1) I right click on the allocated space and the option delete the volume is greyed out. I can format it, but I can't repartition the card at all. 2) All I can do on the unallocated space that shows up is a few options about adding spanned, stripped, and mirrored volumes. 3) The card itself has no switch on it to place it into 'read only mode' or 'protected mode' and I assumed that would have also blocked the formatting so... I have formatted CF cards on my machine before without issues... but this Lexar card is kicking my butt for some reason. Keep in mind that it DID start out with this 61 MB partition as a bootable one (originally used as a HD for a small scale embedded VM system) and was running a a copy of ROM DOS. Any one out there with any ideas? Hate to just toss a 1 GB CF card in the trash if I can save it and use it with my camera.
Two ideas: 1. Have you tried the Computer Management utility? It is part of Windows (since XP IIRC), and allows you to resize existing partitions and create new ones, at least on regular disks. I don't know what it will offer for CompactFlash though. 2. Some USB sticks come with extra software that basically offers two partitions, a small unprotected one, and a second, encrypted one, that becomes visible and read/writable only once that software has been launched with the right password. :)
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Two ideas: 1. Have you tried the Computer Management utility? It is part of Windows (since XP IIRC), and allows you to resize existing partitions and create new ones, at least on regular disks. I don't know what it will offer for CompactFlash though. 2. Some USB sticks come with extra software that basically offers two partitions, a small unprotected one, and a second, encrypted one, that becomes visible and read/writable only once that software has been launched with the right password. :)
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Luc Pattyn wrote:
Have you tried the Computer Management utility?
Yeah, that's where I do everything. Hmmm what I have NOT tried though is just plan old FDISK... might be worth it. Maybe something like Norton...
Luc Pattyn wrote:
Some USB sticks come with extra software
Nah, not on these guys.. I know what's on them... I just have an odd feeling that windows is somehow freaking because the primary partition on this card WAS bootable, but looking it at shows no signs of any hidden files left, or anything odd like that. Might just end up digging around at the fdisk layer a bit...
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Luc Pattyn wrote:
Have you tried the Computer Management utility?
Yeah, that's where I do everything. Hmmm what I have NOT tried though is just plan old FDISK... might be worth it. Maybe something like Norton...
Luc Pattyn wrote:
Some USB sticks come with extra software
Nah, not on these guys.. I know what's on them... I just have an odd feeling that windows is somehow freaking because the primary partition on this card WAS bootable, but looking it at shows no signs of any hidden files left, or anything odd like that. Might just end up digging around at the fdisk layer a bit...
More ideas: 3. IIRC the bootability of a partition consists of a single bit; once cleared it should be gone. 4. I regularly see messages telling Windows does not want to create/use more than one partition on some devices; can't remember any details though. 5. if your CompactFlash also fits in another device (say a camera, a media player), maybe you can have it formatted there. :)
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum
Please use <PRE> tags for code snippets, they preserve indentation, and improve readability.