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  • #1

    Problem with USB key

    Hi all,

    I have a pb with a USB Key (Pretec iDisk Tiny).
    It worked well for a few days, my girlfriend used it between her home PC and her office iMac.

    She plugged it into another Mac at her office (a G3 or G4) and it says that the disk needed to be formatted. So she clicked "yes". Obviously she souldn't have. The format seems to have failed, the disk is recognized by computers (Mac and PC) but when you try to access, it says the drive needs to be formatted. But when you try to do so, it tells you that the drive is write protected and therefore cannot be formatted !
    Doh ! The drive doesn't have a write protect switch and nobody asked to protect it.

    I've tried many things to sort things out but nothing worked. The provided CD was of no help, there are no FAQ on the manufacturer's webiste. I've send an email to techsupport but I bet I won't get a fast answer :/

    Can anybody help me ?

    I thought of using a small linux distro to boot a computer and try to format the disk hopping that Linux will ignore the "write protection" alert I get in Windows and MacOS. Problem is, I don't know a sh*t about Linux
    System : ASUS A8N SLI premium, Athlon 64X2 3800+, 2Gb, T7K500 320Gb SATAII, T7K250 250Gb SATAII, T7K250 250Gb ATA133, Nec ND-3520, Plextor PX130A, SB Audigy 2, Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO, 24" Dell 2407WFP.
    Tags: None
  • #2
    I have a Disk-on-key made by transcend and on it's original CD there was a utilitie to "low level format" it.

    Here's an example: http://www.btko.net/en/pro/Flash_Disk_USE.htm
    "For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism."

    Comment

    • #3
      I'm gonna try this, thanks.

      Edit am I don't have a low level format utility on the CD. Could you email me yours at pa.tillit@wanadoo.fr ?
      Last edited by PAugustin; 15 January 2004, 03:38.
      System : ASUS A8N SLI premium, Athlon 64X2 3800+, 2Gb, T7K500 320Gb SATAII, T7K250 250Gb SATAII, T7K250 250Gb ATA133, Nec ND-3520, Plextor PX130A, SB Audigy 2, Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO, 24" Dell 2407WFP.

      Comment

      • #4
        It's somewhere @ home (I'm @ work now).
        I'll look for it once I get there (later tonight)
        "For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism."

        Comment

        • #5
          OK thank you very much !

          If anybody has such a utility available, feel free to give me a link or send it via email
          System : ASUS A8N SLI premium, Athlon 64X2 3800+, 2Gb, T7K500 320Gb SATAII, T7K250 250Gb SATAII, T7K250 250Gb ATA133, Nec ND-3520, Plextor PX130A, SB Audigy 2, Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO, 24" Dell 2407WFP.

          Comment

          • #6
            Yeah, it probably needs a "low-level format". There's also a company, the name of which I forget, that makes low-level utilities for things like USB keys, Smart Media cards, etc.

            Or, there may be a software write-protect on it, some of those things have that now.

            Those things are supposed to stay FAT16 formatted.

            - Gurm
            The Internet - where men are men, women are men, and teenage girls are FBI agents!

            I'm the least you could do
            If only life were as easy as you
            I'm the least you could do, oh yeah
            If only life were as easy as you
            I would still get screwed

            Comment

            • #7
              Gurm: is the cie called CompuApps ? Those guys are providing recovery software and a free format and partition utility that I have downloaded but every time I tries to format my key, the program crashes :/

              About the write protect, this key has such a feature (software only) but it has never been activated...
              System : ASUS A8N SLI premium, Athlon 64X2 3800+, 2Gb, T7K500 320Gb SATAII, T7K250 250Gb SATAII, T7K250 250Gb ATA133, Nec ND-3520, Plextor PX130A, SB Audigy 2, Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO, 24" Dell 2407WFP.

              Comment

              • #8
                Originally posted by PAugustin
                About the write protect, this key has such a feature (software only) but it has never been activated...
                Not untill now you mean
                "For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism."

                Comment

                • #9
                  Well I just checked that feature and there is no write protection. I have 3 applications called FlashMail, Secret ZIP and Mobile Lock.
                  But no write protection ! Well there is one but once activated it seems you can't deactivate it
                  System : ASUS A8N SLI premium, Athlon 64X2 3800+, 2Gb, T7K500 320Gb SATAII, T7K250 250Gb SATAII, T7K250 250Gb ATA133, Nec ND-3520, Plextor PX130A, SB Audigy 2, Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO, 24" Dell 2407WFP.

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    No it was called "PC Inspector" and a cursory search of their site doesn't turn up USB key modules for the program. Sorry.

                    - Gurm
                    The Internet - where men are men, women are men, and teenage girls are FBI agents!

                    I'm the least you could do
                    If only life were as easy as you
                    I'm the least you could do, oh yeah
                    If only life were as easy as you
                    I would still get screwed

                    Comment

                    • #11
                      OK I'm gonne give their software a try anyway...
                      Just spent 15min with another guy on a Mac but he was not able to solve anything
                      System : ASUS A8N SLI premium, Athlon 64X2 3800+, 2Gb, T7K500 320Gb SATAII, T7K250 250Gb SATAII, T7K250 250Gb ATA133, Nec ND-3520, Plextor PX130A, SB Audigy 2, Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO, 24" Dell 2407WFP.

                      Comment

                      • #12
                        It's possible that the file format between the PC and MAC machines are slightly off which would be causing your problem. I have seen this several times at my work with flash cards. Usually you end up having to format on one machine and never format it on the other machine. Try re-formatting it on the PC.

                        Dave
                        Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice.

                        Comment

                        • #13
                          The key cannot be formatted anymore. I tried several times on both PC and Mac. It always says that the key is write protected...

                          I used one of the PCInspector sofware that was able to read the content of the flash drive. It found some corrupted data sectors.

                          If it is right, I'm left with two options :
                          - A low level format can set everything back
                          - The flash chip is damaged/corrupted and has to be replaced.
                          System : ASUS A8N SLI premium, Athlon 64X2 3800+, 2Gb, T7K500 320Gb SATAII, T7K250 250Gb SATAII, T7K250 250Gb ATA133, Nec ND-3520, Plextor PX130A, SB Audigy 2, Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO, 24" Dell 2407WFP.

                          Comment

                          • #14
                            If it's still under warranty, just bring it back to the shop...

                            Comment

                            • #15
                              Yes I think that's what I'll do. Not until saturday though.

                              Just in case, if anybody knows of a low level format utility that can handle USB drive, just let me know...
                              System : ASUS A8N SLI premium, Athlon 64X2 3800+, 2Gb, T7K500 320Gb SATAII, T7K250 250Gb SATAII, T7K250 250Gb ATA133, Nec ND-3520, Plextor PX130A, SB Audigy 2, Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO, 24" Dell 2407WFP.

                              Comment

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