# USB in RAW Mode



## hempknight (Nov 17, 2005)

hi ppl..i've been hunting around for a fix to my USB problem..

i ran a search and any relevent thread seems to have expired OR has JohnWill saying i should format in XP's Diskmanagement..

so in spectacular noob fashion..i'm going to start a new thread...

here goes:

my astone 265 usb drive used to work fine..i'd safe remove it as per instructions..but one day on campus..the drive was pulled out by one of my team members..so..i thought..okay..i plugged it back in..files okay..i copied them off the drive..and then when i plugged the drive back in..i had converted to Raw format..

XP recognizes my drive..it even says that a volume is defined on it..


i tried to mount it to a empty NTFS folder and access it..because my friend says thats how he fixed RAW format drive but this didnt work

i cant access thru my Computer ErrMsg: "the drive is not formatted do you wanna format?"

i went into DiskManagement and it says that removable Disk (E is 250MB Healthy..

i tried to format in DiskManagement..but ErrMsg"windows unable to complete format"

if i right click on it..

the following comes up 

open,explore,change drive letter & path format and properties

properties says it's omb capacity and filesys is RAW

i cant select delete partition or mark partion as active they are both greyed out

i've tried to wipe out the partition using [email protected] killdisk v3.1 's one pass zeros method

this was suggested in several other sites i hunted thru..

so i tried to wipe partition and re create but to no avail...

any help??

i also have another 256 USB that locked itself in floppy drive mode for some random reason..

help on either problem would be much appreciated


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## please (Mar 2, 2005)

@ hempknight
Welcome to TSF :smile: 
I was under the impression that all USB flash drives were using the FAT file system. I checked with mine and that is what it is. It is a SanDisk Cruzer 256MB. Is there a way to format your disk to FAT and not RAW?

You might want to check with the manufacturer website as there is listed a utility for 'corrects problem with formatting of unit' but it is only listed under the 'MINI II' version.


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## hempknight (Nov 17, 2005)

thanks for the link but yeah i already tried the astone website...before i came here..

i'm trying to get rid of raw format and put into fat..but no good..


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## hempknight (Nov 17, 2005)

BTW: just for the record...i dont need to recover files..i just want to be able to use the drive again...


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## please (Mar 2, 2005)

@ hempknight
well I searched a bit myself and came across probably the same solutions you have tried. Sorry I don't have better advice for you. Looks like you were pretty thorough in your attempts. I might suggest emailing astone and throwing yourself to their mercy and maybe they'll give you a new one :wink: .

Good thing these flash drives are fairly cheap these days.


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## hempknight (Nov 17, 2005)

okay..i managed to remove the partition using [email protected] killdisk and then partition in DiskManagement..

format thru my Comp and regain 250MB!!!...


where is my six??

now when i plug into campus computer...it says that capacity is 249mb and that something is taking about 16.5mb...

***???


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## hempknight (Nov 17, 2005)

OKAY?!...

this is just plain annoying...i took my USB drive and stuck it back into campus computers.. to get some work files off the system...but even tho properties says it's a 250mb drive..i cant even place more than 985kb on it...

WHY?!?!?!?!?!


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## ArcyQwerty (Sep 26, 2009)

Try running a disk checking utility on it to flag bad sectors...


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## icebelowzero (Jun 22, 2009)

Yeah it's the same as taking out your memory card while saving(ps1,ps2,xbox) It's just going to take up a bad sector


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