# Partition/re-partition a 16Gb CF card



## DonaldG (Aug 23, 2007)

A few days ago I purchased a Lexar 16Gb UDMA card. I put the card into my Canon Pro Camera and selected 'Format'. All seemed to go OK & I used the card for just over 1Gb of loading....

I was about to 'Format' it again in the camera and noticed it was showing as a 8Gb not 16Gb. I checked it in the computer with the File Explorer --> Properties & it reported 8Gb also.

At first I thought I had been ripped off with a forgery but when I checked it under 'Control Panel --> | -->Disk Management the card showed up as 16Gb with two partitions of 8Gb each. One partition was 'Active & healthy' but the other partition was 'Unallocated'

I was unable to delete a partition, expand a partition etc (the commands were greyed out).

Can anyone advise how I can restore the card to one partition of 16Gb please. Will it have to be done in DOS?


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## tosh9i (Aug 3, 2006)

Do you have a partition manager you can use?

http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm


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## DonaldG (Aug 23, 2007)

Hi Tosh :wave:

No I don't & I didn't want to buy one just for this problem. Your link may be just the job. Thanks.

I'll d/l it now and let you know ....

(The 16Gb UDMA card is very expensive & I don't want only half working!)


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## DonaldG (Aug 23, 2007)

That didn't work - It does not 'see' the cards at all. (drive K & J) 

Back to square one.


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## Twosocks (Mar 23, 2010)

Get HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool SP27213.exe
http://en.kioskea.net/telecharger/telecharger-127-hp-usb-disk-storage-format-tool

This removes the partitions.

Regards,

Peter.


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## gpl (Aug 10, 2010)

Hello, 
I have the same problem with a Extreme III 16Gb CF card and the proposed solution did not work: the card only shows 2Gb instead of the 16Gb.
Suggestions please?


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## Elektraa (Nov 28, 2010)

You need to format your card using the SD Formatter 2.0: 
http://www.sdcard.org/consumers/formatter/sdfv2000.exe[url]http://www.sdcard.org/consumers/formatter/sdfv2000.exe[/URL] 
http://www.sdcard.org/about/downloads/SD_Formatter_Manual_English.pdf[url]http://www.sdcard.org/about/downloads/SD_Formatter_Manual_English.pdf[/URL]

The reason it happens is because most probably ur camera (like my canon 20d) can "see" only max 8GB, so formatting it is useless. 

I had the same problem and i noticed it after using this card for 2 years  So i formatted it once using this program (quick format) and when i put the card in my camera it was showing an error message, so i formatted it again, this time full format (full format off). And that is how i killed my card. After this neither my camera, nor laptop can read it anymore.


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## rgsalinger (May 18, 2009)

I'd try formatting it first on a computer. It may simply be that the camera can't go beyond 8GB but formatting a card on a computer running MAC/OS or Windows isn't going to cook the card. It came formatted that way from the factory in the first place and the camera was able to handle it.


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## photochris (Apr 14, 2011)

Same problem with Duracell 16gb when I fomatted it in my 1D II.

Solution is; Connect the card to your computer and download anything you want to keep.
Then reformat the card selecting the *NTFS* file system, (the following solution will not work if you leave your card as FAT32).
Open the command prompt on your computer. Type in _*list volume*_
Make a note of the volume number for your card.
(If your card is *volume 5 F* ) for example, type in _*select volume 5*_
The prompt will now say "volume 5 is the selected volume".
Type in* extend*
The prompt will say "volume successfully extended".
You now have your 16gb back.
Your camera probably won't recognise the NTFS file system, mine didn't, so you'll now have to reformat your card back to FAT 32, do this on your computer!!! 
What happens is when the camera formats the card it also partitions it into two 8gb volumes one of which is unallocated and therefore unrecognised.
This solution extends the recognised 8gb into the available but unallocated 8gb of space.
Hope this helps.
Any problems use the help and support section on your computer and search for *extending volumes* or *disk partitions*. I couldn't get the suggested _right click_ method to work so used the MS DOS method as described above.

Good luck.


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