USB Drive space shrinked?
Hi guys,
i bought an usb drive some time ago with 8GB. After 3 times formatting it only had 1,57GB left. After i formatted a fourth time it only had 1,47GB.
Any explanation or suggestions what happened to the rest of the space? I already tried to restore it to factory settings, didn't help.
Thanks in advance,
Ghxst
Try this: Insert your Flash Drive.(I insist that it be called a flash drive.Pen drive is slang for "penis".)
If you prefer a GUI;just say so;I will tell you;(the console is easier).
In windows, open up a command prompt;
Type in: "diskpart" without the quotes. A prompt (command line) opens up. (Asks for admin perms.) Now,type in "list disk" without the quotes.
It should show something like:
-------- ---------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 233 GB 1024 KB
Disk 1 No Media 0 B 0 B```
This should show your disk with the orig. size.
If it does;you are lucky;
just try this out and post a reply;
I prefer to do this step by step;Easier and more understandable.
Note:Forgive any misspellings;I'm on IE.
OS Windows7 USB is from PQI i tried every save type, fat32, ntfs, etc…i can only choose to formatt it to 1,47GB.
I tried that diskpart cmd.
--------------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 931 GB 0 B
Disk 1 No Medium 0 B 0 B
Disk 2 No Medium 0 B 0 B
Disk 3 No Medium 0 B 0 B
Disk 4 Online 7712 MB 0 B```
(I translated it to english, but that's what it looks like)
I guess Disk 4 is my USB drive
Hm, this isn't just a windows issue, either. I had a friend on linux who had an problem similar to this, the main partition on his usb kept shrinking and left a ton of pointless space just sitting around. Fortunately, a quick format fixed this for him. I'd recommend you try some 3rd party formatting tool, or try formatting it with a linux cd, because Windows format doesn't seem to be fixing the problem.
According to the output of that command, you should have 8gb available on that drive.
You should be able to format any kind of storage device that can be written to once you get it from the manufacturer, and really it's the first thing you should do. They should expect you to want to format it too, for security/integrity reasons. If you just got it, you should try to return it to the manufacturer. If it's because of corruption, it's only going to get worse. Even if error check could fix it, I'd try to return it because it doesn't seem healthy.
Also, quick formatting is always going to be a gamble. If there's a problem, you do not want to wait until the disk is 90% filled up with your stuff to find out that there's corruption.
1.)It isn't 1,47GB;it's 1.47GB,for a moment there my eyes burst out of their sockets.
2.)You are lucky,this probably is a minor problem,not a corrupted disk or anything.The diskpart showing your orig size is the best thing that might have happened.
3.)Let me pull up the commands,this might be easy.I'll post them as soon as I get them(I don't remember right now).
Added: (Assume disk 3 is your disk,partition 1 your partition) commands:
List disk select disk 3 list partition select partition 1 clean create partition primary
and that should do it;
Note:The list and select partition are just to make sure one of your friends didn't intentionally fuck up your drive,just try them out.It should show only 1 Partition.
try it and tell me.:)
1.47=1+0.47 1,47=100+47
Though the second one is incorrect(most people do not put a , after 100;still,it surprises some people(like me))
Discussion is an exchange of knowledge,an argument,of ignorance.
Arguments for the sake of arguments Fuck the shit out of peoples brains.They are an integral part of politics.:)
Added: While 3rd party software are quite good,I prefer software already present in the system.There are loads of software out there for all this,but if you use Windows NT,Diskpart is the only one you do not have to download.:)
onejerlo wrote: 1.47=1+0.47 1,47=100+47
Though the second one is incorrect(most people do not put a , after 100;still,it surprises some people(like me))
You might be interested to know that many countries use the comma instead of the dot to denote the decimal starting point. In fact, I have only seen a dot be used in English speaking countries. You should have caught on when you realised 1. that it was not used at the thousand mark and 2. that there are other countries. In fact, most of the time separation is done with a ' or simply a space. Someone who has apparently not even caught on to the use of spaces after general punctuation should not try to correct other people's (actually understandable) "mistakes". At the very least not in a manner that makes him sound like a prick. Personally I feel that you owe the OP an apology.
Edit: Fuck you MoshBat, fuck you! :P
1.)I don't get it,what's the sense in writing: 1,400,00?? How would one differentiate between 1400.00 and 140000 2.)Well, if it did make the fellow look like a prick, I am sorry for that,that was not intentional. However, I am not willing to say that I am sorry that I did not know about the comma dot thing. Seriously,the space after punctuation thing is only to make text look better,stop messing people about it will you? People can understand text without it just fine.
Anyway,lets end this argument,seriously.If it's that imp. use the shout box.Besides,I am going to log out soon(Discovery Science and Star world).
All this probably made reading the post harder for the guy.:)
Lol, well now that I've finished laughing at the temporary side track:
You should probably go with onejerlo's method. I was only recommending 3rd party tools or a linux wipe because I figured a different method than the windows basic GUI formatting tool was necessary and I'm not too up-to-date with my windows CMD line skills, but command line is probably best if you can because then you're using tools we (well, all the windows users) are much more familiar with if your problem still persists.
Thanks alot HBH community. onejerlo's solution worked great, there have really been 2 partitions.
After clearing partition 1 and setting 0 to primary I had to formatt it again, took about 25min, but now I have 7,(.)51GB.
Another question, how did my friend or I create another partition by just formatting it or did we anything else we didn't even realise?
@ghxst: Don't be naive. He/she(most probably she) could have done it on purpose to mess with you. Reasons:
1.)It might have been a silly mistake while using a 3rd party software.(haha,ok).
2.)Just to mess with you he/she created a separate partition.(F**k it)
3.)He/she DELIBERATELY made a hidden partition,put an autorun script with a keylogger (Be paranoid, change your passwords!! Then shout F**k you to his/her face, kick him/her in a sensitive spot and finally ,stab him/her to death with a needle/toothpick:evil: )
Note:#3 is a bit problematic. No one in their right minds would set apart such a noticeable amount of space for a key logger. Then again,it could have been a combination of #2 and #3.
He/she might have been in a hurry and interchanged the letters of the partition while doing #3.
Just try to remember,detected any viruses/malicious files lately?
Side note:Trying to quit HBH but am dragged back every day.Hope they delete me soon.:)
None of that explains why he was losing space every time he formatted the drive.
OP, you never had to go through the command prompt and all if it was that simple. All you needed to do was right click on My Computer, go to Manage and then Storage Management. You could have then seen any partitions or unallocated space that might have been on it. I was assuming some kind of hardware problem since it makes no sense for you to lose space with every format.
Of course, you might have been lying or confused about losing space with every format. It makes perfect sense if your drive space isn't what it's supposed to be because some companies (like Sandisk) configure their drive in such way that it appears as two drives, one of them having some portable apps. If your OS was unable to display that, then it explains your missing space. But it makes no sense to lose space with every format.
well, none of your options seem to fit.
I stood next to him, he just formatted it. 2. I'm sure he does know nothing about partitions and I'm sure he doesn't even have a keylogger nor other tools.
Is it possible that if I had 2 partitions on the drive, that something switched from 0 to 1 so i only had 1,47GB?
Let's say I got 2 partitions on my drive (like 5GB ) and #1 (the 1,47GB ). Partition is primary and i formatt it or restore it to factory settings, it's automatically switching to #1?
Any other ideas how to accidently create paritions? xD
Well,according to what I understand, the first 3 times, he didn't loose any space(Before his friend fucked it up). On the third time, he got 1.57GB(After his friend was done with him). And the loss he got after that(down to 1.47GB) could have been because he changed the file system(FAT to NTFS or something).
1.)If it were a hardware error(which might have caused him to loose space after every format,It wouldn't have shown orig. size in diskpart.(Which is why I asked him that first).
2.)Why I used the Command prompt:
a.)He didn't mention his OS in the first post(Though I assumed it was Windows),I doubt that the way to access the GUI version is slightly different in each version of Windows.
b.)I hate GUI when it's not necessary.
c)It consumes more memory and time(Most of the times), it's sloppy and looks disgusting(The designers of Windows probably weren't artists).
d.)It looks cool to open up a command prompt and type in the commands fast when you are doing this for a friend;).I usually find that people are more grateful if they think what you are doing is hard to do.:)
gregorian wrote: I doubt you did what I suggested. There is no way that missing space wouldn't have been visible from the Storage Management if you could recover it through diskpart. I don't mean right click on the drive and see its properties.
just realised what u mean, sorry. Yeah right, would've been an option, you didn't tell me earlier :p
Right clicking and seeing the properties works only for visible partitions. I won't believe that he couldn't see the invisible partitions using Storage Management. (This has been there from at least Windows 98, so it's not the version of Windows)
onejerlo wrote:
2.)Why I used the Command prompt:
a.)He didn't mention his OS in the first post(Though I assumed it was Windows),I doubt that the way to access the GUI version is slightly different in each version of Windows.
b.)I hate GUI when it's not necessary.
c)It consumes more memory and time(Most of the times), it's sloppy and looks disgusting(The designers of Windows probably weren't artists).
d.)It looks cool to open up a command prompt and type in the commands fast when you are doing this for a friend;).I usually find that people are more grateful if they think what you are doing is hard to do.:) The simpler solution is better. While you might love command line tools, it's hardly what a Windows user expects/ needs. And I haven't seen a GUI better than the Windows GUI, so I'm guessing you hate all GUI? The GUI doesn't consume more time if it's easy to use. In fact, the probability of typing the wrong command is vastly reduced since you have a visual representation with an easy to understand menu of commands. I hate the last point you mentioned! A person will probably be much more grateful if you teach him how to fix the problem on his own.
@ghxst:Never judge a book by it's cover.
My friends/teachers thought that I was (Quote)"Simple minded fool who's scared of everything"
I later set up a keylogger in her computer while she was standing right behind me(You can make almost ANY process invisible if you like and are prepared).
And on fare-well day I used a single tube of 10 cent quick dry gum,some chewing gum and a piece of paper(For my fare-well message) on the computer lab's lock.(LOL,the door was old-style. they had to replace the entire door:evil: ).
1.)You aren't paying attention!!Just stabbing your friend isn't that evil,you need to stab him with a needle/toothpick!!!
2.)Again, never judge a book by it's cover,loads of people made bets on me too(Wont take a football to the stomach,can't fight against **** etc,etc); but there exists a strange breed of people, who do things just because someone told them(or think) they can't (overdosing on certain medicines can convert you into them;) ).
@gregorian:Aah,I was like you once,then I realized that most people you try to teach will look at you like you are radioactive waste and say "Yeah,whatever,that's nice,but I need to go to the mall".
Then again,some others would shout at you;"YOU HACKER??!!!THAT ILLEGAL!!!Get OUT OF MY LAB!!"(LOL,My comp. teacher in 9th grade when I was caught teaching boys how to remove a block on certain sites and remotely open up certain links on girls computers:evil: ).
NOTE:what you should learn from the above is,when you use remote access tools in a local network,it becomes VERY easy to track you down.:)
ADDED:You don't need any special tools to partition a drive invisibly,all you need is a C/C++ compiler and some knowledge of the diskpart command.
@onejerlo, you think that's bad? In India, it's natural for teachers to expect students to do everything by the book. Anything out of the book, is illegal. They might have asked you to get out of the lab. One guy I know, got reported to the police for using free internet. In India, most places don't have wifi so you're forced to use computers that are known by the administrators. You don't have admin rights so you can't spoof anything. Usually they have some kind of remote desktop software on the system, so you're pretty much fucked if you try anything. But you can't deny that is very secure, since they don't give the slightest fuck about your privacy. https traffic is blocked most of the time!
Are you aware of the Blackberry issue in India? Indian government will ban them if they don't make the communication lines less secure. And there's nothing we can do about it. If something like this was done in the US, they would probably laugh it out of court.