Author Topic: USB Disk wipe  (Read 1539 times)

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Offline Hair|Trigger

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USB Disk wipe
« on: July 30, 2008, 12:19:28 am »



well my sister's university gave her a 1GB USB disk (weighs only 145mg!)  and she ended up giving it to me cause she diddnt use it much.  My problem is that they split the disk into two volumes and one is protected (I cannot edit it's contents or delete it)  The other volume (Which I assume is allocated to 512mb) I can do anything I want with it pretty much. 

I tried deleting the contents (weird uni documents and horrific pictures of injuries D:) but it comes up with the "volume protected" message

The "Removable disk" and "USB Disk"  are the two volumes, "USB Disk" is the one I can do whatever with.

so if theres like an overwriting program or something out there it would be great ;)  I have other USB disks but this ones really nice because its so light (: lol

Edit:  actually, I just found out the second volume is only allocated to 20MB lol, so it wont matter much but I still dont want it like this ;\

yes, I tried formatting the volume but it wouldnt let me
« Last Edit: July 30, 2008, 12:22:19 am by Hair|Trigger »

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Offline jrgp

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Re: USB Disk wipe
« Reply #1 on: July 30, 2008, 01:07:57 am »
Right click on My Computer. Go to Manage. Select Disk Management on the left. Find the bar on the right which has your flash drive's partitions. Right click them both and do Delete. After that, make a new NTFS partition in the free space taking up the capacity of the drive. Walla.
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Offline Hair|Trigger

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Re: USB Disk wipe
« Reply #2 on: July 30, 2008, 01:39:41 am »
-Find the bar on the right which has your flash drive's patitions.  The only thing on the right is a coloumn with "Disk Management" and under it it has "More options"

I tried right clicking on everything on the screen and none of them had a "delete" option.  Im using Vista..

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Offline a-4-year-old

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Re: USB Disk wipe
« Reply #3 on: July 30, 2008, 06:56:27 am »
Right click on My Computer. Go to Manage. Select Disk Management on the left. Find the bar on the right which has your flash drive's partitions. Right click them both and do Delete. After that, make a new NTFS partition in the free space taking up the capacity of the drive. Walla.
NO use fat32
If we hit the bullseye the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate. -Zapp Brannigan

Offline jrgp

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Re: USB Disk wipe
« Reply #4 on: July 30, 2008, 07:03:26 am »
Right click on My Computer. Go to Manage. Select Disk Management on the left. Find the bar on the right which has your flash drive's partitions. Right click them both and do Delete. After that, make a new NTFS partition in the free space taking up the capacity of the drive. Walla.
NO use fat32
But doesn't that just give the flash drive compatibility for Windows Me and older? Plus, NTFS gives the option for much longer file names, longer disk labels, and file compression..
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Offline a-4-year-old

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Re: USB Disk wipe
« Reply #5 on: July 30, 2008, 07:17:42 am »
Right click on My Computer. Go to Manage. Select Disk Management on the left. Find the bar on the right which has your flash drive's partitions. Right click them both and do Delete. After that, make a new NTFS partition in the free space taking up the capacity of the drive. Walla.
NO use fat32
But doesn't that just give the flash drive compatibility for Windows Me and older? Plus, NTFS gives the option for much longer file names, longer disk labels, and file compression..
he would only need the file compression, since its only 1 gig NTFS has no speed advantage. Fat32 is compatible with just about every operating system, and it won't waste time with security checks.

Flash drives are generally fat32
If we hit the bullseye the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate. -Zapp Brannigan

Offline jrgp

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Re: USB Disk wipe
« Reply #6 on: July 30, 2008, 08:05:39 am »
Right click on My Computer. Go to Manage. Select Disk Management on the left. Find the bar on the right which has your flash drive's partitions. Right click them both and do Delete. After that, make a new NTFS partition in the free space taking up the capacity of the drive. Walla.
NO use fat32
But doesn't that just give the flash drive compatibility for Windows Me and older? Plus, NTFS gives the option for much longer file names, longer disk labels, and file compression..
he would only need the file compression, since its only 1 gig NTFS has no speed advantage. Fat32 is compatible with just about every operating system, and it won't waste time with security checks.

Flash drives are generally fat32
That may be, but NTFS will always be more reliable than fat32 because it is a journaling file system. Meaning, with each transaction of data with the partition, a log of it is stored in a journal. If something gets fecked, like the drive is disconnected really fast without unmounting it first, it will just replay the contents of the journal the next time you decide to use it, making the chance of data loss much less lower. On the other hand, if you're using fat32, you have a much higher probability of being screwed.
« Last Edit: July 30, 2008, 08:10:39 am by jrgp »
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Offline frogboy

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Re: USB Disk wipe
« Reply #7 on: July 30, 2008, 08:13:46 am »
don't listen to him. fact of the matter is file system doesn't actually matter at all, so go nuts. go with fat32 though

honestly, if you disconnect it suddenly while writing to it, you're probably going to lose data anyway and you deserve to because you're a careless moron.
« Last Edit: July 30, 2008, 08:19:46 am by frogboy »

Offline a-4-year-old

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Re: USB Disk wipe
« Reply #8 on: July 30, 2008, 08:34:08 am »
Right click on My Computer. Go to Manage. Select Disk Management on the left. Find the bar on the right which has your flash drive's partitions. Right click them both and do Delete. After that, make a new NTFS partition in the free space taking up the capacity of the drive. Walla.
NO use fat32
But doesn't that just give the flash drive compatibility for Windows Me and older? Plus, NTFS gives the option for much longer file names, longer disk labels, and file compression..
he would only need the file compression, since its only 1 gig NTFS has no speed advantage. Fat32 is compatible with just about every operating system, and it won't waste time with security checks.

Flash drives are generally fat32
That may be, but NTFS will always be more reliable than fat32 because it is a journaling file system. Meaning, with each transaction of data with the partition, a log of it is stored in a journal. If something gets fecked, like the drive is disconnected really fast without unmounting it first, it will just replay the contents of the journal the next time you decide to use it, making the chance of data loss much less lower. On the other hand, if you're using fat32, you have a much higher probability of being screwed.
even if you were careless enough to do that you always have a backup on a computer somewhere since its just a usb.
If we hit the bullseye the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate. -Zapp Brannigan

Offline Amblin

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Re: USB Disk wipe
« Reply #9 on: July 30, 2008, 11:11:17 am »
Walla.
Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla! Walla!
« Last Edit: July 30, 2008, 11:12:52 am by Amblin »

Offline {LAW} Gamer_2k4

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Re: USB Disk wipe
« Reply #10 on: July 30, 2008, 11:26:34 am »
« Last Edit: July 30, 2008, 11:28:29 am by {LAW} Gamer_2k4 »
Gamer_2k4

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so clearly jgrp is a goddamn anime connoisseur. his opinion might as well be law here.

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Offline Amblin

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Re: USB Disk wipe
« Reply #11 on: July 30, 2008, 11:44:40 am »
Eh walla! {°!LAW%§} Gamer shows us how to own someone over the internet.

Offline Hair|Trigger

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Re: USB Disk wipe
« Reply #12 on: July 30, 2008, 09:54:15 pm »
The default file saving thing on the usb is FAT though.. can I convert it to FAT32 or NTFS without any problems?

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Offline The Geologist

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Re: USB Disk wipe
« Reply #13 on: July 30, 2008, 09:56:10 pm »
Just use fat32 and don't worry.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams it is
still a beautiful world.  Strive to be happy.

Offline Hair|Trigger

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Re: USB Disk wipe
« Reply #14 on: July 31, 2008, 02:18:21 am »
And that wont cause any problems?  when my default is currently set to FAT....?

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Offline a-4-year-old

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Re: USB Disk wipe
« Reply #15 on: July 31, 2008, 06:51:13 am »
And that wont cause any problems?  when my default is currently set to FAT....?
no it will be fine.
If we hit the bullseye the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate. -Zapp Brannigan