A Corrupted Flashdrive.

waynegohl

waynegohl

Ancient Astronaut
Joined
Nov 4, 2007
Messages
41,471
Reaction score
34
Location
Planet X
I have a 4g flashdrive or memory stick which is formatted to FAT32 and it is corrupted. I have tried deleting the files and nothing helps and even tried file shredder but that don't work either, what can i do?

Is there something in windows XP that i can use (I have not found anything) or is there a program i must download that will perhaps reformat the stick for me?

thanks.
 
You can also use the HP format tool to format a 2TB External drive in FAT32 if you want to use it on a PS3 or external media player that can only read fat32 drives.
 
You don't wanna just right-click on it in My Computer and Format... ?
 
Dean said:
You don't wanna just right-click on it in My Computer and Format... ?
Click to expand...

ha ha ha good one i never saw that but here's the thing all 3 of the ideas you guys have given me now each have their own issues. one says unable to format and one says it is being used by another programme and another says it is write protected.

what a piece of junk i have here, if it's not my pc then it is the sound which has gone again.
 
waynegohl said:
ha ha ha good one i never saw that but here's the thing all 3 of the ideas you guys have given me now each have their own issues. one says unable to format and one says it is being used by another programme and another says it is write protected.

what a piece of junk i have here, if it's not my pc then it is the sound which has gone again.
Click to expand...

You have a worm on your flash drive (which is consequently running on your pc). Does the flash drive have a folder icon? Right click -> Format is the best way to do it. (you can format it to NTFS by specifying the drive to be optimized for performance in the device manager.
 
waynegohl said:
ha ha ha good one i never saw that but here's the thing all 3 of the ideas you guys have given me now each have their own issues. one says unable to format and one says it is being used by another programme and another says it is write protected.

what a piece of junk i have here, if it's not my pc then it is the sound which has gone again.
Click to expand...

Okay well there's one common denominator.. Windows. (and a few others:))

The simplest solution is to download/Freedom Toast/get ahold of an Ubuntu Live CD and boot with that. You'll have a tool in there called GParted, which you can use to format the flash drive without a problem - 99% of the time.
 
what make it your flashdive wayne? Found a utility to fix my transcend the other day...
 
geezer said:
You can also use the HP format tool to format a 2TB External drive in FAT32 if you want to use it on a PS3 or external media player that can only read fat32 drives.
Click to expand...

You telling me the almighty PS3 can only read fat32?
 
waynegohl said:
ha ha ha good one i never saw that but here's the thing all 3 of the ideas you guys have given me now each have their own issues. one says unable to format and one says it is being used by another programme and another says it is write protected.

what a piece of junk i have here, if it's not my pc then it is the sound which has gone again.
Click to expand...

Wayne, you seem to have been getting a lot of IT-related problems recently. I've been stumbling accross your threads every now and then ;-)

Peon said:
You telling me the almighty PS3 can only read fat32?
Click to expand...

That's right. I stand corrected, but I believe that NTFS is a proprietory Microsoft standard, and AFAIK, Sony would have to pay Microsoft if they wanted to support NTFS on the PS3.

The thing I don't get is why there isn't another open-source royalty-free license-free standard that is widely adopted and used, and supports all the features that NTFS has. Oh yeah now I remember, the reason is due to the ubiquity of Windows, Microsoft and their crappy proprietary patent-invested non-standards.
 
Dean said:
Okay well there's one common denominator.. Windows. (and a few others:))

The simplest solution is to download/Freedom Toast/get ahold of an Ubuntu Live CD and boot with that. You'll have a tool in there called GParted, which you can use to format the flash drive without a problem - 99% of the time.
Click to expand...
You mean to say it works just like Windows does, 99% of the time?
 
iCubed.Saajid said:
Wayne, you seem to have been getting a lot of IT-related problems recently. I've been stumbling accross your threads every now and then ;-)



That's right. I stand corrected, but I believe that NTFS is a proprietory Microsoft standard, and AFAIK, Sony would have to pay Microsoft if they wanted to support NTFS on the PS3.

The thing I don't get is why there isn't another open-source royalty-free license-free standard that is widely adopted and used, and supports all the features that NTFS has. Oh yeah now I remember, the reason is due to the ubiquity of Windows, Microsoft and their crappy proprietary patent-invested non-standards.
Click to expand...

Yip but most of the time you guys help me sort it out. my desktop is vrek old and i add and delete all the time. i use it for work so basically it's on 24/7 and being used almost all that time. i know jack about these things and am still learning all the time. my wife has a laptop that is also vrek old and she uses it for work and it has also started giving serious problems and she is trying to fix it and even did a restore setting thing.

we learn as we go along.
 
waynegohl said:
if a Worm is a virus then why is my virus scanners not picking it up?
Click to expand...

Because it's not really a virus ;). Download and run this: http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.aspx. (unlikely that it works though, but worth a shot).

With flash-drive malware, I usually use Unlocker (which tells you which process is locking the worm's files on the flash, this process will be the worm itself). Then I go and manually kill the process and remove it using unlocker (it can kill and delete). And then remove from flash drive etc. Never used antivirus software, never needed it ;) (maybe I should write a guide on this...)

Important note: disable all forms of autorun!!!
 
ha ha ha yeah write something that a stupid person like me will understand please. thanks for the link and info i will look at it now. the funny thing is that the flashdrive has not been in my pc for months and now when i need it it is corrupted. just out of curiosity, we spoke about storing stuff on external drives etc would something like this also affect an external drive that has been standing for long?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X