CDFS on an USB drive

[jan80trs]

I have a (non-U3) USB-stick with a CDFS-partition on it. How can I remove it and use the whole capacity of the drive?

Apparently, this question has been floating around the 'net for years, and I haven't found any solution for it. Nobody else, either.

My own situation is the following:
- Windows XP Pro SP3 UK
- USB-stick, when inserted in port, gives 2 drives:
- drive F:, cdfs, boots and gives a commercial message, as with AutoRun for CDs
- drive G:, FAT is a data disk, writable as any flashdrive

Diskmanager, U3-uninstaller, ... don't work. Diskmanager doesn't, because there are 2 drives on one disk, one of wich is write-protected. Wich is logical, because it's a CD-ROM. U3-uninstall doesn't recognize the brand. (has to be SanDisk)

I think it's in the boot record(s), somewhere. I would think that destroying the bootrecord for this flashdrive and creating a new one would solve he problem. Can any of the DIY DataRecovery.nl tools do that, and if yes, wich one, and how?

I would like to be able to fix this in XP.

(Je helpt er echt niet alleen mij mee.)

Jan

[Tom]

Apparently, this question has been floating around the 'net for years, and I haven't found any solution for it. Nobody else, either.

Well, I have, years ago actually. It's surprisingly easy and you already hinted at it. The trick is to wipe the very first few sectors of the USB key and then re-init it using any Windows disk manager. The problem is that doing that in Windows is tricky (but possible: you can use any direct-access disk utility like DiskProbe or NTFS explorer; these are tricky tools to use however). What I usually do is really simple:
Download and install MBRtool (freeware), then create a bootable diskette or CD to run MBRtool. Then connect the USB key and reboot the machine with the above mentioned diskette or CD in the drive. MBRtool should launch, and if the PC is not too old the USB key will be accessible as a normal hard drive. Use MBRtool to wipe the track0 of the key and you're ready to use the key in Windows; you'll have to format the key but that should be obvious.
To release the full potential of the key you should also change the drive policy (in Windows) for the USB key. To do this, run "devmgmt.msc" from the windows command prompt and browse to the USB drive. Right-click the device and look up the drive policies. Change the policy to "optimize for performance".

[jan80trs]

I'm going to try that right away.
CU later.

[jan80trs]

Sadly, it doesn't work.

I tried erasing track 0, editing/clearing the partition table, zapping the MBR. Nothing changes.
Of course, the data-partition on the USB-drive is cleared, but the CDFS is still there.

All the actions seem to be done on the data part, and the CDFS-part is unaffected. 

I'm open for any suggestions. But the only thing I can think of, is zapping the thing with an EMP.
I'm serious! 

[Tom]

I see... So that's different from my keys then. I had a U3 key once and that allowed me to uninstall the U3 stuff, effectively giving me the entire key space. It is possible to download the U3 software and perform an uninstall with it, but you say yours is not U3 so that's not likely to work.
What I've found on the web about this basically says that keys that have this sort of thing are spammers; it's a way to enforce advertising on people. And you are right, it seems there's no way (yet) to remove these cdfs partitions, it seems they are part of the hardware in some way. So I'd say get your money back, this sort of practice is very consumer unfriendly, and get a key that doesn't have this spamming on it. The U3 keys all allow you to remove the U3 stuff so that might be a better way to go.
You could try wiping the entire key from DOS mode but you'll need a (commercial) tool to do that. Our DiskPatch could do it, but I have no idea if this will help. I'd simply buy a new key, of a respected brand...

[jan80trs]

OK, thanks for the effort and the MBR-tool, anyaway. Good stuff, I could have some use for it, someday.

The stick in question was a freebee, the kind of thing that you get at conferences or commercial representatives. No way getting my money back, 'cause I didn't spend any. 

A friend of mine has an old tape bulk-eraser. That might do it. It's as close to an EMP I can get.

[Tom]

The freebee thing explains it then; it's spam. Nothing in this life is free...
Don't forget though; there's also some electronics in that key that takes care of the reading and writing, so zapping the key may well fry it completely. Still, doesn't sound like a great loss (I hate this type of advertising).