Flash Drive CD-ROM Partition

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Who knows how to delete the CD-ROM partition from USB flash drive?

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Welcome to the Lounge!

Please be more specific: what do you mean by “CD-ROM partition” ?

Your question is weird because “CD-ROM” means “Compact Disk – Read Only Memory” and usually applies to one kind of the drives (CD readers as opposite to CD writers and DVD readers/writers) and media (non-writable “data” CDs).

On the other hand, on USB flash drive you can create one or more partitions and format them either in FAT, FAT32 or NTFS file systems.
If you use Windows 2000 or XP, you can destroy and create partitions from Computer Manager applet:
– connect your flash drive to USB port;
– click Start | Run, type COMPMGMT.MSC and hit Enter;
– on the left pane select Disk Management under Storage;
– select a partition you want on the upper right pane;
– from Action menu select All Tasks and then the task you want to perform.

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More details regarding CD-ROM partition.

I’ve have a flash pen drive already formatted with two partitions:
– one of them is a regular disk FAT partition;
– the second one works as a CD-ROM drive: in the MS Windows it’s represented as a additional CD-ROM drive and because contains autorun.ini file starts own activity right after connecting to the computer.

The question is: how to remove this CD-ROM partition an create one uniform disk space?

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According to this wikipedia article , this looks like it might be a useful feature. However, if you’re sure you want to remove it, scroll down to the “Criticisms” section of the article.

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John,

Thank you for the advice, but my pen drive is not U3 compliant so it is not recognized by the software mentioned in the Wikipedia article and can not be erased.

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Maybe someone else has an answer then. I am not familiar with drives (other than U3) that are configured in this manner.

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What you describe is typical for an U3 compliant flash drive. What exactly is started via autorun.ini?
And have you visited the manufacturer’s website and looked for info about that particular flash drive?

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Jan,

On the CD-ROM partition there are four files: two executables (loader.exe and autosvr.exe), one home.html file and autorun.inf file.
The home.html file itself has a link to a specific company site.

The content of autorun.file is as follow:
————————
OPEN=loader.exe
CLIENT_FILE=home.html

Both the pen drive itself and any kind of included software/files are completely “no name” without any links to manufacturer’s site.
On the software CD there is a mark SWF-6C but I’m afraid it doesn’t matter, because management software from the disc
doesn’t recognize the drive so I think it’s related to another product.

After I’ve started U3 uninstal utility, the program tried to locate the device for about 1 minute.
Despite the drive is connected to the computer and recognized by e.g. Windows Explorer, the operation ends with an error message:
“Please insert a U3 smart drive and run U3 Uninstall again”.

I’ve tried with both MS Windows 2000 and MS Windows XP – the same case.

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Can you not right click on the drive in My Computer and select “Format” from the dropdown menu ??

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DocWatson,

Because mentioned partition works as a CD-ROM, there is no right-click option to format it.
Also CD burning software can’t format recorded CD-ROM drive.

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If you delete the .ini file and any other content on the CD partition can you then format it ?? Can you change or delete the partitions using third party partition software like Partition Magic ??

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DocWatson,

It is not possible to modify any way content of this partition – because all files (which are on “flash CD-ROM”) are write-protected and this attribute can’t be changed.
And because it is not a “normal” disk partition, any regular disk partitioning tool is unusable, because this part of the drive for that tool is not visible.

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Hi andrzejm,

How about trying the gparted LiveCD, to re-partition the flash media?

This is a Linux OS which will run from the CD (without touching your Windows installation) directly from a power-up of the PC. Your PC simply needs to be able to boot from the CD / DVD drive.

Once the OS is running, the gparted software is used very similar to Partition Magic.

Note, your device will not be labelled as you’re used to seeing it. Your flash drive, and hard drives will appear as items such as /dev/hda, /dev/sda.

The linked page above has documentation and downloads available.

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Chris,

Thank you for suggestion.
I’ve already used the Linspire for this purpose but unfortunately the Linux has mounted this partition as a CD-ROM so no partitioning software can be used.
But of course I will try the version mentioned by You.

Andrzej

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Chris,

Unfortunately the subject is more complicated.
I’ve used gparted LiveCD but as in the case of another Linux distribution, the software is able to work only with the regular disk partition.
The CD-ROM part of the pen drive remains untouched. I’m afraid some special tool is needed.

Maybe somebody else have any bright idea?

Andrzej

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Andrzeju,

Try HDD Low Level Format Tool

” Low-level formatting of Flash Cards is supported too.”

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kaplinb,

There was a bright idea but low-level formatting was applied ONLY to a regular disk partition (!).
CD-ROM part of the disk remains in the same state as before.

May be something different…

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Ahem, sorry but I have to ask. You’ve never said anything about the brand name, capacity or cost of this pen drive. Would you? If small enough and low cost enough, might it be less total hassle to find an alternative?

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Big Al,

I’ve already wrote that the mentioned drive is a no-name device. Of course it is possible to buy a new one.
But from the technical point of view it should be possible too to reformat a flash device.

But as we can see this assumption must not be necessary true.

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Is this device a “Give away” from some vender with some product information (ads) on it?

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Dave and DocWatson,

Yes, mentioned device is a “Give-away” piece from some vendor with the link to a specific site.
This is not so bad. But at the same time included software try to install on the computer connected to file(s). And this is very bad, because this pen drive can not be use to exchange files with somebody else.

Thank you for your effort – Andrzej

PS
DocWatson – “blank image” doesn’t work.

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These devices are a lot cheaper today than they were some time ago. Go buy a couple 1 or 2 Gigs or even some of the 4 Gigs, you will be a lot happier and remember that you do NOT get anything .

I have a pile of the ones which I use ONLY here at my desk, when I need to a quick backup. Also the smaller ones here in the Seattle area have been running at about $10,00 or less for a 512 size. With rebates some are even after paying postage and the time to fill out the forms.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Dave,

Your approach how to obtain a new product is very straightforward.
But the subject matter is quite different.

Rgds – Andrzej

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[indent]

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this pen drive can not be use to exchange files with somebody else. DocWatson – “blank image” doesn’t work.

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[/indent] Throw the thing away and buy one that is useful. These are obviously single use devices, or not worth the time and effort to convert them. As Dave pointed out, there are many sources on the internet where you can get these devices using rebates and discounts or at the very least pick up the smaller capacity drives for a few dollars retail.

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From a technical point of view… you might try using imaging software (Ghost or True Image) and create an image of a blank flash drive of the same size and then attempt to restore the image to the problem flash drive.

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Have you tried a third party deletiton program like Sure Delete to wipe the flash drive clean ??

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DocWatson,

Thank you very much for your advice.
But Sure Delete can not delete files from CD-ROM device (with read-only attributes) – the program stops with an error.

Andrzej

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Dave took the words right out of my mouth. If this acts as a CD drive, where is it getting it’s data from ?? It can’t be reading a CD inserted into the computer’s CD drive and you can’t insert a CD in a flash drive, so it must be pre loaded with something.

Care to fill us in ???

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