Re: How do you Format a RAW USB Flash Drive under WinXP

From: Cheryl Wise (newsgroups_at_wiserways.net)
Date: 11/28/04 

Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 16:30:42 -0600

Got an old dos system floppy or Windows 95/98 start-up disk? Any of those
should work. You can also find boot disk utilities on the net and make one
to use to format your usb stick.

I've reformatted some and never had the problem you describe. What happens
when you look at the usb drive in the Computer Services MMC (Administrative
Tools, Computer Services)? I see them under Disk Managment which gives me
options to partion and format. 

-- 
Cheryl D. Wise
Microsoft FrontPage MVP
Certified Professional Wet Developer
http://mvp.WiserWays.com
"Richard Elm" <RichardElm@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message 
news:928DFEC9-2706-41BD-B7CB-493727592591@microsoft.com...
> That was the first thing I tried JW but I get the message "Windows was 
> unable
> to complete the format" WinXP sees the drive as FAT and unknown capacity 
> but
> in DOS it is in RAW as the partition was deleted by WinXP partition 
> manager.
> Is there a tool available (DOS or WinXP) that allows you to re-format a 
> USB
> flash drive. I cannot find one anywhere and in the good old days this 
> would
> have been simple using FDisk as long as your BIOS had USB supported 
> drives.
> Why MS decided to make partition manager only accessable on a new
> installation is beyond me and do away with FDisk all together with WinXP.
>
>

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