Cannot format a USB 2 gb Flash Drive

I received a 2 gb FLASH Drive from a supplier. It has their presentation and media information on it, but also has about 1.6 gb of free space. I want to now use this "Thumb Drive" to store other information; and I tried to reformat it for Mac (or Windows). BUT when I go to Disk Utility, I see 3 things:
1. First after my main HD, I see this: "1.9 GB Flash Disk Media" with the orange and white USB symbol (icon).
2. Indented below #1 is a white ard Drive symbol (icon) and I can reformat this for DOS or MAC to about 1.6 gb of space. I've done this and call it SCSWal2.
3. BUT there is a second orange and white USB icon at the same left-side position as the first, and this is labeled "30.9 mb Flash Disk Media". In DISK UTILITY, if I right-click and ask for Information, it says this is a Media Type "CDROM" and LOCKED.
When I click on this "30.9 mb Flash Disk Media" in Disk Utility, everything is "grayed-out", i.e. I cannot erase this, cannot do anything to it.
If I eject the 1.9 GB Flash Disk Media (basically if I eject the SCSWal2), then the 1.9 GB Flash Disk Media disappears in Disk Utility. BUT THE #3 "30.9 mb Flash Disk Media" remains in Disk Utility (it does NOT appear on the Desktop). BUT if I just pull-out the stick drive, then this disappears.
HOW TO FULLY FORMAT THIS STICK DRIVE so that the "30.9 mb Flash Disk Media" disappears?
Regards,
Steve 18 Sept 2008

Yes, it indeed seems to be some type of "U3" (that's new to me) or other separate hard drive. In fact, when I insert the new stick drive into my MAC, it shows the disk image (about 1.6 gb) but does NOT show the 30.5 mb (like a Windows computer does) - it says that this drive is not in a format that is recognize by macintosh OSX and either for me to click IGNORE or EJECT. No matter which I check, I cannot "see" this second 'drive' - only if I click IGNORE then I can see it in DISK UTILITY, but can't do anything about it.
As to the web reference you gave, it seems that will only work if I am on a WINDOWS PC - the UNINSTALL software (about 3.3 mb download) is an 'exe' file, i.e. not a Mac program-- is there any Mac software to eliminate the U3?
Just about the time I thought things were getting compatible, this comes out and now all the MacUsers who want to view the pps presentations on this partition cannot!
Thanks for any additional assistance,
Steve

Similar Messages

  • Which USB 64GB flash drives are compatible with Mac Mini?

    I need to use a USB 64GB flash drive, formatted for both PC and Apple, with my Mac Mini. The largest USB flash that Apple sells is 32GB. Which USB 64GB flash drives are compatible with Mac Mini. If most are, are there any that I should avoid? Thanks.

    I'm assuming that when I connect the USB to the Mac it gets formatted for Mac. Then I follow your directions and it gets formatted for Windows, in addition to Mac. I'd choose ExFAT since it is a 64GB USB.
    No no. A brand new drive will be formatted as "something", most likely something for Windows, and that could be FAT (which a Mac can also read and write to) or NTFS (which a Mac can read but not write to).
    So, you'll need to make sure it's formatted as ExFAT, instead of what it is. A medium can be in always only one format.
    About the expense: Fry's is advertising a 64GB Patriot USB Flash Drive for $22.99. Is that considered expensive for a USB flash drive?
    That'd be dirt-cheap, I'd say. Expect it to be very slow.
    I've read answers that are somewhat related to my question, and some warn that USB's are slow. Maybe I should consider another option?
    USB is not that slow (though there are faster buses). And USB flash drives come in different speeds, where especially the "write" speed can vary hugely.
    The advantage of USB is that it's widely spread, and lots of media is on the market, making it very affordable. The only other affordable alternative is an external HDD, I'd say, where you get much bigger drives for less money than a small 64GB USB flash drive...
    My main objective is that, in switching from Windows to Mac, I want to be able to access Windows files that I've backed up to a Seagate Free Agent. I bought a LaCie with the Mac Mini, but will still want to use the Free Agent. I need to reformat the Free Agent for the Mac (hopefully for Mac and Windows; while learning to use the Mac and Numbers and Pages I may have emergency jobs that I'll need to do with Excel and Word on the PC), so my plan is to move the files on the Free Agent to the 64GB flash drive, reformat the Free Agent so that, hopefully, the Mac will read the files on it after I move them back to the Free Agent from the USB.
    Why don't you copy the content of the Free Agent meanwhile to the Mac's HDD? Then copy it back after re-formatting the Free Agent? Why would you need an extra USB drive?
    Any ideas you have about how to achieve this objective will be appreciated. Maybe I should buy a third, small, external hard drive? Maybe there is a way to move the Windows files from the Seagate to the LaCie?
    Exactly... you seem to have already extra space on the LaCie drive...
    My understanding is that the Apple Store does not want to move files from an external hard drive to the Mac.
    I don't know where this could origin, but that's as wrong as it is funny. What has the App Store to do with you moving some files from one drive to another?
    I should add that I don't have enough remaining free space on the PC hard drive to hold the files on the Free Agent, so that is not an option.
    No, but you have a Mac with a built-in HDD, and you got the LaCie drive. Again, the Mac should have neither a problem to read from the Free Agent, nor to write to the LaCie.
    From what you're telling here, you have lots of space already with what you have, I can't see the need for the USB flash drive, at least not for the purpose you mention here.
    It seems that your understanding is that (a) a drive comes in a particular format for, or not for Mac, and you can't change it, and (b) that for some reason (App Store?!) Macs aren't allowed to copy files from external files. Well, both is wrong...

  • HT4848 how to erase the disk utility from my usb portbalbe flash drive

    how do I  erase the disk utility from my usb portbalbe flash drive. I need the flash drive for other stuff and it isn't allowing me to do so.

    Here is information on the recovery partition, includin how to remove it from a drive: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20083166-263/managing-the-os-x-10.7-lion-re store-drive/

  • Satellite L670 - Windows 7 cannot format a USB flash drive

    Hello
    Can anybody help? I am trying too format a USB flash drive on my Toshiba Satellite L670 Windows 7 but it keeps saying windows cannot format.

    Hi thanks for answer the flash drive is brand it showed ok when first installed but my laptop asked me too format and when i did thats when it gave problem tred on vista and xp machines

  • How to create a USB recovery flash drive using recovery ISO image?

    This “HowTo” provides information and instruction how to create a USB recovery media flash drive using the Toshiba recovery ISO image files or Toshiba Recovery discs (DVDs)
    To create a USB recovery media flash drive, a USB flash drive with at least 16GB disk space is suggested (depends on the size of the ISO images or recovery discs).
    Note: Since 2015 the ISO layout has changed and a different procedure must be processed to create the USB media. The new recovery media type can be identified by the names of the ISO files.
    More info: http://aps2.toshiba-tro.de/kb0/HTD4103KB0000R01.htm

    Yes, that article should apply to tablets.
    But if your USB recovery drive does not get recognized then it must be corrupted - you should be able to format your disk and perhaps try to see if creating a Recovery device on other devices will make it recognizable on your tablet 2.

  • Cannot drag Quicktime file to flash drive or burn to DVD. Help!

    I just finished a project in FCP. I exported it in QT format, and then created an iDVD project with it. Looks great. I've burend several DVD's, everything is fine. The movie file is 14.2 GB in size. Now, I need to drag the .mov file to a flash drive or SDHC card go I can give it to someone to play on their laptop. For some reason, I am getting a "File too large for volume's format" error no matter what I do. I have tried a 16GB USB flash drive, a 32GB SDHC card, and even a blank DVD. I ge the same error everytime. Is it a FAT32 limitation, or what am I missing here? How can I distribute this on flash media?
    Thanks for any help. 

    Nevermind, I'm an idiot. I just reformatted my SDHC card to exFAT and it transferred fine. Now as long as my friend's Windows 7 PC will read it, I'm fine! 

  • Cannot Delete Files From a Flash Drive

    I let a friend of mine borrow my flash drive so that he could do some type of system recovery or something on his microsoft surface tablet. He gave it back to me so I could use it for something I need to do, but he did not delete any of the recovery files, so I currently do not have enough memory to use it for what I need it for. I tried deleting the items and everytime I receive an error message and I cannot delete them. If any one has any ideas of what I can do to fix this I'd really appreciate it. I right clicked and went to get info to check the permissions and it said read and write was enabled so I'm not sure what else to do.

    Sweet...that totally worked. Thank you!

  • How to stop Windows from mounting a usb fat32 flash drive

      Here's the problem. I have 4 identical Sandisk Cruiser 32GB flash drives. Windows has never mounted these drives in the past, until several months ago. Now Windows is mounting 2 of these drives but not the other 2. When the drives get mounted I end
    up with about 5GB of files being added to each drive because they now show System Volume Information and the Recycle Bin. The amount of data added varies depending on the system I plug up to. On one Win 7 machine it can add up to 10+ GB. I would like to 
    be able to use the entire space for my backups but am unable to. These two drives are only used for Music and Videos. Is there a way to stop these two drives from being mounted in windows systems?
    Thanks,  Bill

    Sorry but my figures are not exaggerated. Right now on this machine "System Volume Information" is showing as 3.2 GB and "Recycle Bin" is showing as 2.9 GB.  I don't own these computers I use so I can't make changes to them such
    as emptying the recycle bin. I only use portable applications from my flash drives on friends systems. By windows loading these two folders to my flash drives it it effectively stopping me from being able to use all the space.
     Now as I mentioned in the first post, windows is only loading the SysVolInfo and recycle bin folders to 2 of the 4 drives. I am able to use ChkDsk on the two drives that are unaffected by windows but not on the other two. I get the message that windows
    can't check the volume while it is in use and would I like to check it at startup. This always fails because, I think, These computers do not recognize the usb drives until windows is loaded. I have a work around for this in a utility that will unmount the
    two drives and run ChkDsk and then remount them.
     This doesn't answer the question though as to why all of a sudden this is happening to 2 of the 4 drives? And on several different machines? Windows does assign a drive letter to all 4 drives as it always has however the 2 drives without the system
    folders are able to be scanned in windows without unmounting them.
     I would really appreciate any insight into this behavior I could get.
    Thanks, Bill

  • How do I copy music files in Apple Lossless format on to a flash drive so I can play on a digital media player.

    I have an iMac 21", running on OS X Yosemite 10.10.2, processor is 2.7GHz Intel Core i%, Memory 8GB 1333MHz.
    I would like to copy some of my iTunes music in Apple Lossless or AIFF to a flash drive which I would like to insert into a digital media player in my home Hi Fi system. How do I copy the files in these formats. Thank you.

    Drag the song files there, either from the iTunes application window or the iTunes Media folder in the Finder.
    (125190)

  • Cannot install NEC USB 3.0 Driver for Windows 7 - Now no USB 3.0

    I was trying to update the usb 3.0 driver on my G770 - connecting a USB 3.0 portable drive (or USB 3.0 flash) would slow down Windows and browsing from folder to folder would hang.
    I downloaded the latest driver from the site...
    NEC USB 3.0 Driver for Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit) - Lenovo G770 Notebook (IN5CAR01WW5.exe)
    and it asks for Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Host Controller Driver disk during the installation.
    Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Host Controller Driver for Windows XP exists but the driver for Windows 7 is NEC USB 3.0 Driver for Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit)
    What to do?
    error:

    Use the windows XP driver. They normally work fine.

  • Cannot format "WD My Book" external drive

    I cannot format my Western Digital My Book 750GB external drive with Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I have booted the computer with the Leopard DVD and used Disk Utility. I cannot repair the drive because I get an error. I cannot delete the partition because I get an error. I cannot format the drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) because I get an error.
    I can only format the drive as FAT. It's like the drive will not accept anything being done to it except formatting in FAT.
    Anyone know what's going on? Thanks!

    Yes same issue here I had to format in dosFAT (not happy about it but only choice it would allow). Then when I went to turn on Timemachine it said I had to reformat the disk in order to use it - I told it to go ahead and it did it (not using the disk utility though) so I checked the format with Disk Utility to see what it formatted it as and it says 'Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)'. That's good enough for me.
    It may just be a case of the Disk utility having an issue with it from it's original format. I should have tried to reformat again from there to see if there was a difference but I'm happy enough it's working.

  • I can't Format or erase my flash drive

    Hello,
    My problem:
    An 8 gig flash drive i have is in read only status, so i go to disc utility and there are no options to restore the thumb drive it original format, permission friendly format. the erase option is grayed out ....hmmm, what can i do? thank you in advance

    I looked, but didn't see something like a switch

  • Notebook NB200 cannot boot from USB CD/DVD drive / flashing cursor

    I have a toshiba nb200-11L just under 2 years old (no warranty!). Recently it developed a problem which prevents it from booting up and all that happens is that I get a flashing cursor in the top left corner of a black screen. The only options availavle are F2 and F12 but these will not allow me to enter either safemode or to use the toshiba recovery option.
    I have purchased the toshiba recovery disk on cd rom in order to complete a re-install but the bios only shows HDD and FDD as options, and there does not appear to be any way of adding further options.
    I have checked the hard drive which appears to be ok. I am concerned that the problem may be the motherboard which I suspect will make any repair uneconomical.
    Any suggestions will be much appreciated.
    Thanks. Keith

    I do not know what BIOS version it is, but I have set the BIOS to default. I suspect that there may be a problem with the external dvd drive, as I have plugged it in to another laptop and it is not being recognised. I am going to try another one tomorrow - fingers crossed!

  • Question about Formatting Buffalo USB 1TB external drive for use with Mac Book Pro Mountain Lion HD

    Hi there, Have Mountain Lion HD operating system (not sure if it is 10.8 or 10.8.1. or 10.8.2)  and have a Buffalo USB 3.0 1TB hard drive. When go to utilities to try and format with Mac OS extended, following 3 files show. DriveNavi. exe, Slm.exe and Mac. The option to left click and erase menu is not there. Or at least not as shown in all the help videos.
    It is USB connection so will take ages but want to use drive to store video footage and also partition to back up Time Machine. ( travelling in South America and no other Ext Drive option available too buy) how much space should i assign to Time Machine when partitioning?  Is there anything else i need to think about? as new to formatting. Any thing else i can do to make process of transfering footage to Buffalo quicker?
    Final question is if it is finally reformatted am i going to have to spend so long accessing footage from hard drive when back home and editing that it really is not worth if, and i should just write this off as an inappropriate purchase, and try and buy more memory cards and not bother with transfering/storing? Thanks in advance for time spent trying to assist.

    Use Apple's Disk Utility in the Applications/Utilities folder to format the drive.
    The programs on the drive given to you by the manufacturer is likely backup software (or malware) and essentially worthless, it will be wiped when you format the drive.
    I do NOT advise you partition that drive for TimeMachine, rather I advise you not to use TimeMachine at all for your purposes because TM is just a backup, not a bootable drive.
    Rather do this.
    Get another hard drive that is equal to or slightly larger than your boot drive.
    Format the drive in Disk Utiltiy > 1 Partition, option: GUID, Format: OS X Extended journaled, click Erase and move the slider one spot to the right and click Erase. This will take some time as it's going to map off any failing sectors it can BEFORE you lay data on the drive corrupting it.
    Next, pay for and download Carbon Copy Cloner, use the default settings and simply clone internal drive to the external drive. this will also take some time the first time.
    Next use Disk Utility to Repair Permisisons on both drive. Now reboot the machine and hold the option key down, you can select the external drive clone to boot from!!
    You can update the clone the same way by using CCC, but it doesn't take as long, only copying changes.
    This is better than TimeMachine as a bootable clone is bootable in case your internal drive fails to boot the machine.
    Use the first drive for storage and be very gentle with it while it running, like you should do for all hard drives as they are subjective to shock damage.
    The objective with the clone drive is you keep it safe, and not carting it around where it can be more subjective to damage like the other drive will be.
    Remmeber you need 2 forms of hardware backup at all times.
    Most commonly used backup methods

  • How do i format a USB attached Hard drive?

    Hi
    I want to use a Lacie USB hard drive I have for Time Machine backup. This HD has been used on Windows XP and has some data on it which I do not need to keep. How do I reformat the disk so it can be used as a clean empty disk for MAC Time Machine?
    Thanks

    Can't speak from experience as I don't use TM but I'd open Utilities and run Disk Utility. Open the Erase tab. That will give allow you to erase any attached drive. Make sure you choose the Mac Extended (Journaled) format. Finally, start TM and use the Set Up button to point to the drive you wish to use.

Maybe you are looking for

  • .Mac won't send email from iphone

    This used to work, but lately when I try to email a picture (taken with the iphone camera), from my .mac account on the iphone, it won't send. Just tested it without a picture, IE sending jsut a text email and it won't do that either. Any suggestions

  • End of words being cut off in Captivate 5

    Hello, This is the problem I am having: In Captivate 5, I have added audio files to my slides. When I preview the slides individually, or 5 at a time, the audio is perfect. However, when I preview the entire project, the last word on 2 of the slides

  • How to detect/mark automatic hyphens in a text?

    To visually control the quantity of hyphenated words in a page, seems appropriated to mark them ( like using some script, similar to that created by H. Jong, where beautifully all hyphenated words are coloured with a red ink?) The markup to identify

  • Cannot enable iTunes Match on iPhone 4S

    I subscribed to iTunes Match using iTunes 11.1.5. When I go to activate it on my iPhone 4S running 7.1, I go to Settings>Music or Settings>iTunes & App Store and choose "Subscribe to iTunes Match". I click "Subscribe" and it tells me "You are already

  • Computer-to-computer network iphone no wifi

    In my new workplace, I can't manage to network my iphone with my mac. I create the network (with password) on my mac. No problems. The network comes up in the settings on the iphone, and I type in the password and save it. No problems there either. I