Help me recover my flash drive!

[bigboxes]

I have a couple of 32gb drives. I use one for media files for watching on the Panny in the living room. The other I store all sorts of proggies as I need them. I needed to change the formatting from NTFS to FAT32 so that I could boot to it. After a number of format changes and adding/deleting files I found that there was little usage space left on the device. Following some online advice I tried to restore the full capacity. I entered into dos and ran diskpart and eventually deleted a partition. That didn't fix the problem. Now, it shows up in disk management as 30.5GB of unallocated space. I cannot format the drive and can't access it as it is. It shows up as a removable device. I tried to recover the partition, but downloaded some free software that loaded up my computer with malware. Yeah, that was a fun evening of cleaning up that wretched mess. :eyeroll:

Long story short, help me recover the usage of my usb flash drive, por favor!

 

[midwestfisherman]

What is a Panny and a proggie??

 

[VirtualLarry]

Ok, you don't want to recover files already on it, you just want to be able to use it to transfer files again?

Download and run the USB flash drive tester from vconsole.com , then download and run the "HP USB Format tool".

Optional: Download Win98se DOS boot files, and supply them to the HP USB format tool, to make the USB drive bootable.

 

[bigboxes]

What is a Panny and a proggie??

Panny = Panasonic
proggie = program

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

I tried to restore the full capacity. ......... Now, it shows up in disk management as 30.5GB of unallocated space.

I'm just making sure you realize that 30.5 Gb is the same as what is advertised as 32 Gb.

K = Kilobyte

Because K=1024, but they use 1000 in advertising statements.

32Gb = 32 x 1000 x 1000 x 1000 = 32 Gb (as advertised)

30.5Gb = 30.5 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 = Proper definition of Gb = 32.75 Billion bytes (approx)

I.e. 30.5 Gb was most likely, the entire free space (give or take a small amount).

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

If I remember correctly, the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, is recommended, for doing stuff like this. Don't worry about it being HP branded. I think it works for most/all brands.

Disclaimer: I am NOT sure if the following link is spamware/adware etc free. But it is what I could find for you, quickly.

http://download.cnet.com/HP-USB-Disk-Storage-Format-Tool/3000-2094_4-10974082.html

 

[bigboxes]

I'm just making sure you realize that 30.5 Gb is the same as what is advertised as 32 Gb.

K = Kilobyte

Because K=1024, but they use 1000 in advertising statements.

32Gb = 32 x 1000 x 1000 x 1000 = 32 Gb (as advertised)

30.5Gb = 30.5 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 = Proper definition of Gb = 32.75 Billion bytes (approx)

I.e. 30.5 Gb was most likely, the entire free space (give or take a small amount).

I know all that. I'm talking about only showing as 48mb instead of 32Gb (or 30.5Gb). Today, it's at 512b. Plus, it's not even accessible at this point.

 

[bigboxes]

If I remember correctly, the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, is recommended, for doing stuff like this. Don't worry about it being HP branded. I think it works for most/all brands.

Disclaimer: I am NOT sure if the following link is spamware/adware etc free. But it is what I could find for you, quickly.

http://download.cnet.com/HP-USB-Disk-Storage-Format-Tool/3000-2094_4-10974082.html

Note to everyone out there, don't download anything from EaseUS. Eff them.

 

[bigboxes]

Ok, you don't want to recover files already on it, you just want to be able to use it to transfer files again?

Download and run the USB flash drive tester from vconsole.com , then download and run the "HP USB Format tool".

Optional: Download Win98se DOS boot files, and supply them to the HP USB format tool, to make the USB drive bootable.

Ok, I ran the USB flash drive tester proggie and it worked to repair whatever had borked my drive. I then used Windows Disk Management and formatted the drive to NTFS (30.5 usuable). Thanks to all who offered advice!