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writer_robin
08-04-2006, 02:33 AM
I have a Lexar 1-Gb USB flash memory stick that I originally bought when I was still using Windows. Using the Lexar-supplied software I was able to format 25% of it as a private disk (password-protected) and the remainder as a public disk.

After a few months, I noticed that whenever I atached it to my Windows machine, only the public directory showed up. The private had disappeared. But here's the catch: the public directory only shows 750 Mb of space. So I downloaded the latest software and drivers from Lexar and installed them. No help. So I gave up.

Now that I no longer use Windows, I tried accessing the public directory on my Linux box. It could read but not write to it. My PC-BSD box couldn't do either. After fiddling around with several utilities, I finally decided "Aha! I'll just fdisk the sucker!" No luck. fdisk wouldn't touch it.

So this morning I bit the bullet, took it in to work with me, attached it to a Windows box, and reformmated it as FAT32. When I took it home and tried it out, I can read and write to it on both my Linux system and my PC-BSD box. Hooray!

But here's my question: any suggestions on how to access the still-hidden private directory? PC-BSD sees it as /dev/da0s02, but that's all: it won't mount it, and I still can't fdisk it. The public area is /dev/sd0s01, and I can do anything I want with that portion.

I'd kinda like to get back my missing 250 Mb,,,

Oh, yeah: PC-BSD 1.2 on a Compaq Presario 2200US system, Intel Celeron.

antik
08-04-2006, 08:02 AM
I have a Lexar 1-Gb USB flash memory stick that I originally bought when I was still using Windows. Using the Lexar-supplied software I was able to format 25% of it as a private disk (password-protected) and the remainder as a public disk.

After a few months, I noticed that whenever I atached it to my Windows machine, only the public directory showed up. The private had disappeared. But here's the catch: the public directory only shows 750 Mb of space. So I downloaded the latest software and drivers from Lexar and installed them. No help. So I gave up.

Now that I no longer use Windows, I tried accessing the public directory on my Linux box. It could read but not write to it. My PC-BSD box couldn't do either. After fiddling around with several utilities, I finally decided "Aha! I'll just fdisk the sucker!" No luck. fdisk wouldn't touch it.

So this morning I bit the bullet, took it in to work with me, attached it to a Windows box, and reformmated it as FAT32. When I took it home and tried it out, I can read and write to it on both my Linux system and my PC-BSD box. Hooray!

But here's my question: any suggestions on how to access the still-hidden private directory? PC-BSD sees it as /dev/da0s02, but that's all: it won't mount it, and I still can't fdisk it. The public area is /dev/sd0s01, and I can do anything I want with that portion.

I'd kinda like to get back my missing 250 Mb,,,

Oh, yeah: PC-BSD 1.2 on a Compaq Presario 2200US system, Intel Celeron.

You can clean up your flash card with command:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/da0 bs=1M

and then make new partitions.

NOTE: all your data would be overwritten with zeroes.

writer_robin
08-05-2006, 01:34 AM
antik--

Thanks! It worked perfectly!

Robin