Partition and format 4GB microdrive to FAT16

  • Thread starter Thread starter yubba
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yubba

Help Please!

I have a 4GB Hitachi microdrive (FAT32) that I need to convert to FAT16 (I
understand that I will only be able to use 2GB) so my digital camera will
recognize it.

I've checked out Compuapps swissknife, Partition Magic, Partition Manager,
and some other utilities on both winxp pro and win98se. My usb card reader
is a kingbyte ku5in1. The demo apps all give me errors of some sort so I am
hesitant to plunk down the $40+ for the full versions. Swissknife (free)
gives me a memory read error in XP and a vxd error (BSOD) in win98.

Anyone have a reliable way to safely re-partition/reformat this card? I
have a knoppix CD if there is an easier Linux solution.

TIA

(add my user name to (e-mail address removed) for my correct email address)
 
yubba said:
Help Please!

I have a 4GB Hitachi microdrive (FAT32) that I need to convert to
FAT16 (I understand that I will only be able to use 2GB) so my
digital camera will recognize it.

I've checked out Compuapps swissknife, Partition Magic, Partition
Manager, and some other utilities on both winxp pro and win98se. My
usb card reader is a kingbyte ku5in1. The demo apps all give me
errors of some sort so I am hesitant to plunk down the $40+ for the
full versions. Swissknife (free) gives me a memory read error in XP
and a vxd error (BSOD) in win98.

Anyone have a reliable way to safely re-partition/reformat this card?
I have a knoppix CD if there is an easier Linux solution.

TIA

(add my user name to (e-mail address removed) for my correct email address)
Click to expand...

Try Partition Resizer v1.3.4 (http://zeleps.com/)

--
M.f.G.
Michael Kimmer

"Ein Tag an dem Du nicht lächelst ist ein verlorener Tag"
"Eine Nacht in der Du nicht schläfst ist eine verschlafene Nacht"
 
[This followup was posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage and a copy
was sent to the cited author.]

Help Please!

I have a 4GB Hitachi microdrive (FAT32) that I need to convert to FAT16 (I
understand that I will only be able to use 2GB) so my digital camera will
recognize it.

I've checked out Compuapps swissknife, Partition Magic, Partition Manager,
and some other utilities on both winxp pro and win98se. My usb card reader
is a kingbyte ku5in1. The demo apps all give me errors of some sort so I am
hesitant to plunk down the $40+ for the full versions. Swissknife (free)
gives me a memory read error in XP and a vxd error (BSOD) in win98.

Anyone have a reliable way to safely re-partition/reformat this card? I
have a knoppix CD if there is an easier Linux solution.
Click to expand...

Are you trying to preserve data, or just simply reformat?

With a CompactFlash card from my camera in my printer's card reader, I
can simply right-click it in Explorer, choose Format, select the file
system, the allocation size (FAT32/NTFS only), and then hit Start.

Does your camera have a Format command of it's own that might work? When
I put my CF card test-formatted to FAT32, the camera came up and asked if
I wanted to format it (since it doesn't recognize FAT32.)
 
fdisk and partition resizer won't work since I can't get the system to
recognize the card reader outside of windows. Is there some simple way I am
overlooking?

Alas, my printer also does not have a microdrive slot. Maybe I can sneak
over to the local Best Buy and try that, but what make/model should I try?

TIA
 
Sorry to reply to my own message, but I found Linux drivers for my card
reader and am willing to try that. I am, however, a Linux newbie (waaaay
wet behind the ears) and need step by step instructions for getting the card
formatted to FAT16 (if possible)

Thanks all
 
Start by trying to format it 4GB FAT16 in Win XP. If that does not work, use
Disk Manager and recreate the part as 2GB. Fdisk does run under WIn 98.
 
WinXP won't give me an option to format it as FAT16 (Microsoft Documentation
claims that option is not supported). I also didn't see the option in win98
(I think it automatically formats the 4GB as FAT32). Is DiskManager
installed by default or do I have to go back to my install CD for that
utility?
 
yubba said:
fdisk and partition resizer won't work since I can't get the system to
recognize the card reader outside of windows.
Click to expand...

Fdisk also works from within Windows.
Look for Int13 on the drive property settings tab in device manager.
 
Thanks for the heads up on disk management!

I hit format as FAT and use the allocation unit size as default. Then I get
the message

"This volume will not be compatible with previous versions of Microsoft
Windows because the FAT file system has an allocation unit size greater than
32K."

The camera still won't see it. What size allocation unit should I select?
Do I need to partition the disk into 2 partitions first and then format to
FAT? Is FAT really FAT16?

Thanks for all your patience, I thought I knew more about this originally.
 
The camera doesn't understand 64KB clusters. You have to create two 2GB FAT
partitions, which will have 32KB clusters.
 
I guess I'm back to my original question....what software is reliable that
can partition and format the drive within windows (since I can't get the usb
card reader to work at boot). I hate to spend upwards of $40 for a product
that may not work.

Compuapps swissknife gives me a memory read error. free app
Partition Manager, partition magic, partition commander.....what is best?
 
I guess I'm back to my original question....what software is reliable that
can partition and format the drive within windows (since I can't get the usb
card reader to work at boot). I hate to spend upwards of $40 for a product
that may not work.

Compuapps swissknife gives me a memory read error. free app
Partition Manager, partition magic, partition commander.....what is best?
Click to expand...

I just tried this on a memory card from my camera. It was on my
printer's reader, but should work the same with ANY reader. This is also
with Win2K, but XP should be similar.

Right-click MyComputer on your XP computer and choose Manage. Double-
click on Disk Management. This will show all your hard drives and their
partitions.

Be careful and know the correct drive. Choosing the wrong one will ruin
your day!!

Right-click inside the bar for your microdrive and choose 'Delete
Partition.' Right-click it again and choose 'Create Partition...'. Go
through the wizard, choosing Primary partition, the size (my 128M card
won't let me choose the size), a drive letter, and then the format. At the
minimum, you should be able to choose the cluster size, even if it's 4G.
By choosing 32K, it will probably limit the usable size to 2G, which your
camera hopefully will recognize.
 
I'm not allowed to delete partitions on any of my disks. My primary disk is
split into 2 partitions and the only "special" option I get is "delete
logical drive..."

I tried Partition Magic last night and it won't even recognize the drive.
Then I noticed in the documentation that it doesn't guarantee support for
"removeable media".

I know this can be done. Just don't know how.

I also put the drive in a HP printer, but it didn't have a format
option....darn.

I took the drive to a computer store and they couldn't even get their
reader/computer to recognize the drive (won't be going back there)

Anyone want to swap a 4GB Hitachi microdrive for a 2GB?????
 
fdisk is for dos and my bios won't see the usb in dos.

The local computer store couldn't see the drive in their card reader (mine
works fine), and I tried putting it in an HP printer with a microdrive slot,
but it didn't have a format option (bummer)

I think my problem is that the disk is considered "removeable media" and I
do not have the option to delete partition. Partition Magic won't even see
the drive (it is supposed to support USB and Firewire drives) and I'm
guessing this is also in the way the reader is reported to the system.

I just downloaded WinHex and know there are some people who've used it to
manually change the FAT, etc. By the time I'm up to speed on how to change
all that, my camera will be obsolete unless someone can send me an image
file to copy over to my drive.

Sooo, anyone know of any good utiltities that will change the status to
non-removeable? I know I've stumbled across these for CD-ROM's, but don't
know if there is anything like that for a CF card.

I sure wish I could get Swissknife to work. CNET and ZDNet (same company,
no?) report thousands of downloads, but I haven't found anyone who has used
it.

Thanks again
 
Absolutely clueless. How many times have you been told fdisk runs under Win
9X?

Don't expect any more help from any of the experts, you are too stupid to
follow advice.
 
Got my terms screwed up...thanks for the flame.

I can't get the microdrive recognized on boot up because my bios won't allow
me to boot from USB and I don't know how to load the necessary drivers in
order to get the drive recognized once I boot to just a prompt so I can run
fdisk.

Thanks everyone for all your attempts. I'll get it worked out.
 
fdisk is for dos and my bios won't see the usb in dos.

The local computer store couldn't see the drive in their card reader (mine
works fine), and I tried putting it in an HP printer with a microdrive slot,
but it didn't have a format option (bummer)

I think my problem is that the disk is considered "removeable media" and I
do not have the option to delete partition. Partition Magic won't even see
the drive (it is supposed to support USB and Firewire drives) and I'm
guessing this is also in the way the reader is reported to the system.

I just downloaded WinHex and know there are some people who've used it to
manually change the FAT, etc. By the time I'm up to speed on how to change
all that, my camera will be obsolete unless someone can send me an image
file to copy over to my drive.

Sooo, anyone know of any good utiltities that will change the status to
non-removeable? I know I've stumbled across these for CD-ROM's, but don't
know if there is anything like that for a CF card.

I sure wish I could get Swissknife to work. CNET and ZDNet (same company,
no?) report thousands of downloads, but I haven't found anyone who has used
it.
Click to expand...

Since your original post said you had a Win98 computer (or partition),
you can run FDISK inside Win98. You don't have to be in pure DOS to run
FDISK. Just be careful as to which drive you pick!
 
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