Properly Formatting And Loading USB Flash Drive?

[Phog Allen]

Good day gents. I have a question about how to properly format and load a usb flash drive with music files. I have a Kenwood car stereo that has a usb port which allows me to carry a tonne of music and not have to tote cds around. I love it. I have barely loaded a cd in it since I bought it.

I use Sandisk 4gb cruzer sticks and they work just fine but I am having trouble getting the folders on the disc in the way I want. No matter what I try, no matter how many times I format, my folders will always start at number 03. When I check the contents of a freshly formatted stick, it always shows about 3.72gb of space left. What is using up the other 230mb of space? I have checked to see if the U3 software was nuked out and the removal tool from Sandisk does not show it when I run the tool.

The most annoying thing is the folder numbering. Why does it always start with number three? Of course intuition tells you pretty plainly it has something to do with .25gb of used space you can't see but who knows? Also, is just using the Windows XP formatting tool the right way to do it? I always just select FAT32 but should I be doing something different? I figure there has to be answer amongst this crowd.

Regards, Todd

[icedoverfire]

Hi Todd,

Rule number one is that you are NEVER going to get access to ALL of the space you paid for. This is the price of formatting.

4 GB of UNFORMATTED space becomes 3.72 GB of FORMATTED space because the taken 230 MB contains unaccessible data which tells the system "Hi, I'm a USB drive, my file system works like this, etc etc". If it's a U3, part of the space is probably devoted to the software that comes loaded with the drive. A small price to pay, considering that an unformatted drive WILL NOT WORK, PERIOD.

Formatting using Windows XP is perfectly fine, and FAT32 is recommended for USB sticks.

Have you tried a different flash drive (one that NOT a cruzer?)

Best,

- ice

[ouch]

For whatever reasons, I've had problems with U3 drives that haven't appeared on those without it.

[Phog Allen]

Well at this point in time I have used both an SD card in a usb reader plugged into the head unit and the Cruzer sticks. The function just fine but if I remember correctly, they both showed the folder three phenomena. I don't know if this is related to the head unit's firmware or the formatting procedure in XP. Both devices were formatted with the normal procedure for formatting in XP. I get it the devices need to be formatted, I was just wondering if the Cruzer, which shipped with U3 originally, was having separate issues due to that program. I don't think it does since their removal tool does not detect it when scanned. So I think I have it stripped out. Please feel free to offer up any suggestions. Particularly about how to arrange the folders on the disc. As it is the folders are arranged in the order they are written to the drive. Which I gather is pretty normal. Even if you alphabetise the folders after you load them they will play in the order they were written. Is there an easy way to arrange them in alphabetic order before you load them up? Thanks.

Regards, Todd

[mretzloff]

As it is the folders are arranged in the order they are written to the drive. Which I gather is pretty normal. Even if you alphabetise the folders after you load them they will play in the order they were written. Is there an easy way to arrange them in alphabetic order before you load them up?

Just right-click and select "Arange by", and click whatever you want to arrange them by. That should do it.

[MrLastway]

Hi phog.

Disclaimer: Technical mumbo jumbo below. Read it if you don't mind getting a wee bit confused. I know I did.

The U3 drive wont properly format is probably because it used a launch program that can be programmed with a password am I right? If this is the case then 9/10 times it uses a virtual partition on the memory to create the actual space you can write onto. It kinda looks like a virtual drive that you can create on your hard drive in the .iso format.

I take it that you have uninstalled the "programs" that were on it when you bought it and deleted all the folders through formatting. The hitch here is that you really don't format the entire drive but just a virtual partition on it. The "hidden" part is then used to create a separate launch space where 1 .exe file containing the password program and an encryption to encrypt the virtual partition so that it wont be readable without the password.

Can you say if it appears as 1 single partition in windows explorer or as 2 separate devices such as E: and F: or just E:. If it is just 1 then most of what I've already said wont really matter because I can't really solve that without looking at the memory myself but if it is 2 then it might be easily reformatted as 1 true partition. The only problem then will be that you loose the password and encryption features permanently.

In the case that there are 2 different partitions that pop up in explorer you will have to delete them both through the computer management - Disk management program in windows and then recreate the entire space as 1 partition.

And about that folder 03 phenomena. Are you viewing hidden files as well? Because the .exe on the back partition can create files immediately after a reformat.


I hope that that made sense now... it is starting to get kinda late here

[Slash McCoy]

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/U...val-Tool.shtml

This actually removes all of the U3 functionality, or, as I call it because I think the U3 thingie is a bit PITA, the "U3 virus". I have never used a thumb drive in the manner in which the U3 crowd wants me to use it, so I always remove it from the drive.

I notice a lot of car stereos with USB sockets are pretty cranky about the thumb drives that are plugged into it. I had one that would not recognize more than the first Gigabyte or so of music!

The stereo in my pickup now is a Fusion. The faceplate flops down exposing an internal dock for my 120GB Ipod classic. Unfortunately my new 32BG ipod touch does not seem to work in it. But it is cool to have my pod tucked safely inside there, with all that music available on demand. So the classic stays inside the stereo, where it is constantly charged and available for play through my stereo, and the touch is the one I carry around. Unfortunately this stereo does not have a USB port.

http://www.chipchick.com/2008/12/fus...ereo_head.html