Fixed: USB drive unusable, unformattable, and reporting 0 bytes capacity
I completely hosed a few SanDisk Cruzer Micro USB 2.0 2 GB Flash Drives at work when I deleted the original contents of the drives, installed the CruzerPro software that had shipped with some older Cruzer Professional drives, and then used the CruzerPro application to password protect the drives. This process rendered the drives completely unusable and unable to be formatted.
The problems
Clicking the drive letter in Windows Explorer returns the following error message:
Please insert a disk into drive X:.
Attempting to format the drive returns the warning:
There is no disk in drive X.
Insert a disk, and then try again.
This is what the drives looked like once I’d thoroughly broken them.
SanDisk U3 Cruzer Micro USB Device Properties
The drive properties show:
Type: Removable Disk
File system: Unknown
Used space 0 bytes
Free space 0 bytes
Capacity 0 bytes
The Volumes tab shows:
Type: Removable
Status: No Media
Partition style: Not Applicable
Capacity: 0 MB
Unallocated space: 0 MB
Reserved space: 0 MB
Opening the Disk Management component of the Computer Management console shows that the drive is connected, but there is no unallocated space to partition or format.
Other things about the disk look normal. It shows up in the Device Manager as working correctly, without any warnings, for example.
I Googled around and found that many, many people were running into this problem where the drive starts reporting 0 bytes capacity and can not be formatted. Of the dozens of pages that I read, no one found a fix for the problem. The most common solution offered was to return the drive to the manufacturer for replacement. Well, I wasn’t going to publicize my mistake and return the drives, I was going to repair them.
Software that didn’t help
Feel free to skip this part if you’re not interested in reading about the many dead-ends I explored.
I knew of one nifty program that had helped me out before, so I tried running the “HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool v2.1.8″, which you are going to have to locate on your own, because HP no longer offers this for download. But attempting to format the drive with this utility returned the following error message:
There is no media in the specified device.
Someone suggested using this thing called “Apacer Repair v2.9.1.1″ to reformat the drive, so I tried that, but the software only reported “USB Flash Disk not found!” when I ran it.
Someone else recommended FreeCommander, but that failed to open the drive, too.
I tried the free trial of the utility from http://www.flashmemorytoolkit.com/, but it reported the same information as Windows XP – that the device contained a disk with 0 bytes capacity. Maybe the full version could have done more, but I put that on the back burner.
A number of people suggested attacking it with partitioning software, which I wasn’t looking forward to doing, but was willing to try.
What I should have tried to begin with
Then I had an idea. I had a clean drive that had escaped my earlier bungling. I plugged it in, copied the contents to my desktop and tried to run the U3 LaunchPad software. Nothing happened, so I started looking more closely at the files. One of the files was called SanDiskFormatExtension.dll, which sounded promising. Now I just needed to figure out how to run the SanDisk installer to reformat the drive. I tried all of the .exe’s and .msi’s that shipped with the drive, but nothing wanted to run from the folder on my desktop.
Just as I was running out of options, I opened the autorun.inf file and found a very interesting entry:
[Update]
URL=http://u3.sandisk.com/download/lp_installer.asp?custom=1.6.1.2&brand=PelicanBFG
The fix
So, with nothing to lose, I pasted http://u3.sandisk.com/download/lp_installer.asp?custom=1.6.1.2&brand=PelicanBFG into Internet Explorer, thinking that it would at least get me some new files that might allow me to reformat the drive. I followed a few prompts and lo, the U3 Launchpad Installer software launched and restored the drive to its factory settings of 2 GB capacity formatted as FAT. It even replaced the original U3 files, making it truly good-as-new.
I’m astonished that this information isn’t more widely available, particularly on the SanDisk support site and forums, as this 0 capacity problem seems to affect a good number of drives and there are many threads where this issue remains unresolved.
Note that the page at http://u3.sandisk.com/download/lp_installer.asp?custom=1.6.1.2&brand=PelicanBFG requires you to install an ActiveX component, so you must use Internet Explorer.
Of course, if you’re not using a SanDisk drive, there’s no guarantee that this software will fix your drive, but it’s worth a try, right? Or maybe your device’s manufacturer has something similar.
If you’re trying to restore the drive’s contents or recover files, this method formats (erases) the drive and is not for you.
Wow thank you it works!, I actually tried this method before using the launchpad installer but it actually made it worse, but I tried it again using the installer you posted and it now works.
Thanks for this tip, but sadly the installer detects that my drive is not a Sandisk drive and refuses to run. If anyone finds a solution for a 4GB Maxell Retractor then please post it! Their website only seems to have win98 drivers on it.
mines say 0 bites but when i try to download it it says it needs activex
Please, i need the name the activex that is necesary.
But i paste the “javascript:InstallWizard()” in the bar of directions
and ask me for ” introduce one intelligent unity U3″
excuseme you for my english
what to do for a transcend 512 mb……….
after wipiing the cdrom parition restore it with the CORRECT version of LPInstaller.exe
I leave it to you to determind the correct version
damnable sepell check
what to do for transcend 8 GB ??????????????
Mine just isn’t recognising anything. I can’t save to it… and nothing is showing up.
dude we have same problem.. all you have to do is to right click on my computer, manage and find disk management.. below you will see your usb right click on the color black and simply format it..
I had a same problem with kingston 8 GB pen drive. I have tried many softwares to format the 0 byte usb drive. Finally the software which worked was this tiny executable http://www.megaupload.com/?d=L6PSHSO4. Hope this will help the drives other than SanDisk
I had problem with kingston 8 GB pen drive.I’ve tried this http://www.megaupload.com/?d=L6PSHSO4, but it says “USB Flash Disk not found!”…please help me…
worked for my Cruzer 2GB after I thought I would have to toss it. Thanks dude.
Well, uff, yes! yes! yes! I did it! I finally could format my Kingston data traveler 2.0 after many searchings on the web a link took me to here, and after trying many, many, many, solutions, I finally did it. It was a 0 bytes usb ( I have many files in it, of course) and I tried the solution that ardami found, it didn’t work, then I tired the Deepak’s solution and it work partially, because it said that a mistake occurred while trying to format the usb, and asked me to send an inform to microsoft and I did it. Then I checked on MIPC and as always tried to open unit E: and never could, but this time it said “the unit E: doesn’t have a format, do you want to format?” and I said “yes of course” (well I wanted to recover my data but it wasn’t possible) so I finally can read my usb and of course now it’s empty.
So I want to give a big handshake to ardamis and to Deepak, thanks a lot for your help.
hi! i am also having the same problem so if u could tell me what deepak said to u and how to do it .pls pls send it to my gmail acount deepak.adhana7@gmail.com
11.I had problem with kingston 2 GB pen drive.I’ve tried this http://www.megaupload.com/?d=L6PSHSO4, but it says “USB Flash Disk not found!”…please help me…