USB Partitions (floppy disk in XP)
 

After a netbook instalation of Jolicloud, the USB stick I used was partitioned in two:
- 1.44Mb partition recognized as A: (floppy drive) in XP and /dev/sdd in Ubuntu
- the rest (4Gb - 1.44Mb) recognized as F: (removable media) in XP and /dev/sdc in Ubuntu.

Now, I want to have again only one partition on the USB drive and I can't.
I tried the "HP format tool" and some low level format tool in XP but it only formats the F: drive, skipping A:
In Ubuntu I tried fdisk but, apparently, because the drive is seen as two different drives (sdc and sdd) I cannot unify the partitions. The only thing I can do is to format and delete each one separately.

I wouldn't mind having the two partitions but this means that the dongle is no longer bootable :(.

Do you have any other idea on how to unify those two partitions?

Thanks!

first one: erased partition
http://bayimg.com/image/camojaace.jpg
second one: erased partition
http://bayimg.com/image/camokaace.jpg

Hi, and welcome to LQ!

You need to use GParted in Ubuntu to delete both partitions, and then create a single partition set to the maximum size of the device. You can do the same with FDisk in XP; however, you'll be restricted to FAT32 or NTFS.

Cheers

Thank you for your reply.

I installed Gparted, and it says that I have two different drives: /dev/sdc/ 3.82Gib and /dev/sdd/ -512.00 B (minus !).
I can format the first partition only at 3.82Gb and if I try to format the second, I get: "A partition cannot have a length of -1 sectors" (duh!).
So, I have two separate devices on one USB dongle and I have no idea how to get them back in the initial phase: Only one partition on the stick.

I have no idea what the Jolicloud installer did, but I'm beginning to regret that I've tried it :|.

GParted gives you the option to print the partition table. Do so, and paste it here (in code tags please).

I formated both drives with Disk Utility from Ubuntu:
After I deleted the partitions from Gparted I get:

It appears that you have a drive with the U3 format so you need a special uninstaller to remove the partition.
You can get it from here :
http://www.u3.com/support/default.aspx#CQ3

Unfortunately the uninstaller only works from windoze. I used Vbox running XP pro to remove the U3 crap from 4 of my SanDisk Cruzer sticks. What a pain. If you have a buddy that runs windoze, maybe you can convince him to let you use his machine to do it (easier).

Thank you, I've tried that already but no luck:
Before I have installed Jolicloud on the stick I hadn't had this 1.44Mb drive. So I don't think it's U3 related.
I also tried to install U3, thus to have something to uninstall :). But:
No chance.

@brucehinrichs
Thanks. I have a dual-boot at this moment so I could easily go back in XP. It's not a sandisk, it's a Memup:
I tried also to find a way to "flush" it, but i couldn't find the software for these particular PID and VID.
So I have to stick to some idea of formatting it.

Also, /dev/sdd/ is not a ISOFS partition (like in the case of U3). I can format it, copy on it & stuff (in Ubuntu and XP). The problem is that it's seen as another drive. Which sucks, big time!

What about a low level format ?
http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic63357.html

I've tried it, but apparently it doesn't do sh*t. After the LLF, I can still access the drives, which remain untouched with the same file system.
I've tried to disable the floppy from Windows and then LLF. Same story.

According to Jolicloud you should be able to deal with it in windows disk management.
I don't believe you haven't already tried that, but that's the answer I keep getting from them.

In Disk Management I can't see the little (1.44Mb) partition. I get only the big one (as a whole disk actually) which I can format, of course; but with no effect on the USB stick.
Disk Management:
http://bayimg.com/image/famafaacf.jpg

I don't know if it's my stick's fault or the Jolicloud installation really screwed things up. Urgh!

Are you sure it wasn't like this before ?

According to the memup guides, if you have installed their protection software, then that is where the other drive comes from.

Lock system manual
http://memup.co.uk/downloads/Install...eys_t5387.html

Yes, now I'm not that sure that it's Jolicloud's fault. It's just a bad usb stick. I've decided to use it as it is.
I managed to get another ubuntu installation on it, and with some bios tweaks I got it to boot on my netbook. Simply, I just ignore the 1.44Mb partition.
Thank you for your patience :).