16gb memory stick only showing 2.9gb

soundb0y · 5 May 2009 at 14:20

Sorry if this is posted in the wrong place, I wasn't sure where best to post it.

Anyway so I have a new 16gb sandisk memory pen, which I was trying to make bootable to load w7 on my new machine. After a lot of messing around and formatting I gave up and bought some blank dvds.

Anyway so I went to use it again today and its only showing as 2.9gb as apposed to 16gb.

How can I get it back to full capacity?

Thanks

Ronaldo · 5 May 2009 at 14:26

u dont need to make it bootable to install win7, all u needed to do is format in FAT and set drive as active in disk management. then select USB boot in bios or from bootlist thats it.

any ways connect the usb stick and use disk management to check the pen drive, then do a full format and see

soundb0y · 5 May 2009 at 14:45

Oh right ok I was under the impression you did.

Disk management found no errors and a full format did nothing. The capacity is stuck at 2.92 gb.

Dano · 5 May 2009 at 15:03

Using FAT?

soundb0y · 5 May 2009 at 15:21

yes with FAT

edit:

sorry im a bit of an idiot, in disk management it is showing a 12gb unallocated partition. How do I merge the 2 with windows 7, when I click on the unallocated partition all the options are greyed out.

Thanks

darwinws · 5 May 2009 at 16:55

Delete the 3gb partition then create a new 16gb partition from the unallocated space and format.

soundb0y · 5 May 2009 at 17:25

It wont let me press delete the volume (3gb)

ryanmj · 5 May 2009 at 17:30

soundb0y said:
It wont let me press delete the volume (3gb)

Is there an error message?

soundb0y · 5 May 2009 at 18:03

It's just greyed out.

monkehhh · 5 May 2009 at 18:55

Any chance of a screenshot?

soundb0y · 5 May 2009 at 19:17

MarkW7 · 5 May 2009 at 19:26

Format the second volume.

soundb0y · 5 May 2009 at 19:32

there is no option to?

smogsy · 5 May 2009 at 19:44

maybe the disk unbootable then you should be able to format then format to FAT32 for W7 or NTFS for gernal usage

StevenRaith · 5 May 2009 at 20:00

I had similar when I had five or so partitions set up on my hard drive [Linix root, Linux swap, home, Vista, XP] and tried to make another for Win 7...Windows is, shall we say, a bit crap for that sort of thing.

Can anyone confirm whether that might be the problem? It shouldn't affect removable drives though, should it?

Either way, try unbhooking your LaCie drive, rebooting, and trying again, just for the crack of it, you never know....

MarkW7 · 5 May 2009 at 20:07

I had a problem like this on my harddrive when i tried dual booting for the first time... what a nightmare, in the end i think it booted onto a linux live cd [CrunchBang] and used the qparted software on there.

alex24 · 5 May 2009 at 20:09

Unmount the current small partition (make sure it has no drive letter) then try and delete it again. Once done, make one new large partition.

soundb0y · 5 May 2009 at 21:25

Wont let me do that. I think it might have been something to do with hp boot disk utility. I tried to use that to make it bootable but didnt really understand the settings and think ive messed it up. Unfortunately I did that on a mates computer and it wont load on windows 7.

alex24 · 5 May 2009 at 21:28

Can you not right click and press 'change drive letters and paths' then press remove? That should unmount it so it can be deleted.

Also have you tried booting in safe mode?

soundb0y · 5 May 2009 at 21:44

Guys thank you so much, thought you meant deleting the drive letter of the unallocated space. Was able to do it on the 3gb partition and then delete, and then reformat.

Got all my space back!

Thanks again