Usb drive shows as two drives when connected

fez · 27 Jul 2009 at 00:05

Hi,

I have a 4gb usb drive that always seems to show as a 4gb drive and a 2mb drive in mac os x. I cant amalgamate them because in disk utility they show up as two drives, separate. I have erased both and it has not made a difference.

Any ideas mac buffs?

Will_3rd · 27 Jul 2009 at 00:42

See if you can reformat them into one partition in disk utility, should be one of the tabs over from erase.

outsourcedsoul · 27 Jul 2009 at 11:08

Is it an encrypted memory stick by any chance? That 2mb drive might be the encryption software.

fez · 27 Jul 2009 at 11:18

Cheers for the replies guys,

There is no option in disk utility for reformatting into a single drive. They are both separate entities according to os x and they have no options that will apply to both.

I dont think its an encrypted drive but that was the only thing that I could think of that would cause this problem. You should still be able to remove this encrypted area though? It should just show up as a single drive with 2 partitions I thought as well.

outsourcedsoul · 27 Jul 2009 at 11:45

How strange, unless it is encrypted and they have gone to the effort of putting the encryption software on a seperate chip so you don't accidentally delete it?

fez · 27 Jul 2009 at 14:50

Very odd, its had a fair bit of use so its a little hard to find out the model but it seems like that is the only way this will be put to bed.

Thanks for all the help chaps.

Rambaud · 31 Jul 2009 at 08:14

I have quite a few USB memory sticks, and the only ones which show up as 2 drives are the ones with encryption options.

theheyes · 1 Aug 2009 at 16:48

What brand is the drive?

USB sticks used to be pre-loaded with software but now I've noticed a format doesn't get rid of it so it's obviously stored separately - and it annoys the hell out of me. I'd gladly pay more for a usb stick that doesn't include junk that insists on running when you insert it.