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ive been fiddling with linux a little and i tried to install one small distribution onto my 512mb memory stick. now that i have got over the linux fad (!), i find that in xp, my memory stick has been formatted to only have 49mb. i tried reformatting it in the windows formatting utility and that only lets me keep it at 49mb. how do i get it back to normal?!

Hi conor,

What brand USB stick is it?

its a viking 512mb usb memory stick

I've done a quick search on this website, but haven't been able to find anything specific to your problem.

From the look of it, you can ask questions here and they will give you answers. Give it a shot, and let us know how you go!

Viking InterWorks

If the flashdrive is formatted in a linux file system,(ext2,ext3,linux swap...) windows will not read it correctly. It should still format it though, but ive had a few that wouldnt after having had linux on them. I had to use a different formatting tool. What version of linux do you have on the drive? If its working, and you can load that version to ram, you can use the partitioning editor in it to reformat the drive to fat32 or ntfs. If its not working or you dont have another live version of linux to use, you can try this little utility. Download the iso file, and burn it as an iso image. Then boot from the cd,and it will detect all your drives and partitions, and you can manage them as you wish.

http://www.pchelpforum.com/utilities...oning-tool.htm

It works similar to partition magic, is easy to use, and handy to have around. If you decide to try it, look for the drives labeled sda, or sdb. that will be your flash drive. The ones listed as hda,hda1....are your hard drives and partitions.