Loss of space on a 16 Gb flash after format

So, I have a friend who has a flash drive that was playing music on a dvd player. Everything was great then all of a sudden it just stopped. First, I tried to do some data recovery on it but the software i use couldn't find the USB. The usb was sending us the usual error not formatted messages.

I then did a quick format of it and now it only shows 4 megabytes of space. I tried using Disk manager, then DISKPART, but nothing i have tried works.

Disk Managment looks like this:

enter image description here

As you can see it doesn't even show the unallocated space. It doesn't look like it is anything but a 4 mega byte flash drive.

Is it still possible to, at the very least, resurrect the USB?

RoboticSpammer1010

Posted 2015-06-02T08:38:33.893

Reputation: 23

1So did the drive ever contain full 16GB of data that could be read successfully? It's not uncommon for fakes (that have been made to present themselves to the OS as having more capacity than actually available) to revert back to their real size on formatting/re-partitioning. If you're sure it is a genuine 16GB drive then try GParted from Linux. – Karan – 2015-06-02T09:02:57.667

It was a genuine 16 Gigabyte drive that was usable before hand, I would love to try using linux software, but, i don't have a linux computer – RoboticSpammer1010 – 2015-06-02T09:06:34.060

1You can always use a LiveCD/USB. – Karan – 2015-06-02T09:08:01.503

Answers

Update: Now that we have a screenshot with the relevant information:

The USB pendrive is either defect (most likely).
Or someone reprogrammed it to show itself as 4MB.

The last is technically possible, but unless you have been playing with a HPA, reprogramming the pen drives controller (e.g. in order to prevent it from being detected as removeable in windows which triggers some 'single partition only on removables' bug. However while these are theoretically possible the almost certain conclusion is that it is dead.

Buy a new pendrive and restore contents from your backups.

Hennes

Posted 2015-06-02T08:38:33.893

Reputation: 60 739

OP says 4 MB, not even 4 GB. You seem to be using both. – a CVn – 2015-06-02T11:37:06.757

Oops. Corrected. – Hennes – 2015-06-02T12:06:57.737

Actually, now that we have a real screenshot, we see that Disk Management shows the physical device as having a size of 4 MB, and a single partition covering that space. So it's not just the partition. – a CVn – 2015-06-02T12:10:33.517

USB drives only work with one partition. The other partitions (if they exists) aren't shown unless you use a disk manager. In order to get it working again, remove all partitions, and create a new first partition of maximum size.

You may need to use a USB format tool to get it to work correctly.

LPChip

Posted 2015-06-02T08:38:33.893

Reputation: 42 190

I have tried clearing all partitions, the problem is, the maximum allowable size for it is 4 mega bytes. – RoboticSpammer1010 – 2015-06-02T10:10:42.313

2If the disk manager doesn't show the unpartition disk space then the controller probably died. – NIZ – 2015-06-02T10:30:38.220

@NIZ, is there any one to recover it, or is it completely dead – RoboticSpammer1010 – 2015-06-02T11:13:09.540

Unless it also supports a host protected area it is almost certainly dead. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_protected_area).

– Hennes – 2015-06-02T11:33:21.900

@RoboticSpammer1010 if it is the controller u can try to flash the firmware again but it is not easy thing to do. i cannot tell u how to do it. it depends on the flash drive. And most certainly will not work. – NIZ – 2015-06-02T11:42:10.360