Erasing files off a USB thumb drive

[DJjeff1080]

I recieved a 256mb kingston thumb drive at a conference. It came preinstalled with a 15 mb hidden file that opens the company's website whenever you plug the drive in. Is there a way for me to erase this stuff so it works like a normal drive?

[Grimm]

Have you tried reformatting it?

[Cheesypuff]

right click...format....yes

[Markel]

How are you "opening" the drive? Some sort of autorun? If so, one way around might be to hold down the shift key when you plug it in (at least, that works for CD/DVDs).

[DJjeff1080]

When I insert the drive, it opens the drive like usual as well as a what appears to be a cd rom drive. If I close one, it closes both. There is only 213 mb available when I format. (30mb on the "cd")

[Grimm]

You will have to re-partition and then format the thumb drive.

That's assuming the device is not special made with the 1st partition locked.

Don't you have a comuter geek friend?

[DJjeff1080]

I am fairly competant when it comes to computers, but I had a friend who is a computer geek look at it and he said he thinks it is locked. Oh well...If anyone comes accross a way to reformat a presumably locked partition email me.

[kgsilvas]

From the Kingston Site: Some of the listed capacity is used for formatting and other functions and this is not available for data storage. For more information, please consult Kingston's Digital Media Guide (http://www.kingston.com/products/DMTechGuide.pdf).

[Grimm]

Best thing to do is put hook it up to a computer and then run the Administrative tools.
Select Computer management,
then Storage,
then Disk management.

Look at the the thumb drive here and see what you can do.