Sorry, this is waaaaaaaaaaay off-topic, but I wondered if any of the USB experts might happen to know:
I was at the UK Embedded Systems Show the other day, and got a free USB stick from Farnell. When plugged-in, this shows up as two drives: 1. A CD-ROM drive, which has an auto-play promotional movie on it; 2. A "normal" USB drive.
The trouble is, every time you plug it in, it tries to play the movie again!
:-(
Win-XP says the CD-ROM part is read-only, so won't let me delete the files or format it.
So, is there any way to get rid of this movie? Or do I just junk the whole stick?
The problem isn't the USB stick, it's that the Autorun feature of Windows is enabled for this type of drive. Or, as I'd put it personally, the problem is that Windows actually has an Autorun feature.
My (drastic) solution is to use regedit to search the registry for all instances of NoDriveTypeAutorun and set the value of each occurrent to 0x255 to get rid of Windows trying to run files, play movies, etc, without being explicitly told to do so.
If you value the Autorun feature, I would recommend a more surgical approach. Microsoft probably has an explanation somewhere on their website what the bits of NoDriveTypeAutorun stand for, and how to disable Autorun for the type of drive only.
Or, as I'd put it personally, the problem is that Windows actually has an Autorun feature.
(I consider this an intentional defect in the product). ;)
For Windows Environment, you can try SPFDisk.
spfdisk.sourceforge.net/
It is designed by a Taiwanese engineer, not easy to find a good English Documentation.
Before messing with searching for Partition-management tools, the basic question needs to be answered: "Is it likely that this is being done in the MBR and/or Partition table?"
If it isn't a "Partition" - but a firmware thing - then no Partition-management tools are going to help!
"Definitely - it's only a 512MB stick!"
Andy, don't you think you're taking recycling a little too far?
I would be surprised if it is done with partitions. Sounds more like a firmware feature.
If you have a proper partition tools, it will be very easy to examine that.
Why do you think I replied, "Definitely", to the suggestion, "in terms of return on investment, it'd be an almost certain disaster"...?!
;-)
You missed my point: if it's not likely to be the MBR and/or Partition Table, then there is no point in trying to find "proper partition tools" - is there?!
:-)
For me, I just need to restart my desktop, boot into Ubuntu Linux, I don't need to find anything, so it only takes several minutes to me. But trying to find some software, scan viruses, read documentation, it realy takes too much time.
I always keep a CD with gparted for handling repairs, migration to larger disks etc. It has partition editor etc.
Andy,
you would be better to find an expert cracker, than a USB expert ;-)
I can make up such a USB stick for you within 30 min, modifying KEIL example to support multiple LUNs. But I don't know how to crack your stick, other than with a hammer :-)
Tsuneo
So what you're saying is that this is a configuration in the stick's "firmware" to create 2 entirely separate "drives" - and not some kind of "partitioning" of a single drive?
In which case, it is pointless to even try messing about with disk editing or partitioning software?
Thanks, that is exactly what I wanted to know!
I will try the hammer approach - as that, at least, will be fun!
A selective use of the hammer may possibly produce hardware that you could reprogram and play with.
As long as I know, there is no way to make a "CD-ROM" partition on the MBR of a HDD or a USB stick. For USB stick, multiple LUNs support such a configuration easily. A LUN for usual USB stick returns PDT=0x00 to INQUIRY, CD-ROM LUN returns PDT=0x05 (PDT: Peripheral Device Type)
I heard OTi, a major manufacturer of controller chips for USB stick, has released such chips. U3 also applies OTi chip.
I believe the CD-ROM files are stored on the FLASH, too. I suppose a hidden command tunes the size of CD-ROM "partition" on the FLASH. But I don't know the command.
Then, you'd better to find an expert cracker :-)
There are a number of companies that are selling this kind of products.
One products boots a special application from the CD partition, and this program then makes cryptographic access to the data on the second partition, while allowing no-install applications to be run on windows and accessing protected data files.
Another common trick is that a number of GSM modules initially boots as a CD, to allow the PC to install the drivers from the virtual CD. Obviously a bit problematic when not using them on a Wintel platform.
There are also a number of USB thumb drives with one open partition with either a rescue program or a cryptographic driver, and a second disk that has protected or unprotected user data.
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