Delete CDFS volume from USB drive in windows?

Question

I recently attempted to install ubuntu onto a removable USB drive. Eventually, I wanted to replace the ubuntu version with another, but the problem is that, besides for the 3.7gb of "free space" I can mount the new boot ISO onto, there is about 6mb of some "CDFS" boot file system, which is preventing any other boot system from being booted from.

So basically, I need to delete this CDFS voluem.

Running diskpart, I do the following commands:

list volume

to which I see volume 1 is the CDFS filesystem I am trying to delete, so then

select volume 1

so far so good

but then:

delete volume

is where the trouble is, because I get the following output:

DiskPart cannot delete volumes on removable media.

I've tried looking this up but couldn't find any conclusive articles, and for sure not on the stackexchange, so:

How do I remove a CDFS filesystem from a removable USB drive, using windows [vista or 7]?

Answer 1

You can try diskpart on windows (as admin)

1. list disk
2. select disk n
3. clean

Now you have a blank USB-Stick that you can format in the explorer

Answer 2

All Windows versions earlier than Windows 10 1703 will refuse to manage partitions on removable devices (USB drives, card readers, …). This applies to diskpart as well as Disk Management, because both use the same underlying operation system services.

The only action you could use is clean in diskpart, followed by create partition primary. However, Windows appears to have problems dealing with remainders of the ISO image in some areas of the disk.

It is simply not possible to accomplish what you want with these operating systems. You can use third-party software (partition managers) on top, though.

Still, I’d recommend using a GParted Live Linux to do this. It’s easy to use and free.

Update: Further experimentation has revealed that Rufus can also do the job. Just make sure “Boot selection” is set to not bootable and you’re good to go. Rufus is also a great way to put ISO images on USB drives while keeping them writable.

Answer 3

Negative answer: You cannot add the CDFS partition space to the usable hard disk, for the simple reason that it is not on the disk.

This drive contains a hard disk that you may access freely, but the CDFS file system is on a separate partition that is actually found on a separate write-protected NAND Chip.

The most you can do is reprogram the JMS539 Bridge controller on the drive to bridge the connection directly to the hard drive and not go through the NAND Chip. This will either remove the CDFS partition leaving only the hard disk, or it will brick the drive totally (especially if your drive has another model of Bridge controller).

If you wish to live dangerously, see this answer on the post How to delete a CDFS partition on a hard drive. It refers to software from an article that still exists only on the Wayback Machine where the software can still be downloaded. I don't take responsibility for anything that will happen if it's used.

---

If the USB in question is an SMI device, it may be possible to format it by the program sm32Xtest.exe.

For tutorial, see the article How to Format the Apple USB Restore stick (the utility can be used for more types of devices).

Or watch on YouTube the video
Delete USB Virtual CD Drive, Delete CDFS Partition & Make USB Virtual CD Drive + Autorun.

Answer 4

I always use a Kali live OS on any computer and use the dd command line tool to delete the partitions on the usb drive. Word of caution is to make sure you select the correct drive.

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1 conv=notrunc

Answer 5

'Most likely the reason they did this was to prevent overwriting their software from the flash drive.' This particular topic should be similar and could fix your problems. https://superuser.com/a/470663/735050 (e.g. If the CLEAN command doesn't work, try RECOVER.)

If that build-in feature in Windows doesn't work then I am afraid you need to refer to external software in Windows like in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbQT2mr3AS8.

Answer 6

Have a very old SanDisk "Cruzer" 4gb drive and found it has a read-only partition that somehow appears as a CD-ROM drive. Was able to run LaunchU3.exe as admin and it has a spot to uninstall this software/partition completely via the "LaunchPad" embedded software. Settings > U3 Launchpad Settings > Uninstall > Uninstall U3 Launchpad. Sharing in case someone has a SanDisk in a similar situation. It seemed to leave 30mb unallocated, so may need to reclaim this manually. IF YOU DO THIS, YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO USE THE EMBEDDED SOFTWARE AGAIN, IT WILL BE GONE.