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I received a brand-less USB Thumb Drive during a function, those cheap made in China kind. When plugged in, it shows 2 drives, one 8GB and one 12MB drive(not partition). I am trying to remove the 12MB completely or at least delete the contents of it because it came with a trojan. However, that drive appears to be Read-Only and is impossible to delete. The 8GB portion is working fine.

I have tried deleting in Windows, using Disk Management and 3rd party disk management utilities. I have also tried to delete it in Linux using fdisk and Gpart. All were telling me the disk is read-only and they were unable to perform the operation.

There is no write protect switch on the usb drive. I somehow believe that the 12MB part is hard wired to write protect, or is some ROM, but I am not completely sure. I have searched everywhere until I have no choice but to ask. If anyone knows how to get around this, would really be appreciated.

Lio
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  • It's entirely possible you won't be able to if it acAME with a Trojan on it. But there are commands on Linux tools that can remove a aoftware lock just look those up – Ramhound Jul 21 '13 at 14:48
  • @bwDraco, if I read this right, it sounds like software or malware protected on a partition, rather than the whole drive write-protected. – fixer1234 Sep 17 '16 at 07:00

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It is possible that the partition in question is supposed to have manufacturer provided software on it. I have seen USB sticks with virtual CD-ROM drives to provide access to drivers. If this is the case the 12MB partition, there is nothing you can do about it.

If you erase/blank sector 0 on the stick and it still does not go away it is hard wired.

cybernard
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  • I thought so, what a waste though, the 8GB part is totally usable yet not usable. – Lio Jul 22 '13 at 04:11