Hello again,

After a long time we are back to talk about some more cool tech stuff you can do with a USB flash drive. Todays topic will focus on booting the linux OS from a USB stick. The purpose for booting linux from a USB drive, at least the purpose of this guide, is to recover files from a broken install of the windows OS or any other OS for that matter. We can also run virus scans from the linux distro securely without infecting other pc’s or having to boot the infected pc.

What you will need:

• A USB stick anywhere from 512mb to 2GB (Depending on the distro)
• A main board capable of booting from a usb device.
• and about 15 minutes plus download time.

Software to be used:

• Latest stable version of UNetbootin Located Here.

Step #1: Prepare the USB Drive

Once you have all your materials together go ahead and plug the USB drive in and backup all files you may have on the disk.

Step #2: Installing to The USB

Start up UNetbootin and select the following:

1. Use the first radio button “Distribution”. This will download and install, automatically, the distro we want.
2. Pick SystemRescueCD. We are going with this because it is easy the ntfs file system driver comes prepackaged so no additional customization is required.
3. Next select your flash drive.
   NOTE: Be sure to select your flash drive and not your windows partition or primary partition, ’cause if you do then you will destroy the currently installed OS.
4. Finally click “Ok”.

UNetbootin options to select

Step #3: Configuring Bios

We will need to setup your computer to boot from the usb stick. To do so first you mother board will need to support this feature and second you will need to do some configuration.

1. Reboot your computer and hit “F2″ or “del” depending on your mother board to enter BIOS config.
2. Search for the section labeled boot sequence, or named similarly. This will sometimes be filed under a separate section like advanced BIOS features, or similar.
3. Move removable or usb to the top of the list. If you do not see these options listed your mother board most likely does not support USB boot. Consult google for more info on this.
4. Reboot the computer with the drive plugged in.

Step #4: Booting linux

We are going to boot into command line for this guide. There are options to load a GUI for those of you who tremble in the face of CLI. I must warm you though Command Line is by far easier and faster.

1. Once your computer passes post you will see the boot loader screen. Navigate to “VMLinuz64″ and hit enter.

After a bunch of OK’s on the screen and most likely 1 red FAIL you will be at the prompt “root@sysresccd /root %”. This would indicate a success.

Step #5: Copying files from a windows partition onto an external hard disk.

For this you will need an external medium on which to move your files have this ready to receive your data. You can also use the usb stick which you booted from, if of course there is enough space on it.

1. First we will need to identify our drives. I will assume you have two storage devices plugged in one being the flash drive and the other your windows hard drive. Execute the command below:

   fdisk -l | less

   NOTE: If you choose another distro of linux less may not be available, you may omit ” | less” in such case.

   This command will show you all the storage devices on your system. Use the down and up arrows to navigate the output as it may be larger than your screen. My output for this command is shown below:

   Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160000000000 bytes
   255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19452 cylinders
   Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
   Disk identifier: 0xd0f4738c
   
    Device      Boot      Start      End      Blocks       Id   System
   /dev/sda1    *         1          19451    156240126    7    HPFS/NTFS
   
   Disk /dev/sdb: 2085 MB, 2085617664 bytes
   2 heads, 63 sectors/track, 32329 cylinders
   Units = cylinders of 126 * 512 = 64512 bytes
   Disk identifier: 0x00502bcd
   
   Device       Boot      Start      End      Blocks     Id   System
   /dev/sdb1    *         1          32330    2036720    6    FAT16

   My device is 160GB NTFS partition.  Knowing those two bits of info we can take an educated guess and say /dev/sda1 is our partition on the windows hard disk that we want to mount, the whole disk can be referenced by /dev/sda. Using /dev/sda in a mount command will most likely fail, you will need to use /dev/sda1.

   NOTE: To exit this output screen press “q”.
   

2. Mount the windows drive so that we can access the files on it. Run the mount command below:

   mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows

   NOTE: you will need to replace “/dev/sda” with your device found from the output of fdisk -l. It is likely though that they will be the same. Also note that mount will fail if you attempt to mount to a folder that doesn’t exist.

   If you want full read write capability for the windows hard disk and are using SystemRescueCD distro run the following command:

   ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows

   This command will also work on other distros if you have ntf-3g included/installed.

3. Lets find out if we mounted the right device now. Run:

   ls /mnt/windows

   This command will list the files and folders in a directory. If you see the tell tale Program Files and WINDOWS directories it was successfully mounted.

4. Time to get our backup device out. Plug it in and wait a few seconds then run the fdisk command again:

   fdisk -l

   or

   cat /proc/partitions

   NOTE: Running “cat /proc/partitions” will list all partitions. Be sure to mount the correct partition on the device. Usually these are /dev/sdc1 or /dev/sde1 and not /dev/sdc or /dev/sde.

   Partitions not followed by numbers are usually the device itself and therefor cannot be mounted. Bellow is the output of “cat /proc/partitions” our backup device is /dev/sdc1. All devices are stored in /dev/ therefor we know that the location of the ones in the list below are /dev/xxx.

   major minor  #blocks  name
   
    8     0  168234527  sda
    8     1  156240126  sda1
    8    16    2086584  sdb
    8    32    2036720  sdb1
    8    48  244198584  sdc
    8    49  238155561  sdc1

   You should see both devices you saw last time and now a new one should be there. Match the size of the device to yours and note the device location most likely /dev/sdc.
   Mount this device to the pre-made backup folder using the mount command again:

   mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/backup

5. Now it is time to copy things from the old windows drive to the backup disk.
   If you want to copy your entire windows drive to your back up drive run this command:

   cp -R /mnt/windows/* /mnt/backup/YOUR_FOLDER_NAME

   If you plan on copy single files type the full file path and then the full destination path.

Additional Useful Commands:

• Sometimes a virus can infected the very first bit of code that is executed on your system the MBR (Master Boot Record). Luckily we can clean this up with relative ease in linux. Execute:

  dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=512 count=1

  Remember to replace “/dev/sdb” with your device cause if you miss and clean the wrong one you may have some issues. In this case we want the actual device and not a partition on the device so we are selecting /dev/sdb and not /dev/sdb1 since writing to /dev/sdb1 wouldn’t start at block #0.

• Maybe you do not have an external device to back stuff up but you have another computer with a network share. Well lets mount that network share so we can copy files to it. Create a mount point:

  mkdir /mnt/network

  Mount the share:

  mount -t smbfs //computername/folder /mnt/network -o username=user1,password=mypasshere

  Now you can copy and move files to the network share just like any other directory.
  To mount a share without a password use:

  mount -t smbfs //computername/folder /mnt/network

• For now this little section is finish although I am sure there will be additional things added as people leave comments.

Until Next Time

-Nick

Every once and a while, you’ll still encounter an ancient computer that has an archaic version of Windows (yes, even more archaic than windows xp). If you’ve ever tried to use your USB flash drive in one of these old systems, you know that it will not work by default. Below, I will describe how to install USB support for your system.

If you have Windows 98, and don’t have drivers for the storage device, there are generic USB mass storage device drivers available for Windows 98 that accept most of these devices. These generic drivers will work with many different brands and models like the following:

• USB Flash Drives (also known as Thumb Drives, or USB Pens)
• Digital Cameras (Still and Video devices with USB connections)
• Hard Drives
• MP3 Devices (iPod’s from version 2.4)
• Sony PlayStation Portable System (PSP)

How to install the generic drivers

Before you install, be aware of the fact that there are 2 main versions of Windows 98 which both handle USB differently. You absolutely must install the correct version of the generic USB driver for your specific version of Windows 98. To isolate which version of Windows you have, follow these steps:

• Right click My Computer then choose Properties
• From the System Properties window that opens, click the General tab.
• Beneath the System heading, look for version number (example image shown below)
  • Version 4.10.1998 means the first version of Windows 98 (98FE)
  • Version 4.10.2222 means Windows 98 Second Edition (98SE)

  

Driver Download

Choose the correct link for your edition of Windows 98 per the instruction above:

• Windows 98 First Edition (4.10.1998) (if you haven’t already this driver also requires that you first install the Windows 98 Service Pack – 35.5Mb)
• Windows 98 Second Edition (4.10.2222)

Disclaimer

Please note that these drivers are generic and may not work with some devices. They are also only to be installed onto the English version of Windows 98. Installing these drivers onto the incorrect version of Windows could cause irreversible problems with the performance of your operating system until it is reinstalled again. There can be no guarantee they will work for your device, but it has been shown that they generally work with most standard devices.

Please also recognize and accept that the drivers offered are under no warranty. No support other than this article will be offered for them; use them at your own risk. Whenever you make a change to your operating system, it is advised to do a full system backup beforehand.

Further information can be obtained here – Support for USB on Windows 98 from Microsoft site

Welcome again. Today I am going to provide a helpful guide to recover broken USB drives, ghost drives, and drives unable to be formatted. If you are asking questions like “I can’t format my usb drive! Whats wrong?”, you may want to read on.

This guide will also aid in the recover of ghost drives and return the flash drive to it’s actual capacity.

Check to see if your drive exhibits any of these behaviors:

• Windows says “Unrecognized USB device”
• You cannot format your USB drive. The format utility also displays a capacity of 8mb no matter the size of your drive.
• Your drive status light flashes but nothing happens on the OS.
• Your drive shows up, but when you try to write, it crashes and disappears.
• Generally, your drive is not functioning correctly.

WARNING: Before you continue with this guide, be aware that, although highly unlikely, using some of the programs in this guide could possibly destroy the physical controller unit on your drive. Only proceed if this is a last resort. I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR IRREPARABLE DAMAGE OR LOST DATA.

First of all, a USB flash drive is comprised of two main parts – the Controller and the NAND Flash Chip. This guide is going to explain the use of a program which accesses the controller unit directly to complete formats and recoveries.

NOTE: Since this program accesses the controller unit on your flash chip, I have included 2 programs that do the same thing. Each program has a list of controller access codes. Depending on your controller, one of these access codes may or may not work.

Lets get started!

Step 1

Download the program package and extract it. You will see the programs labeled prog1 and prog2.

Step 2

Remove all your USB Flash Drives. Once you have your drives out, start up ONLY ONE program. Don’t open both! This will cause some serious system related issues.

For prog1, click the lightbulb icon. For prog2, click umptool2090.exe. Once open, both of these programs should look extremely similar.

Step 3

Plug your broken flash drive in. If you do not see the flash drive appear on the program screen or you see “UNKNOWN FLASH”, try the other program.

NOTE: If both fail to recognize your flash, unfortunately you will have to continue your search for an answer.

Step 4

When you have your drive plugged in and it is recognized by our program, click start. No other setup is required. I have preset everything to return your device to it’s original state.

WARNING: If you continuously format your drives, THEY WILL BREAK! Prog2 is notorious for breaking drives. Expect a 15%-20% fail rate. Again, I have set prog2 to minimize this as beast I could, down to ~5%.

If you would like to poke around in the settings panel, there are a lot of interesting features. One that I would suggest is “Information Tab” for prog1, and “Vendor Settings” for prog2. This controls the vendor name information which shows up on the taskbar info bubble, a cool feature to show off to your friends. Other than that, I leave it up to you to figure out the settings AT YOUR OWN RISK. Remember, the more you run the drives through the program, the greater the chance they will break.

NOTE: In program 1, you will be prompted with a password box when you click settings. Leave it blank and hit OK. If it does not allow you access, you can check the .INI file in the root directory for the password if it got changed for some reason.

If you have any questions or would like additional controller codes for prog2, leave a comment and I will respond to you. You may also leave your email addy if you would like me to respond directly to you as well as in the comment thread.

Today I will touch back on the subject of bad flash drives. You may have heard some people talking about flash chip grades or tier 1/2/3 chips. Formally there are three grades for flash chips A, B, and C and unofficially D. All flash chips start their life on a silicon wafer and are cut from this wafer. Chips that have not passed quality control are pushed aside automatically by the machine cutting the wafer. The different sections of the wafer

Grade A

Also known as tier 1 flash chips are the best chips available. Grade A chips have the manufacturers name and serial number laser etched on the the flash chip. Samsung and Hynix are the largest producers of Grade A flash. These chips will have a consistently low rate of errors, be much faster than other grades, and last you much longer. Vendors offering these chips will more often than not provide a lifetime warranty on the product.

Seeing that these are the chips we use our custom flash drive orders all come with lifetime replacement warranties.

Grade B

These chips are as reliable as Grade A but do not have the etched serial and name from the manufacturer. Both Grade A and B chips are reliable and have low failure rates.

Now to the lower end products. Stores offering these will never provide any type of warranty on their products seeing that failure is guaranteed.

Grade C

Coming back to the silicon wafer there are two parts that are discarded by the original manufacturers. The portions that have not passed QC and the edges of the wafer. Second hand after market vendors will purchase these parts of the wafer from reputable vendors and resell them to end users. These Grade C chips have a 30% – 40% rate of failure. On rare occasion they can cause system instability, depending on the state of the flash and how the computer is reading/writing data.

Grade D

These are hard to find to be honest but if found beware. Some sly vendors have a laser they use to etch things with… anything. These vendors will purchase some Grade C chips and laser etch them with Samsung’s or Hynix’s name and serial number and pass them off as the real deal. Failure rates are the same as Grade C but you will be tricked into paying premium prices for these units. Most of these vendors are located in China.

Buyers Guide (list of helpful tips):

• Do not choose a foreign vendor who has a price lower than the rest of the market place.
• Beware all vendors who do not offer you a warranty. If they use Grade A why would they not offer a warranty. If there is no warranty you are most likely being sold cheaper lower grade chips
• Always inquire about the quality of the products. If a sales rep sounds hesitant it may be best to go with someone else.

Hello world,

My name is Nicholas Moller, from here on out nick, and I am the senior IT administrator and programer at USB Memory Direct. I started this blog to talk about all the cool things that pass through the office and my head during the day as well as my hobbies; photography, programming, and the human mind.

I have noticed a lot of people do not really know much about what they are getting when it comes to usb drives. So I have decided to talk a little bit about the different types of products you can find on the market.

Fake Flash Drives or Ghost Drives

First an foremost the infamous ghost/fake drives that are plaguing the market. A ghost drive is a flash drive that reports a false capacity, this is done purposely by the manufacturers. Manufacturers can program the controller chip to report a high capacity than what the device really is. So when you plug it in and view the drive properties it will say it is 2gb but the actual chip is only 512mb.

Once a ghost drive is filled up you won’t be able to put anymore data onto the device although your operating system will continue to try, since the device is reporting only 25% of its space is used. This behavior will result in data loss and potential system instability.

If you come across a price that seems to good to be true it most likely is. Exercise caution when purchasing from unknown vendors promising ridiculously low prices compared to the rest of the marketplace.

Detecting Ghost Drives

There is a simple program called H2testw which will fill your drive with sample data then check to see if it stored correctly.

1. Download H2testw here
2. Extract and open the program
3. Select English as the language
4. Select your target device by it’s drive letter from the My Computer submenu
5. Hit Write + Verify

A good ouput should look like this:

Test finished without errors.
You can now delete the test files *.h2w or verify them again.
Writing speed: 5.38 MByte/s
Reading speed: 15.7 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4

A bad output would look something like this:

Warning: Only 374 of 496 MByte tested.
The media is likely to be defective.
0 KByte OK (0 sectors)
374 MByte DATA LOST (765952 sectors)
Details:0 KByte overwritten (0 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 0 sectors)
374 MByte corrupted (765952 sectors)
0 KByte aliased memory (0 sectors)
First error at offset: 0x0000000000000000
Expected: 0x0000000000000000
Found: 0x00020000ff3f0000
H2testw version 1.3
Writing speed: 16.5 MByte/s
Reading speed: 11.8 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4

• Massive write speeds, higher than the read speeds, means you are not actually putting info onto the usb.

H2testw is capable of detecting other errors but I won’t be getting into them today.

• Remember a great price does not mean a great buy always get the best value not price. Most low priced vendors use tricks like this to reduce their cost.
• We provide lifetime replacement warranties on all orders. Vendors who will not do they same should be avoided.
  

Hope this is helpful for some of you out there. I will continue next week with different chip grades.