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    AlienRespawn Screwed up my USB Drive?

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by asdad123, Feb 3, 2011.

  1. asdad123

    asdad123 Notebook Evangelist

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    Well I made a Recovery USB drive before with AlienRespawn, but recently I needed to use a flash drive and I didnt have another one near by.

    I formatted the drive, hoping to eventually put restore media on it again. I tried to today, but I am getting this error :

    "alienrespawn has detected that the usb key you have selected protected utility software; we are unable to format this key. Please use a USB key without protection software for this kind of backup, or contact the manufacturer of your USB key."

    I dont know what to do anymore. I tried formatting it like 10 times and no luck. Did AlienRespawn screw up my USB drive? Is there anything I could do?
     
    asdad123, Feb 3, 2011
    #1
  2. pcPhr34k

    pcPhr34k Newbie

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    This is just speculation, but the AlienRespawn software might be self-aware (no, not joking) that you are about to format something important (The AlienRespawn software)

    Do you have access to another computer? If so, try formatting it there.

    Either this, or they set some crazy permissions on the drive (Formatted to NTFS, giving it the option to set "Read Only" permissions)

    I hope this helps!
     
    pcPhr34k, Feb 3, 2011
    #2
  3. asdad123

    asdad123 Notebook Evangelist

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    Tried reformatting on a different computer and it didnt work.

    Dell owes me a new 8gb flash drive since this one is apperently worthless now :mad:
     
    asdad123, Feb 3, 2011
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  4. asdad123

    asdad123 Notebook Evangelist

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    Any help please? :(
     
    asdad123, Feb 4, 2011
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  5. poetryrocksalot

    poetryrocksalot Notebook Enthusiast

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    I think that this will work to reformat your USB flash drive.

    Step 1
    Go here: HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com

    Step 2
    Download HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool

    Step 3
    Install

    Step 4
    Right click and select "Run as Administrator"

    Step 5
    Select your flash drive letter, and Choose FAT or FAT 32 File System

    Step 6
    Uncheck Quick Format / Uncheck Enable Compression / Uncheck Create a DOS startup disk

    Step 7
    Start the formatting process (it should take 1 hours and 30 minutes)

    Step 8
    You are not done. You need reformat it a second time. This time, it will take only 1 minute. Select: Fat 32 / Full Format / and Default Allocation Size.

    Do not attempt this on your alienware M11x computer...borrow a friend's computer and use that computer to format your flash drive

    May I know what brand your flash drive is?
     
    poetryrocksalot, Apr 23, 2011
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  6. varnado

    varnado Notebook Consultant

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    varnado, Apr 24, 2011
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