Old Forum: Different space in two USB sticks (jaaf)

USB Image Tool support forum
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Alex
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Old Forum: Different space in two USB sticks (jaaf)

Post by Alex »

Hi:

I saved an image fron a KINGSTON DTIG3/2GBZ datatraveler pen drive. Later I tried to restore this image to a SANDISK CRUZER BLADE SDCZ50-002G-P95 pendrive, as both are 2 GB large. I got an error mesage "The image file is too large for the selected USB device!".
The KINGSTON shows device size as 2.003.795.968 Bytes and SANDISK 2.000.682.496 Bytes. Why this happens, since are both 2 GB large? I think a 2 GB stick would be 2.097.452.000 Bytes large; at SANDISK case I can read that "some capacity not available for data storage" but I consider the difference of 3.113.472 bytes is great.
Is there something I can do to fit this image in SANDISK stick, or any other solution?
Thamks
Alex
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Posts: 272
Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2011 11:59 pm

Re: Old Forum: Different space in two USB sticks (jaaf)

Post by Alex »

USB sticks of the same category (2 GB, 4 GB, etc.) often vary in size. If you want to restore a larger image to a smaller device, you can do this by truncatiing the image. There is an option in USB Image Tool. To avoid data loss and an invalid partition, you have to resize the partition on the original flash drive.

If it is an U3 drive and you don't need U3, you can gain some capacity by removing the U3 functionality.
Alex
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Re: Old Forum: Different space in two USB sticks (jaaf)

Post by Alex »

Thanks Alex; I don´t have so much experience with this subject, but I think it´s not an U3 device; this U3 feature appears as files if I open the explorer? How can I identifie?
I´m trying to use these USB sticks in FLOPPY emulators, so I wish to made a copy from one to the other.These SANDISK drives are strange; the model SANDISK CRUZER BLADE SDCZ50-002G has some different codes at the final (for example, mine is P95 and works just fine, but my friend´s stick is B35 and the emulator lasts more then 1 minute to recognize it showing c6 code insted 00 ( I do not have the manual to see what code is it); also I´ve found on web final A11 and A95.
BTW, how can I resize the partition on original flash drive? Is it necessary a special SW? Does this procedure will let me to do perfect copy 1:1?
Thanks
Alex
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Posts: 272
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Re: Old Forum: Different space in two USB sticks (jaaf)

Post by Alex »

I've seen differenz sizes of flash drives, even if it's the same model. When it's a different lot number, it might be possible the size is different. An U3 drive should appear as a flash drive and as an emulated CD drive. To resize the partition you need a partition software. GParted Live CD is a free method.
Alex
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Re: Old Forum: Different space in two USB sticks (jaaf)

Post by Alex »

I have a similar issue. I have an 8Gb image made from an SD card that won't restore to a different 8Gb card - both operations in Device mode. So, I restored the image to a 16GB flash drive and tried to resize the partition under Ubuntu. However, Gparted shows two partitions. So, I picked one with a gig free and reduced the partition by about 500MB. Back in Windows, though, USB tool sees the flash drive as the full 16GB and makes a backup image that size.

Any ideas how I can resize the original partition correctly?

Thanks.
Alex
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Posts: 272
Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2011 11:59 pm

Re: Old Forum: Different space in two USB sticks (jaaf)

Post by Alex »

Ubuntu boot sticks consists of two partitions, but only the first is visible in Windows. The second is the partition, where the real Linux is hosted. When you resize the secord partition to a site that fits on the other sd card, you can safely make an image of the old card and write it to the new one, using the truncate option. The unused 8,81GB, that hold no data will be discarded.
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