CD-partitions on a flash drive allow you to boot without problems on a PC, where loading from a regular flash drive (With Public- flash drive section) impossible. Download from CD-Areas of a flash drive usually work everywhere.
But you should understand that using a flash drive as a boot device from BIOS, is not the intended purpose of this controller function.
And the main function CDROM- the area is that a specific flash drive manufacturer can place there the necessary software for encryption, virus protection, or simply some advertising information.
Therefore, the successful outcome of loading any component as from a normal CD-drive, mainly depends on the compatibility of the specific controller with a specific motherboard, on which you boot.
WHICH CONTROLLERS ARE MOST SUITABLE
I personally, for use as LiveUSB and reinstallation Windows, I recommend only controllers SMI And Phison, because they are most compatible with older motherboards.
U SMI-chips, the highest loadability from under BIOS showed models SM3257AA and those older (For example SM3257ENAA And SM3257ENLT) .
WITH Phison, problems of a slightly different order, which are only indirectly related to loading efficiency. All controllers can be divided into two groups, in the first there are the so-called PS2XXX (For example PS2232 And PS2239) , and in the second PS2251-XX(For example PS2251-38 And PS2251-03). So, chips from the first group cannot be converted into MODE30, but only in MODE21, which contains an additional flash-section that negatively affects the level of compatibility.
If you don’t have an old computer, then other models will be suitable, but still not all. For example, controllers Alcor, have never had good downloadability and this is generally not their topic.
And here are the chips Innostor who became famous for their USB3.0 models, although they are crooked to load, can simultaneously carry up to 6 ISO-disk images!
Below, utilities for manufacturers will be considered USB-controllers capable of working with CD-section. There you can also find a complete list of hardware flash drives suitable for this purpose.
SEVERAL CDROM PARTITIONS ON ONE FLASH DRIVE
Speaking specifically about simultaneously working CD-ROM areas on a flash drive, then I was able to curb only a few controller manufacturers. These are my favorites SMI controllers, some flash drives Phison and chips used in Chinese counterfeits Chipsbank.
On the USBDev portal, you can find detailed instructions for creating up to 7 simultaneously working SDROMs. At the same time, disk images can be changed in a couple of clicks, bypassing the flashing procedure, which minimizes subsequent risks to the limit!
Also included in the article are two videos that I specially recorded for you, in case the letters are too tough for you.
With chips from Phison, although everything is done much simpler, only under MODE32 Not all flash drives are suitable. Of those that I tried, a little more than half turned out to be suitable for working in this specific mode. Yes and MODE32 limited to only two simultaneously working SDROM ami.
Controllers Chipsbank, I liked least of all in this regard. And the creation process is longer and more tedious. And the likelihood of finding a flash drive of suitable size on it is extremely low. Yes, and the ability to flash two CDROM-section, there are only the latest chips, line CBM2098 And CBM2099.
SMI chips, controllers from Innostor, already mentioned above. They, of course, will never compare in functionality and flexibility with SMI-shki, but they at least have something in terms of multi-booting.
U Innostor, at least one section under CD-Rom, but you can write there up to 6 ISO images and through a special Windows program entitled Innostor AI-Burn, choose the necessary one at a given time.
The operation itself to change the flash drive is a little risky, so it is better not to do it with flash drives in non-standard cases ( monoliths, flash drives the size of a coin, ...). That is, so that in case of incorrect completion of the controller firmware, it would be possible to disassemble the case and transfer the flash drive to test mode.
In principle, provided that you do everything correctly, the utility will fit your flash drive and create only a CD-ROM area on the flash drive, then the chance that the flash drive will freeze is very small. It’s not for nothing that I highlighted in bold that it is advisable not to create areas other than CD-ROM. Although some write that it is better to create in addition CDROM-partition is also a flash area into which you can upload files. But I am extremely skeptical about this.
What problems can there be when you create two or more areas on a flash drive:
It is very likely that when you try to return the flash drive to its original state or overwrite ISO-file, the flasher will end with an error and your flash drive will have to be flashed again or it will freeze. In this case, it will have to be converted to test mode and flash it from there. Those. if you have monolithic flash drive, you are taking quite a risk and I think the gamble is not worth the candle.
Not available on all computers. Windows flash section, although the likelihood of this is very, very small.
From under BIOS, with a decent probability, it will not be possible to load via a bootloader (such as GRUB4DOS), elements with flush- areas of the flash drive. Those. V Windows You have everything in good order, but here it’s a bummer, for example, on my computer there is such a battle.
It is possible that even with CDROM-the area does not load at all, which occurs on a very large percentage of old computers. This problem is especially acute for company controllers Innostor.
The flash drive takes noticeably longer to initialize by the computer.
I may be dramatizing the situation a little, but I just want to give you some thoughts in case you run into problems.
HOW TO FLASH TO CDROM
For creating CD-areas on USB-flash drive, you need to select a utility for a specific controller installed in a specific flash drive. Sometimes when selecting, you need to consider the memory chip as the main parameter, but this is already off-topic for this article. Then configure the utilities to work with a specific combination (controller + memory), activate the settings associated with the CDROM area and then specify the path to the disk image itself (for the features of specific utilities, see below in the comments next to the exclamation mark [!]). After such an operation, the flash drive in BIOS will be determined (depending on the settings of the production utility and controller capabilities) either as CDROM-device, or as two devices ( CDROM + regular section).
Also, the quality of the result, oddly enough, depends on the utility used. For example, Alcor did not create utilities with older versions CDROM-area more 4GB or at Skymedi Bootability in LUN2 mode may depend on the version.
Let me clarify the situation with the kind of limitation in 4GB per size ISO-disk image - like this There is no 4GB limit and never was. It all depends on the capabilities of the available software versions for a particular hardware (controller + memory). So for some very old controllers, and also for some not very advanced ones, I'm not familiar with those at all. And the nonsense (about 4GB and others) that often circulates on the Internet is associated only with the mental retardation of those who write it. Often such people have never had more than 1-2 flash drives and at the same time try to teach others. Also a distinctive feature of these idiots are recommendations for searching for software using VID-PID, which are also complete nonsense.
Detailed manuals with pictures for the main controllers will be written and posted in separate articles. So you need to be patient, and I need to scrape together the desire and the deal is in the bag.
WHAT SPECIFIC UTILITIES CAN CREATE A CD-ROM SECTION
List of utilities that allow you to create a CDROM area and their features for the main controllers:
Alcor: AlcorMP_UFD, ALCOR Recovery Tool, FC MpTool, Transcend AlcorMP JF620 Online Recovery, Transcend AlcorMP V15 Online Recovery.
!: To create a Generic Autorun Disk using 'Transcend AlcorMP JF620 Online Recovery', just rename the required image to create a CD partition to security_f.iso, place it next to OnLineRecovery_620.exe and perform the flash drive recovery procedure by running OnLineRecovery_620.exe. After executing OnLineRecovery_620.exe, two partitions are always created: a CD partition with the contents of security_f.iso and a regular partition, defined in Windows as a removable disk in FAT32 format.
!: To create a Generic Autorun Disk using 'Transcend AlcorMP V15 Online Recovery', just rename the required image to create a CD partition to TMUS.iso, place it next to OnLineRecovery_TMUS.exe and perform the flash drive recovery procedure by running OnLineRecovery_TMUS.exe. After executing OnLineRecovery_TMUS.exe, two partitions are always created: a CD partition with the contents of TMUS.iso and a regular partition, defined in Windows as a removable disk in FAT32 format labeled Trend Micro.
!: On flash drives with Alcor controllers up to and including the AU6982 model, it has not yet been possible to create the ‘Autorun’ partition.
ChipsBank: Chipsbank APTool, Chipsbank CBM2093 UMPTool, Chipsbank UMPTool, Chipsbank V88 UMPTool, FlashDiskManager.
Innostor: Innostor MP Tool, AI-Burn, AI Partition.
!: AI-Burn – only overwrites the CD area created using the Innostor MP Tool or AI Partition.
!: AI Partition – only creates a CD area, onto which you can then burn a disk image using AI-Burn.
iTE Tech. Inc. : MPTool, DtMPTool, UFDUtility, CDROM Tool.
Phison: Phison ModeConverter, Phison MPALL, Phison USB MPTool.
!: Phison ModeConverter v1.0.1.5 is the easiest and safest way to create for modern controllers from Phison.
!: Mode = 30 (CDROM Only); Mode = 21 (CDROM + Public).
!: There may be some problems with the subsequent identification of the flash drive in utilities when creating ‘CDROM\Public + Fixed Disk‘.
Skymedi: Skymedi PDT, Skymedi SK6213 ISO Update Tool.
!: The ‘Autorun Counter’ parameter means the number of times the CDROM partition will appear in the system. In order for the section to work endlessly, enter the value 255 (==unlimited) into this field.
SMI: SMI MPTool, DYNA MPTool, uDiskToolBar, MySDKTest, UFDisk Utilities.
SSS: 3S USB MP Utility, 3S USB OnCardSorting.
!: In the utility windows there are no settings responsible for the CD area of the flash drive, so you need to edit the configuration file used (for example - 6691_CM_T32D2 TSOP 32Gb x 2.INI) as follows: approximately after the section
add section
where to add the line CDROM_ISO=j:\LIVECD\_2K10\MultiBoot_2k10_2.6.1_conty9.iso(where MultiBoot_2k10_2.6.1_conty9.iso is the file that you want to burn to the CD area).
Not all controllers have the ability to overwrite a CDROM area without re-creating other sections of the flash drive. For example, I know for sure only about two controller companies with which this operation can be carried out, namely:
Innostor: using the AI-Burn utility.
SMI: using the program MySDKTest. Despite the fact that this software fully supports only controllers up to and including the SM3255AB model. It can perform the procedure of replacing a disk image with any, even the most modern SMI chip.
You can usually return the flash drive to its original state using the same utilities, as well as some other utilities that you can find on my website.
USB Flash can be used not only in the traditional way “like a large floppy disk”. There are more interesting and in some cases more useful options. This article will describe how to make a USB CD-ROM from a flash drive. Of course, the flash drive will remain a flash drive, but the computer will “see” it as a CD-ROM.
This trick may be needed, for example, to install Windows XP or 7 on a computer without a CD-DVD drive. Of course, in such a case, there are other ways, but such a CD-ROM flash drive allows you to install Windows on a netbook without any problems or any unnecessary steps.
If you need to make an installation flash drive Windows 7 there is another way, easier - Installing Windows 7 from a USB flash drive.
The first thing you need to do is get a disk image as a file in ISO format. This can be an image of a Windows XP installation disk or any other CD or DVD disk. There are many programs that allow you to save the contents of a laserdisc as an ISO file. For example, such as UltraISO, InfraRecorder, ImgBurn and many others.
Then, you need to find out exactly which controller is used in your flash drive. The fact is that even one model of flash drives can have different controllers, and the programs that can be used to make a CD-ROM from a flash drive are strictly tied to the controllers, that is, each controller has its own program.
The most accurate results are provided by the usbflashinfo program; it itself produces “crazy messages”, but they need to be sent to the author and he will send information about the controller of your flash drive. You can search for your model among the ready-made results in this forum.
After that, on the website flashboot.ru, find a program to work with the controller of your flash drive. Using this program, create a CD-ROM partition on a flash drive and upload your ISO file there.
Below we will describe how to create a USB CD-ROM from an Apacer AH325 4 Gb flash drive. This flash drive uses a Phison 2251-60 controller. Programs for working with this controller are called Phison_MPALL. They come in different versions. This article will use version 3.20.0B2 as an example.
First you need to make sure that the usbflashinfo program was not mistaken and that Phison is indeed inside, to do this you need to run GetInfo.exe and enter the drive letter under which your flash drive is detected in Windows, and then click the "Read" button:
If there is a Phison controller inside the flash drive, then the program will display information about the flash drive:
The next step is to create a configuration file for subsequent recording of the flash drive. To do this, you need to run the program MPParamEdit_F1.exe:
and then specify the necessary options in it, starting from the top, in the “CD-Rom Image” field you need to specify the path to the file and the ISO file itself:
Note.
It is possible to create two partitions on a flash drive, one will emulate a CD-ROM, and the second partition will be a regular flash drive or emulate a hard drive. In this case, the CD-ROM partition will be allocated as much as is necessary to record the ISO image, and the rest of the space on the flash drive will be allocated to the removable/fixed HDD partition. However, if the flash drive will be used to boot and especially to install Windows, I recommend making only one partition - CD-ROM. You will “lose” part of the total capacity of the flash drive, but you will avoid compatibility problems on different BIOS versions.
In this program you need to open the file that you created in the settings editor. If all the fields of the program are empty, then you need to click the "Update" button, after which an entry about your flash drive should appear in one of the fields. After this, you need to click the “Start” button and wait until the program runs:
Green color of the field means everything is finished. You need to close the program, and then open the Windows Process Manager (taskmgr.exe) and manually kill the MPALL program in it. The fact is that after closing the program window, its process remains in memory.
Now you can disconnect the flash drive via “Safely Remove Hardware” and unplug it from the USB connector. Then plug it into the connector again - but now Windows will recognize it as a CD drive.
This method can be useful for computer repair technicians, those who like to “experiment” with software and hardware, as well as the average person who finds themselves in a difficult situation.
Creating a bootable CD-ROM area on a USB flash drive
By modern standards, the disk is outdated, and the presence of a disk drive on a computer basically only means that its hardware is outdated. But what to do if there is no DVD ROM and the computer does not support installing Windows from a flash drive? Unfortunately, from time to time we have to deal with reinstalling the OS, and installing an OS from a disk is still relevant and in demand today. What to do, how to give up disks forever? Use USB drives! Despite the fact that some people have more questions about installing from USB than from a disk, USB still has many advantages.
- Restoring PC functionality. Having a USB with a set of emulated disks gives you a better chance of repairing your old computer. And it's better than carrying a set of disks with you.
- The disks are outdated, they wear out quickly and quickly become unusable when transferred.
- The most capacious, even advanced drives, are not able to accommodate such volumes of data as USB drives offer. Plus the reading speed is faster.
- The disk drive has long been no longer an important part of the PC, and throwing money away on them just because you need to load the OS is a waste of money.
And so the general meaning of the operation is that our flash drive would be defined by the computer as a CD rom, that is, the flash drive will have a CD - the area in which the image will be mounted, and the computer will recognize the flash drive as a CD rom.
Let's look at the general process of turning a USB flash drive into a DVD-R drive with a disk image mounted on it. Or rather, simply put, let's create a flash drive with the OS for installation on a computer. This manipulation will save you from the need to use disks when installing the OS and at the same time set the BIOS in Boot to boot from a flash drive, plus, if you have an old computer, the BIOS may not have such a function at all. Similar image emulation and creation of drive visibility is available in one of the flash drive modes, thanks to the efforts of manufacturers. But, unfortunately, the firmware of the chip itself is not disclosed and programs with drivers, manuals and instructions are not distributed officially. You have to look for them all over the Internet.
Here I will try to break down point by point what approximately needs to be done to flash the flash drive and mount the image on it. And below I will give a specific example using Kingston flash drives as an example.
- We need to determine the values PID And VID, as well as the chipset manufacturer.
This can be done using the program ChipGenius. It is best to save the data you receive. They may be needed in case of unsuccessful firmware. Can they also be recognized using the standard capabilities of Windows itself? That is, through the “Task Manager”.
- We enter the PID or VID into the database on the page http://flashboot.ru/iflash/. There we will find out which programs are designed to work with our flash drive.
- And then comes the theory, because in most cases each program has a different interface and algorithm. But in general terms, I will try to theoretically and universally explain the subsequent process.
- Connecting a USB drive to a PC.
- Launch the program whose name was determined in step 2.
- In the utility you need to obtain information about the flash drive and understand the main interface.
- In the settings, enter the data for creating the CD area. Data that you can duplicate from the source on the program instructions page.
- After all this has been done, you will be able to use the flash drive as a DVD-Rom drive, and the PC will see the image disk recorded on the flash drive, just like a disk inserted into a CD rom.
For example, you have a Kingston 8Gb DataTraveler 101 flash drive with a Skymedi chip. The program SK6211_20090227_BA.exe is used to work with the flash drive chipsets. We connect the flash drive, launch the program. Click -->Advanced -->in the Password window enter 123456 and click Check.
In the menu Code Bank ver. select the latest database. Click Multi-Partition.
In the window in the upper left corner, check the box Enable CD-ROM, if you need to split it into CD-ROM, and some into flash+Flash sections. Don't forget to set the partition size.
At the top right is the Enable CD-Rom Booting checkbox, that is, make the D-ROM bootable, after which you need to specify the path to the OS image.
We set the autorun counter parameter, this parameter is responsible for the number of times it boots from a flash drive, so that the process is endless, we set the value 255 (==unlimited)
This article will discuss how, by reprogramming (“flashing”) the control controller of a flash memory module (“flash drive”), force any computer to which such a flash drive is connected to perceive it not as a standard USB drive, but as an external CD/DVD drive with the CD the user needs “inserted” into it.
Copyright notice
To be honest, at first I didn’t want to include this section in my article at all. However, after some thought, I decided to do it. Why? Well, firstly, this is the fashion now ;-) Secondly, I thought that it would really be nice to familiarize readers in advance with the principles that I adhered to when writing this article, in order to avoid possible misunderstandings in the future.
So, the first principle is the author's disclaimer. This does not mean at all that the information presented in the article was taken “out of thin air” and has never been verified by anyone. Just the opposite - I personally, using the method I outlined here, “reflashed” at least two dozen flash drives, and all operations, except for one single time, were completed successfully. Speaking of disclaimer, I only draw your attention to the fact that due to such objective and in no way controllable by me factors as: a huge variety of models and modifications of flash drives, possible errors in the software used, various hardware and software configurations of computers and no less different levels of user training, everything that works fine on my computer may not work on yours. Additionally, I would like to note that the method I describe is not standard and pre-provided for their products by manufacturers of flash memory modules, therefore All operations described in this article are performed at your own peril and risk.. Remember this! If, as a result of performing the manipulations described below, you suffer any material and/or moral damage, please address all claims only to yourself. ABOUT possible I warned you about the risk of further actions. If you do not find yourself ready to act on such conditions, then simply do not try to reproduce them.
The second principle is the principle of independence. In my article I provide links to Internet pages where you can download this or that software that we need for our work. So, I warn you in advance that I have nothing to do with the owners of these pages, much less with the developers of the software posted on them. Using the programs indicated in the article, I myself am in exactly the same position as you, my dear readers. Thus, if by the time my article is published, the specified software is not located on the specified links, or it is infected with viruses, or damages your computer in any way - again, all complaints should be addressed either to the authors of the resources or to the program developers (if, of course, you manage to find them), or to yourself.
And one last thing. Since I strongly doubt that the topic of my article will interest novice computer users, I initially count on a trained reader. Therefore, I will try to present those aspects that are directly related to the topic of the article in the most understandable and detailed language, but I will not pay attention (except in special cases) to those actions that are part of normal computer work. That is, for example, how to launch the “task manager” (and what it is in general), where the “address bar” is located in the browser (and why it is even needed), you, dear readers, should already know. If you (suddenly!) don’t know this, then it’s clearly premature for you to read my article - except as information for “general development” to know that “this also happens.”
Why is this necessary, or why are we not looking for easy ways?
To answer this question, we will have to start from afar.
As is known, in the period lasting approximately from the mid-90s to the mid-2000s, the main carriers of more or less significant amounts of information were optical compact discs - first CD discs with a capacity of up to several hundred megabytes appeared, then they were slowly replaced various modifications of more “advanced” DVDs with a capacity of up to several gigabytes. At present, despite their greatly weakened positions, CDs have not yet completely lost their importance (at least in such areas as, for example, the sale of “boxed” software).
Around the mid-2000s, CDs, which had previously almost reigned supreme in the field of data transfer, had serious competitors - storage media based on flash memory (colloquially referred to as “flash drives”). By the way, the first models of flash drives for the “general public” were released back in 2000, and the many-year delay before their widespread distribution is explained solely by the small volume and high cost of producing the first production samples. However, from the very beginning, flash memory technology had such obvious advantages over traditional methods of storing information that it was only a matter of time before bringing certain specific parameters to perfection.
Despite the fact that modern flash memory modules are superior to conventional CDs in almost all comparable parameters (volume, speed characteristics, compactness), the vast majority of flash memory drives have one very serious drawback - security. Or, more precisely, the lack thereof. An interesting, but understandable, fact is that the viral “stock” transmitted through storage media existed at a small but stable level until the mid-90s (during the era of floppy disks) and practically disappeared by the mid-2000s, since The widespread use of flash drives is developing at an unprecedented pace. The answer lies in the fact that optical discs, due to their special technology for recording information, require special software. We should not forget that 100% of “branded” disks generally belong to the “...-ROM” category, that is, they are “read-only” devices, writing to which is impossible in principle. Until CDs had a viable alternative, both users and manufacturers were forced to put up with the inherent recording difficulties of optical discs. But at the same time, it was precisely these difficulties that were an almost insurmountable obstacle for viruses! Virus writers would have to build into each of their “creations” a full-fledged program for writing optical discs, which would immediately negate such important characteristics for viruses as secrecy, speed and small volume. Apparently, keeping in mind the problems so typical for optical disks, the developers of flash memory modules decided to make life easier for end users. And viruses. Since a flash drive, like a floppy disk and a hard drive, does not require any third-party software to record information and any operations can be performed through standard Windows Explorer, all barriers to viruses that prevent them from penetrating to a flash drive and back have disappeared. How popular this type of media is now, you can imagine the level of interest in them on the part of virus authors and the approximate scale of the epidemic. to plug flash drive to the infected computer so that it can immediately take up residence on it someone(I had to deal with viruses that automatically scanned USB ports for the presence of storage devices and, if any were found, immediately wrote a copy of themselves to them or carried out some destructive actions). A few years ago, it was still possible to find models of flash drives on sale with a special switch on the case that blocked the ability to write to a flash drive (although there were very few such models at that time), however, unfortunately, nowadays such flash drives are almost never found. The reason for the refusal by manufacturers to such an inexpensive but extremely useful improvement is not known to me. Judging by some reviews posted on the Internet, such microswitches have a short mechanical life and fail quite quickly, leaving the flash drive in read-only mode, which causes a storm of indignation from users who are forced to buy a new flash drive ahead of schedule.
For ordinary users, such a microswitch on a flash drive may indeed be unnecessary - it is enough to have a more or less adequate antivirus on the computer... But what to do unusual users - administrators, repair engineers, information recovery specialists? After all, they often have to work with a completely unfamiliar computer, in conditions where it starts and works at all! No self-respecting surgeon would perform an operation with a dirty, unsterile instrument. In this sense, the work of a doctor and a professional computer scientist has much in common - in both cases, sterility is extremely important. You can, of course, take a “step back” and write the entire necessary set of programs onto the good old optical discs of the “...-R” modification, but...
Firstly, a complete set of professional programs for restoring a computer’s functionality, as a rule, has a volume significantly larger than the capacity of one disk, so you will have to carry with you not just one, but a whole set of disks, which, you see, is not good...
Secondly, optical disks, which serve as “workhorses”, constantly transported whenever, wherever and in anything, deteriorate quite quickly, becoming dusty and covered with scratches.
Thirdly, even the most “advanced” modifications of DVDs provide very mediocre, by modern standards, reading speed. It happens that loading the system from such a resuscitation disk takes up to 10-15 minutes. I don’t argue that some people will agree to wait 10 or 15 minutes, or even a whole hour - it would be just something to wait for, but, you see, if there is an opportunity to significantly increase the productivity of their work, it would be a sin not to take advantage of this opportunity.
Fourthly, such a once standard and mandatory device as a DVD drive is increasingly becoming persona non grata in a modern computer; it has not been in laptop computers “from birth”, and I won’t say anything about Blu-Ray drives at all.. At the same time, not only are almost all types of computers equipped with USB ports, but the number of these useful ports is steadily growing. So you may well encounter a situation where you only have a set of CDs on hand, and the computer being restored has only a free USB port instead of the expected drive.
In general, I really don’t want to give up the now familiar flash drives in favor of optical disks! “But there’s no need! - an experienced user will say. “Isn’t the Internet filled with programs that allow you to write an “image” of the desired disk to a flash drive?” And he will be right... Partly. Most of these programs - DirectGRUB, WinSetupFromUSB, WinToFlash, UnetBootIn, ROSAImageWriter - and dozens of others like them really do a good job, but, firstly, they do not give the user “freedom of maneuver”, clearly “tying” him to the “image” of this or that other type; and secondly, despite the opportunity to boot from a flash drive processed by them, your information remains completely unprotected. That is, the flash drive can still be easily formatted, delete some files from it, or, conversely, add some information.
However, there is a method that allows you to write absolute contents to a flash drive. any the disk you need with the ability to boot from this flash drive, and its contents will be reliably protected from “invasion” - creating a CD-ROM (DVD-ISO) partition on a flash drive and recording an “image” of the desired disk into it.
Why is “reflashing” possible?
This becomes possible because the manufacturers of controllers for flash drives themselves initially include in their products the ability to work in various modes, including the mode of emulation (simulating) an external CD/DVD drive. Thus, manufacturers leave themselves a “loophole” to create various cunning “branded” flash drives. After some time, information about this one way or another becomes available to the general public, and after another period of time, versions of “proprietary” utilities appear on the Internet that make it possible to switch the controller mode in practice.
What is needed for “reflashing”?
To successfully complete this interesting procedure we will need:
- a computer running Windows XP or later with Internet access;
- a flash drive equipped with a controller that has a CD-ROM emulation function;
- flashing program;
- actually, the “firmware” itself (in 99% of cases it is supplied with the program);
- ISO image of the desired disk;
- any instructions (for example, this article);
- approximately one hour of free time;
- straight arms and crooked brains (but in no case vice versa! ;-))
As I already said, you must know what an ISO image is and have it available (download from the Internet, “remove” it from an existing optical disk, “assemble” it yourself). If you don’t know what it is and can’t download/remove/build an ISO image, then, sorry, I won’t describe this procedure here for you personally, since the topic is so vast and multifaceted that it deserves a separate article. As a last resort, you can find all the necessary information on the Internet. In the future, I will no longer return to this issue, and I will assume that you have the necessary “image”.
I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the most difficult stage is, oddly enough, the preparatory stage. The most difficult thing is to choose a mutually suitable “flash drive - program” pair. If you managed to pick such a pair, then with a 99% probability everything that follows will end successfully.
Why is this so difficult to do? Yes, simply because nowhere to get information. Since “reflashing” the controller is not included in the concept of “regular work” with a flash drive, manufacturers do not consider it necessary to indicate such uninteresting details (why do you need it, poor things?!? ;-)). Moreover, it is enough to mentally put yourself in the place of a large manufacturer of flash drives to understand that one should not even hope for any, so to speak, “internal constancy” of products - he (the manufacturer) produces them in millions of pieces, and at the same time he must take care of continuous supply of them to the market. It follows from this that he has dozens of contracts with various companies producing controllers, memory chips and other electronic “stuffing”. Today, one specific model of flash drive is produced on the A-001 controller, in a month the same model (!), in exactly the same case (!) will be produced with the B-002 controller, and in another six months, when the previous controller supplier has problems with production, another company will take over the baton, offering its new Yo-030 controller. Of course, sooner or later service utilities appear on the Internet even for the newest types of controllers, but how much time will pass between the start of sales of flash drives on this controller and the appearance on the Internet of a suitable utility for it, only God and Chinese computer pirates know;-)
This leads to three possible strategies for our search:
- borrow each flash drive purchased by a friend, colleague, or issued at work by the supply department for an hour, and check it with a special program (I’ll tell you which one below). The flash drive will not suffer from this and all information on it will remain safe and sound. If we see that the controller is exactly the one we need, we immediately find out from a friend/colleague/supplier where the flash drive was purchased and go there to buy the same one for ourselves.
- search for the information we are interested in on the Internet (for example, using the phrase “controller + “flash drive model”). Sometimes people on specialized forums, when describing a particular flash drive, also indicate the controller model. Here, however, you should be careful and look at the publication date - if the description of the flash drive you found is older than six months, then there is a high probability that even if you buy such a flash drive, you will be very upset, because it will be on a completely different controller.
- from time to time buy one flash drive you like, checking it for the presence of the desired controller and, then, act according to point 1. The obvious disadvantages of this method are the large expenditure of time and money.
The most preferable for beginning sewing mechanics... oh, no - programmers, are flash drives on SMI controllers. Phison controllers are a little more complicated to flash, but in general, it’s also not bad, but it’s better not to mess with Alcor and SSS controllers unless absolutely necessary. With regard to flash drive brands, the products of greatest interest to us are “A-Data” and “Apacer” (most), “Kingston” and “Transcend” (minor).
If you fundamentally do not want to waste time and money searching for the desired flash drive model, but want to “reflash” the one you already have at all costs, try first looking for a suitable “flashing” program here: and here:. The site listed first - usbdev.ru - contains a more complete and detailed file archive, and the likelihood of finding the latest version of the desired program is much higher here. At the same time, its “completeness” and richness of information also have a downside - for a beginner, as a rule, it is very difficult to decide which software from the ones available on the site he really needs. The site listed second - flashboot.ru - has a simpler structure and a rather nice appearance, but it is not a fact that here, firstly, you will be able to find the program you need, and secondly, that this program will be the latest. Also, when selecting the right software, you should not forget that both of these sites are dedicated to USB drives at all, therefore, programs that make it possible to “turn” flash drives into CD/DVD-ROM are not specially separated or sorted by anyone, getting lost in the general mass of their colleagues designed to restore the functionality of flash drives, monitor, diagnose media, low-level formatting, provide loading from a flash drive and other things.
Demonstration equipment
As a “guinea pig” I chose an eight-gigabyte flash drive “Transcend JetFlash 520S”. Why did I choose this particular flash drive? It's simple:
- Since I decided to combine useful with... useful - to write this article and create a new repair flash drive-DVD-ROM for my needs, I first of all paid attention to the type of case. In this model of flash drive, all the electronic filling is placed in a sealed all-metal case, the connector is made integral with the case, which, you see, is important for a “workhorse” that you constantly have to carry with you. No static discharges, lost or forgotten caps, bent connectors - even protected from moisture penetration (although I haven’t personally checked ;-)).
- The ISO image I have, which I was going to “upload” to a flash drive, takes up about 3.3 gigabytes, so, of course, I could get by with a four-gigabyte one, but flash drives with a capacity of less than 8 gigabytes do not exist in this design .
- and, finally, the most important thing - I managed to find information that this flash drive model is currently being produced based on one of the modifications of the “SMI” controller - just what you need!
The flash drive comes in a small cardboard box, inside of which there are: brief instructions, an insert with advertising information and a transparent blister, which, in turn, contains the flash drive itself and the branded “Transcend” strap (cute, but extremely short, clearly intended to increase convenience manipulations with a flash drive, but not for carrying):
The flash drive itself is not full-size, but not miniature either - overall dimensions (length*width*thickness in millimeters): 37*12*4.5. In general, “slender” ;-)
Controller Model Definition
First of all, let's create a working folder in the root of one of the local drives of your computer, into which we will place all the programs we need for flashing. You can rename the newly created folder to your liking, but keep in mind that the name of this folder should not contain spaces or Russian letters. As an example, I will use the "USBreFLASH" folder on the local "C" drive of my computer. It wouldn’t hurt to immediately add this folder to the exceptions of your antivirus, since, for example, my vigilant “watchman” “Dr.Web”er, when I first accessed this folder, moved about a third of the program modules to “Quarantine”, considering them “ potentially dangerous" and "possibly infected".
After we have decided on the working folder, we launch the browser available on the system (in my case, Mozilla Firefox) and type the following in the address bar: . On the page that opens, click on the “Download program” link located below (2). The archive with the program offered for downloading takes up approximately 3 megabytes; after unpacking, the folder with the program will take up a little more space - about 4.5 megabytes.
After that, go to the downloads folder (its location depends on your browser settings), find the “usbflashinfo” archive and, using any archiver available on the system, unpack it into the previously created “USBreFLASH” folder. As a result, a folder of the same name “usbflashinfo” and a text file “File_id.diz” containing a brief description of the program version appear in our working folder. Since this file is not needed for the program to work and is only an eyesore, we delete it with a clear conscience.
Next, go to the “usbflashinfo” subdirectory and launch the only exe file “GetFlashInfo.exe” from there. A program window opens with a warning text and a single button “Get information about the flash drive” (see figure):
We connect the flash drive we have at our disposal to a free USB port.
Please read the warning carefully before taking further action! The program shows it to you every time you start it, and I will additionally remind you here. The main condition for the successful and safe completion of the diagnostic procedure is no access to the flash drive, that is, before starting and during the diagnostic process itself, you should not read or write anything from or to a flash drive. Otherwise (very nasty! :-)) when you click on the “Get information about the flash drive” button, the program will roughly “cut off” everyone else’s access to the flash drive, and what will happen after that with the data on the flash drive (if it is there, of course) exist), no one knows. As you yourself understand, this is especially important if the flash drive being tested is not yours, and, in addition, is filled with information that is important for its real owner, the safety of which you have no right to risk. Please note that some antiviruses (Kaspersky and others like it), acting “by default”, rush to check the newly inserted flash drive with all their might, so it is better to either wait for this process to complete, or, if the information on the flash drive is very a lot and the scan is delayed, interrupt it through the antivirus menu.
So, we make sure that no one or nothing is working with the flash drive at the moment, and click the “Get information about the flash drive” button. If everything is in order with the flash drive and nothing prevented the diagnostic program from completing its work to the end, the main window of the program will be filled with the data obtained as a result of polling the flash drive. The second line from the top will indicate the model of the controller on which the experimental flash drive is assembled (in this case, “Silicon Motion SM3257 ENBA”):
For the future, you should keep in mind that the developers of the usbflashinfo program are trying to “keep up” with the times, so you may well encounter a situation where a program downloaded several months ago, upon subsequent launch, refuses to work and asks you to download an updated version - there is no need to worry or be afraid of this, the program developers do not require money from you (at least for now ;-)), so you should not neglect the update O it.
Search for service utility
So, we were able to determine the specific model of the controller on which our flash drive is assembled. Now is the time to start looking for a suitable flashing program. I hope you haven’t forgotten the address of this wonderful site - ? As I already said, when visiting this site you can easily get lost among the abundance of software presented on it, so I’ll give you a hint - the main service utility for working with flash drives on SMI controllers is called “SMI MPTool”. Despite the same name, this program exists in many versions and modifications, differing in support for certain models of controllers and memory chips. Therefore, you need to not just download the latest version, but make sure that it supports your particular controller model.
To find the version of the program we need, we again launch the browser available on the system and type in the address bar: :
Slowly “scrolling” the page that opens, pay attention to the models of supported controllers indicated in square brackets to the right of the name and version number of the production utilities. Let me remind you that in this case we are interested in the line containing . After the required line is found, download this version of the utility by clicking on the word “download” in the found line:
We find among the downloads a freshly downloaded archive with a service utility and, using any archiver available in the system, unpack it into the previously created “USBreFLASH” folder. After unpacking, a subdirectory “smi_mptool_v.2.5.27_v8_m1004_3257enba” with program files and a text file “readme.txt” with a link to the source site appear in our working folder. Since the “readme.txt” file does not have any practical value, we simply delete it so as not to clutter up the working folder.
In principle, you can stop at this stage, but despite the fact that the name of the folder with the program is “correct” from the point of view of the program itself (that is, it does not contain spaces or Cyrillic characters), I would advise, for convenience, to shorten the name of the folder somewhat , to, for example, this: “smi_mptool_3257enba”. I repeat - the flasher program will launch perfectly and will work even without renaming the folder in which it is stored, so the purpose of renaming is just to make it a little easier for the user to navigate the working folder.
Editing the configuration file
At first I wanted to call this section “ Creation configuration file", however, I remembered that the configuration file itself, although in a form unsuitable for our purpose, was already present in the folder with the service program, so I called the section " Edit configuration file."
So what kind of file is this, why is it needed and, most importantly, how to edit it?
The configuration file is a simple text file called “default.ini” and contains instructions for the firmware program to in what way you need to “flash” the flash drive controller. Since the configuration file, despite the unusual (in the eyes of a non-specialist) extension “.ini”, as already mentioned, is a regular text file, it can be edited even using the standard Windows text editor “Notepad”. However, the lesson this is thankless and a little complicated for beginners, so we will make changes to the configuration file directly through the interface of the “flashing” program, which, exclusively for this purpose, has a special button (well done, Chinese!) In general, the need to edit it is explained by the fact that , that the configuration file that comes with the service utility is intended, first of all, to restore the functionality of conventional flash drives, and therefore does not provide any opportunity to “turn” a standard flash drive into a “default” CD/DVD drive.
To make the changes we need to the configuration file, go to the folder with the service utility - “smi_mptool_3257enba” - and run the only executable file from there - “sm32Xtest_V27-8.exe”:
The main window of the service utility opens in front of us, in which we need to sequentially:
- click the “Setting” button at the right edge of the program window (1);
- in the password entry window that opens, type: “320” ( without quotes!) (2);
- Confirm your entry by pressing the “OK” button (3):
If you leave the password field empty or enter any combination of letters and numbers there, the program will still give you the opportunity to view the current settings, but will not allow you to edit them - keep this in mind. After we have entered the correct password to be able to change the settings, a window will open in which we will be asked to select a configuration file (2) from those already available in the program folder (1) or specify the path to the configuration file (if you saved it somewhere “outside”), confirming the selection by pressing the “OK” button (3):
There is nothing stopping you from creating several different configuration files over time so that you can choose the one most suitable for your specific task before starting work. The program, immediately after launch, “by default” works with the “default.ini” file located in the program folder, so this file should not be renamed or deleted. It should be noted here that the mechanism for changing configuration files in the SMI MPTool program is not implemented very well. If you need to change the “default” configuration file to some other one, you will need to open this “other” file for editing in exactly the same way as described above, but do not make any changes and just click on the “OK” button . After this, the program will “think” for a few seconds, and when it “comes to its senses,” the file you selected will be installed as a working file. You can determine which configuration file is currently in use by looking at the title of the window of the running program, in the center of which, delimited on both sides by continuous underscore characters, the name of the currently active configuration file will be indicated, for example: “___default.ini___”. It should be remembered that when saving or creating configuration files, they are subject to exactly the same requirements as those imposed on the program itself - the file name ( and all the way to it!) should be as short as possible and should not contain spaces or characters from the Russian alphabet.
Since the topic of creating multiple configuration files, as well as clarifying the differences between them, is beyond the scope of this article, I will not dwell on this in detail, but will simply describe what changes should be made to the existing configuration file “default.ini” in order to After “reflashing” the controller, the flash drive began to be defined as a CD/DVD drive. After you have completed all the previous steps and opened the “default.ini” file for editing, a window with many settings will appear before your eyes (see figure):
All the settings contained in the first tab of the window, called “Main Flow Setting” (“my main settings”) - and we are only interested in this one tab for now - can be divided into five groups:
- extended USB device identifiers (1);
- abbreviated USB device identifiers (2);
- USB device type (3);
- USB device indication (4);
- the actual “flashing” settings (5).
From the first group of settings we will need only two lines - “Vendor Str” (“Vendor Name”) and “Product Str” (“Product Name”). In principle, the information they contain only affects the “name” under which your flash drive, after flashing, will appear in the Windows Explorer window and in the BIOS boot menu. The full “name” of the flash drive will be displayed as: “manufacturer name” space “product name” . When filling out these fields, Latin letters, numbers and even a space character are acceptable. Since I am creating a bootable flash drive in the form of a CD/DVD drive to repair broken computers, the ISO image that I plan to “upload” to the flash drive is called “Repair”. Accordingly, it will be more convenient for me if my repair flash drive is designated as “REPAIR USB DISK”. This means that in the “Vendor Str” field I need to enter the word “REPAIR” (without quotes), and leave the “Product Str” field as is. Of course, you can change the contents of these fields to your liking, for example, by immortalizing your name in the name of the flash drive: “ETO SDELAL VOVA” ;-)
In the second group of settings, we just need to duplicate the manufacturer name and product name in exactly the same form as you entered it earlier. In the same group there is a “switch” for the current consumed by the flash drive “USB Power”, but I would not advise you to use it, and here’s why. The real, “physical” current consumed by a flash drive depends directly on the design features of the flash drive itself and cannot be changed in any way by software. The value determined by this “sort of switch” only tells the system how powerful the equipment is connected and whether it is possible to find an opportunity to “save” on its power supply. It follows that it is quite possible that a flash drive physically consumes, say, 300 mA, and you manually set the value to 200 mA, as a result of which the system, when connecting the flash drive, will consider that it “has the right” to reduce the current to the specified 200 mA, and The flash drive, of course, will stop working. Therefore, it is better not to win any crumbs, but to leave here the standard value of 500 mA, which is more than enough for the vast majority of flash drive models.
In the third group, we are interested in the “Disk Type” and “Disk Label” fields. For our purpose, the “Disk Type” field should be set to “USB-ZIP”; and in the “Disk Label” field you must repeat (yes, for the third time!) what you indicated in the “Product Str” (from the first group) and “Product” (from the second group) fields ).
The fourth group of settings is responsible for changing the light indication of the flash drive, and nothing needs to be changed here.
Finally, the fifth group of settings is of greatest interest to us. Here are the parameters directly related to the “flashing” process:
- "Boot Blk" - boot sector. By default, the checkbox is checked, but the file is not selected. It doesn't matter to us.
- “Erase Info” - erase all information. By default there is no checkbox. It doesn’t matter to us, since when “flashing” all the information on the flash drive will be lost in any case.
- "Pretest" - " pre accumulative test" This refers to a test of flash drive memory cells. By default, the “daw” is checked, the “Erase Good Block Only” option is selected (“to erase only good blocks”). Flash drives, like hard drives, undergo full memory testing during manufacturing, as a result of which unstable memory blocks are identified and marked in a special way to prevent their further use. If the “Erase Good Block Only” method is selected, then the flash drive controller does not overwrite the table of “bad” blocks created at the factory and tests only those blocks that were marked as “good”. Some older types of controllers “did not know how” to implement this method in practice, therefore, if problems arise during “flashing”, you can change the value of this parameter to “Erase All Block”. This will slow down the flashing process, but may help if problems arise.
- “Write CID” - “a method of recording information.” By default, the “daw” is checked, “TSOP Standard Type” is selected as the method, which is standard for all modern flash drives and does not require replacement with any other method.
- “Download ISP” - “download a specific type of firmware.” By default, the checkbox is checked, but the file is not selected. The point does not make much sense - if the program “recognizes” the connected flash drive, then it will select the appropriate type of “firmware”; if not, then selecting something manually in our particular case is pointless, since you still won’t really “flash” the flash drive.
- “Copy Test” - perform a preliminary test of copying information to a flash drive. By default, the “daw” is checked, the amount of information to be copied is selected in the amount of 2% of the capacity of the flash drive. For us, this item does not play a special role - in order to once again verify the quality of the flash drive, you can leave it turned on; To speed up the flashing process, you can disable it.
- “Make Auto Run” - “create an autorun”. The name is not entirely accurate, since it is precisely the inclusion of this item (checked) that gives us the opportunity to load an ISO image of the desired disk onto a flash drive during flashing. After the item becomes active, a field to enter the path to the ISO image opens to the right of it. In my case, this path looks like this: “D:\ISO\REPAIR.ISO”. Please note that the path to the image, as well as the name of the image itself, must be as short as possible, without Cyrillic characters and spaces! Activating the “CDROM Only” sub-item enables a mode in which the free space remaining on the flash drive after recording the image is blocked (until subsequent flashing) and becomes unavailable for use. Deactivating this sub-item, accordingly, allows you to use the remaining free space as a regular removable disk, that is, one physical flash drive will be detected by the system as a composite device of an external CD/DVD drive and a regular flash drive. On my own behalf, I would like to add that, despite the seeming tempting of this method, which consists in the fact that you are allowed to use the entire capacity of a honestly paid flash drive, this method is fraught with problems in the future, since booting through the BIOS from such a “composite” flash drive can be far from all computers. Personally, I’m willing to sacrifice the remaining half of the flash drive’s capacity to ensure maximum compatibility, so I’ll enable this option. If you nevertheless chose the option with a “composite” device, then by checking the checkboxes on the checkboxes located below, you can immediately set the formatting mode for the remaining capacity of the flash drive and select the file system type.
- "Preload" - "pre-load". By default, there is no checkbox and this item is inactive. We don't need to change its state. Activating this item involves simply writing some of your data to a flash drive during the “flashing” process - in much the same way as you do using a regular Windows Explorer. Of course, such data loading is only possible if you Not create a CD-ROM, or at least leave free space on the flash drive (see previous point). The question is, why add this option to the settings? What, after “reflashing” the flash drive, it will be impossible to write data in the “usual” way? Of course it is possible. But only they will not be protected from change. That is why the program developers added this item and the next one to the settings, which is called...
- “Disk Read Only” - “read-only disk”. By default, there is no checkbox. In relation to our task, it does not play a special role, since the CD/DVD disk obtained after flashing a flash drive, even with the “Disk Read Only” parameter inactive, will still be “read-only”. But if you do not create a partition on a CD-ROM flash drive or plan to write some arbitrary information to the remaining space, activating this item will help you protect it from unauthorized changes.
- “Test Result LED Flash” - “checking the results.” The default is "daw". It is advisable to leave this item active to once again make sure that the “flashing” process was completed properly.
As a result of all the ordeals with the settings, you should get something like the following (here the items that I considered necessary to change are highlighted in red; of course, in your particular case, the settings may differ from mine):
After all the necessary changes have been made, we must save the configuration file. To do this, click on the “Save As” button located at the right edge of the bottom edge of the settings window (1), then in the standard window that opens, select the existing “default.ini” file (2) and click on the “OK” button (3) :
Let me remind you that if for some reason you do not want to “spoil” the original “default.ini” file, then you can save it under a different name, for example “forcdrom.ini”. If you decide to overwrite the existing configuration file, then after clicking on the “OK” button, another window will open in front of you, in which you will be asked to confirm the replacement of the file. In any of these cases, after you complete the described actions, the settings selection window will close, and the program will automatically switch to working with the updated configuration file (in case of creating a new configuration file - before restarting).
After the configuration file has been properly edited, you can proceed directly to the “flashing” process.
“Reflashing” the flash drive controller
Before starting the “flashing” (or even better, before connecting a flash drive), it is highly advisable to pause the antivirus. Yes, yes, I, of course, remember that you have already added our working folder to the antivirus exceptions, however, do not forget that in the process of “flashing” the service utility will have to go “outside” - to where the one specified in the settings is stored file-image, and braking by an anti-virus monitor the flow of data “flowing” from one disk to another is fraught with the occurrence of the most unexpected errors. All other application programs that are not related to the flashing process should also be terminated. Additionally, I note that it is very rare and not on all computers, but, nevertheless, it happens that the energy saving functions of the monitor, hard drives, motherboard, forgotten by the user and activated at the wrong time during the “flashing” process, as well as turning on the screensaver, lead to to the impossibility of its correct completion. Therefore, instead of taking risks and checking in practice with a result unpredictable for a flash drive whether you have the “right” computer, I would advise you to temporarily disable all energy saving functions for the above devices, and either turn off the screensaver for a while, or set a longer interval activation - at least one hour. During this time, firstly, you will take some actions in any case; secondly, it will become clear how great the chances of success of our event are.
After the antivirus program is suspended, the energy-saving functions of the hardware are disabled, and the time before the screen saver is activated is increased, insert a suitable flash drive into a free USB port:
We launch the flasher program. If your computer has the Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8 operating system installed, then use the “Run as Administrator” function. Since I have good old Windows XP, I do without such problems and simply launch the program file for execution. The main window of the service utility opens before us:
First of all, use the mouse to click the “Scan USB” button, located at the right edge of the program window, in the middle (1). The same effect can be achieved by simply pressing the “F5” key on the keyboard. If at the moment you press a button - on-screen or keyboard - it makes no difference, a suitable flash drive is connected to the computer and nothing interferes with the program’s operation, the following changes will occur in the program window:
- firstly, in one of the lines of the list of 16 possible USB ports (what a scope! :-)), the status value “Ready”, volume accessible flash memory, controller model and unique serial number of the flash drive (2);
- secondly, in one of the squares corresponding to the same 16 USB ports, the value will appear total volume flash drives, an obscure index “2” (the second representation option?), and to the right and below the main square there will be a small additional one, filled with blue, corresponding to the same controller status “Ready” (3);
- thirdly, in the lowest information window the name of the flash drive controller model and the corresponding binary firmware will appear, automatically selected by the service utility (4).
If, after pressing the “Scan USB” button, the listed changes do not occur to you, then this indicates either some physical problem with the flash drive/USB port, or that the program does not “know” anything at all about the connected flash drive. Sometimes it happens that, based on the scan results, the information fields are filled in, but the controller status value is indicated as “No ready” or “ISP can"t be found!” and is displayed in a red font, not blue (the small additional square in the graphical representation field (3) also becomes the same color). Unlike the previous situation, when the program “knew” nothing at all about the connected flash drive, this means that the program I “recognized” the flash drive, but it (the program) does not have at its disposal the binary firmware suitable specifically for this type of controller.In this case, all that remains is to look for a newer and (or) suitable version of the “firmware” program.
Let's hope that you correctly identified the model of the flash drive controller, took the choice of the service utility very seriously, and that everything is in order with the USB ports on your computer, so the program window is blue, symbolizing inspiration (what, you didn’t know? : -)), the promising status “Ready” is displayed. This is the last step when you can “painlessly” refuse to “reflash” the flash drive if you suddenly change your mind. And if not, then all you have to do is click with the mouse on the “Start” button (the top one at the right edge of the program window), or, which is the same thing, press the “Space” key on the keyboard (1):
After this, in the very first line, which previously had the inscription “Ready”, in the “Progress” column a progress indicator similar to the one that is standard for Windows (2) will start. Please note that it will fill up and reset again some times, since the “flashing” process consists of several successive stages (have you forgotten many settings in the configuration file yet? ;-)), and the indicator shows the current progress everyone process one by one. You can find out exactly what stage the flashing process is currently at by looking at the second option for representing USB ports in the form of squares. In the square that corresponds to your USB port to which the “flashing” flash drive is connected, a description of the current stage of the “reflashing” process will be displayed in the form of a text inscription (3). In this case, it is clear that the screenshot was taken at the moment when the preliminary testing was performed, as clearly evidenced by the inscription “Test” in the background of the first square. In the lower right corner of the program, a counter of the time elapsed since the start of the “flashing” is displayed in seconds (4).
Keep in mind that the process of “flashing” itself and, moreover, writing the image file require considerable time - sometimes up to several tens of minutes. Despite the fact that the speed of data transfer via the USB bus is strictly regulated by relevant standards, the execution time of the “flashing” process is influenced by many factors, both obvious (number of stages during “reflashing”, USB port standard, ISO image size), and and hidden (configuration and characteristics of the computer’s disk subsystem, parallel execution of system processes, modification of the controller). In any case, you should be patient and under no circumstances interrupt the “reflashing” process if the counter continues to count seconds, the indicator scale moves slowly, and the inscriptions on the square symbolizing the USB port change. Of course, if, for example, for a whole hour the inscription “Test” is not replaced by the inscription “Load”, and the indicator either stands still or cyclically fills/resets, you will have to make a sad conclusion that that the “flashing” has currently failed and the program will crash. But, I repeat, this is - extreme a case that should not be resorted to unless absolutely necessary and without clear evidence of the “freezing” of the “flashing” process.
Evidence of the successful completion of the “flashing” process is a “reset” progress indicator, a stopped time counter and, most importantly, the appearance of two green squares with the inscription “OK” in the graphical representation field and in the upper right corner of the program:
As you can see, on mine On the computer, “reflashing” an 8-gigabyte flash drive with preliminary testing and recording an ISO image with a capacity of 3.3 gigabytes took a little more than 13 minutes and ended quite successfully.
After the long-awaited “OK” inscriptions “light up” in the service utility window, close the program and safe using this method we extract our flash drive.
Remember - at the first moment after flashing, you only need to safely remove the flash drive with the obligatory preliminary stop of the device!
Checking the results
Let's say you did everything correctly and the flashing process was completed successfully, after which you safely disconnected the flash drive and removed it from the USB connector. What's next? And then we have to check the result of the “flashing” by testing our flash drive in action. Therefore, without delaying the matter (as a rule, human nature is designed in such a way that you want to quickly see the result of your work), let’s start testing. To do this, we again connect our experimental flash drive to the computer:
But what do we see? A computer that has long been “familiar” with our flash drive (it identified it even at the very first connection and installed the appropriate driver), has just worked with it and into which we, after just a few seconds, reinserted it, informs us about that “New equipment was found” - but not a flash drive at all, but first we are talking about a certain “REPAIR USB DISK USB Device”, and then it is clarified that this device belongs to the class of “CD/DVD drives”!
Now let's see how this device is displayed in the standard Windows "My Computer" window:
Obviously, it is classified as a “Devices with removable media”, and is displayed as a CD/DVD drive (in my case it is assigned the letter “G:”) with a “REPAIR” disk inserted into it.
Do you still have doubts that the drive is “not real”? Then let's look at its properties:
From what the operating system showed us in the properties window of this device, we can clearly conclude that the drive is a “real” one, with the CDFS file system, which is the “calling card” of real CDs, and a complete lack of free space for recording.
How are things going with his security? Maybe the flash drive only skillfully “pretends” to be a CD/DVD drive, but in fact remains a standard random access media accessible to everyone? To answer this question, let’s try to write some arbitrary file to it (for testing, I’ll try to copy the “readme.txt” file from the archive with the flasher program):
Does not work! We are politely but firmly made to understand that this, so to speak, “disk” is “read-only” and you cannot copy or move files to it. Well, am I really repeating the standard Windows message to you? Have you never seen it yourself? ;-)
Thus, it turns out that we really “turned” the flash drive into a CD/DVD drive, along the way once again making sure that it is now really recognized by the system as a real CD/DVD drive and can write or change the data stored on it (or everything). “on it”?) files are not possible, but - I hope you haven’t forgotten yet? - we are interested in another important feature of our “reflashed” flash drive, namely the ability to boot a computer from it via BIOS. Therefore, the last and most important stage of verification lies ahead of us.
Leave the flash drive connected to the computer and reboot it. While the BIOS firmware is running, we call up the boot menu (usually by pressing one of the “F+digit” keys - which one depends on the developer of your computer’s motherboard) and make sure that our flash drive is present in the list of devices from which you can download:
After we confirm our choice by pressing the “Enter” key, we make sure that the computer actually boots from our flash drive (of course, the resulting “picture” on the monitor will depend on which ISO image you chose to write to process of “flashing”):
Congratulations - you have not only become the proud owner of a unique flash drive, but also mastered the technique of making such flash drives!
Possible problems and ways to solve them
Despite the fact that SMI controllers are among the most reliable and thoughtful, during such a delicate and non-standard process as “flashing”, a wide variety of errors and problems may arise. I sincerely wish you a successful completion of each “flashing”, but if it does happen that the process ends with an error or does not complete at all (“freezes”), I hope this section can help you, in which I tried to collect descriptions and possible solutions to the most common problems. At the same time, I ask you not to consider the material presented here as the “ultimate truth.” Alone person who owns one(well, let’s say, even two or three) computers, and having “reflashed” only two dozen flash drives out of thousands available for sale, it is simply physically impossible to “catch” all possible “glitches” and “bugs” that arise due to the greatest variety of hardware combinations -software configurations of computers, models of flash drives and controllers, as well as differences in the experience of their owners. Therefore, it is quite possible that a situation will arise when, in the process of implementing the actions outlined in this article, you will encounter a certain problem, and I, in turn, will not be able to help you. In this case, I can advise you to search for information about the problem that has arisen on the Internet, ask the appropriate question on specialized forums (at least on the two sites mentioned at the beginning of the article - and ), consult with more experienced comrades, or try to implement these actions on another computer (on work, with friends...).
So, now a direct description of possible problems and ways to solve them:
| Description of the problem | Clarification | Possible reason | Solution |
| The service utility does not “see” the flash drive | The operating system also does not “see” the flash drive | Physical malfunction of the flash drive | Replace the flash drive with a working one |
| Physical failure of the USB port | Connect the flash drive to another USB port | ||
| Failure of the “south bridge” of the motherboard | Repair or replace the motherboard | ||
| USB device support is disabled at the BIOS level | Enable support for USB devices in BIOS | ||
| The corresponding USB controller is disabled at the operating system level | Enable the USB controller (for example, through Device Manager) | ||
| Not installed at all or inappropriate drivers for the motherboard are installed | Check and, if necessary, update drivers for the motherboard | ||
The flash drive does not have enough power:
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| The operating system “sees” the flash drive | Temporarily disable anti-virus protection, as well as currently unnecessary software running in the “background” mode (for example, using “msconfig”) | ||
| The connected flash drive is incompatible with the version of the service utility being used | Replace the flash drive with a compatible one or update the software | ||
| The service utility “recognizes” the flash drive, but cannot work with it | One of the following messages is displayed: "No ready" "Initial Param Fail" "ISP can"t be found" | The service utility cannot find the appropriate firmware file for this controller model | Select software that supports this type of controller |
| The service utility “resets” or “freezes” during operation | The problem occurs at the same stage of the “flashing” process | The configuration file contains functions that are not supported by this controller model |
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| The integrity of the ISO image written to the flash drive during the “flashing” process has been compromised | Check the integrity of the ISO image used and, if necessary, update or replace it | ||
| The problem occurs at different stages of the flashing process | The operation of the service utility is interfered with by activated energy-saving functions of computer components | Disable or pause all energy saving features (both software and hardware) | |
| The operation of the service utility is interfered with by the activity of anti-virus tools or other third-party software | Temporarily disable anti-virus protection, as well as currently unnecessary software running in the background | ||
| The service utility does not have enough system rights to perform the action | Run the program “As Administrator” and (or) “In compatibility mode for Windows XP” | ||
| The flashing process ends with an error | The message appears: “Bad Block over setting” | The detected number of unstable flash memory blocks exceeds the maximum allowed specified value |
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| The message appears: “Bad Block over setting (User... > FW...)» | An unrecoverable error has occurred with the flash memory. |
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In this article we will show you how to make sure that USBflash drive or SDthe card was detected in the Windows system like a regular local hard drive. You might ask, why is this necessary? The fact is that Windows by default defines USB flash drives and memory cards as removable drives, which cannot be divided into several partitions using Windows standards. And even if you split the flash drive into two or more partitions using third-party utilities (in the same Linux), then only the first of them will be available in the Windows OS (by the way, built-in appeared in Windows 10 1703). Those. Windows supports normal operation with multi-partitions only for HDD drives, which are defined in the system as local (i.e. non-removable).
RMB bit and USB media
Windows operating systems recognize USB flash drives as removable/removable devices due to the presence of a special bit descriptor on each device R.M.B.(removablemediabit) . If, when polling a connected device through the StorageDeviceProperty function, the system determines that RMB=1, it concludes that the connected device is a removable drive. Thus, in order to convert a USB flash drive into a hard drive from the system's point of view, it is enough to modify this descriptor. This can be done directly (which is quite risky due to differences in hardware implementations of specific devices, and is not always possible), or indirectly, by replacing the response of a USB device using a special driver that allows you to filter information in the device response.
Advice. Some manufacturers produce special utilities for flashing the controller of their flash drives. First of all, try to find such a utility and/or firmware on the manufacturer’s website. This is the most correct way. If you don’t find such a utility, follow the recommendations from this article.
Connect a USB flash drive to any free port on your computer, then open Disk Management Manager ( diskmgmt.msc) and make sure that its type is defined in the system as Removable(Removable device) .
You can also see the device type on the Volumes tab in the disk properties (as we see here Type: Removable). 
Or using the diskpart command:
List volume
In this article we will look at two ways to change the RMB bit on a USB flash drive - by using the Hitachi filter driver (changes are made only at the driver level on a specific computer) and changing the bit in the controller firmware using the BootIt utility from Lexar (a more universal method, but there is a number of restrictions and is not applicable to all models of flash drives and SD cards). Although both of these methods are quite old and I originally tested them on Windows 7, they continue to be relevant and work equally well in modern Windows 10.
Lexar BootIt utility
Recently I came across a rather interesting utility - LexarBootIt. This is a free, portable program that can change the RMB of a removable drive to make a removable USB device fixed (or vice versa). Even though the Lexar BootIt utility is designed for Lexar devices (Micron, Crucial), it can also work with flash drives from other manufacturers. The BootIt utility supports all versions of Windows, from Windows XP to Windows 10.
Important. The utility is guaranteed to work for Lexar drives. Judging by the reviews, the “Flip removable bit” function does not work on fast USB 3.0 flash drives. In addition, when flashing the controller, you will lose the warranty on the flash drive and can make it inoperable.
You can download BootIt on the Lexar website (lexar_usb_tool) or from our website ().
- Run BootIt.exe with administrator rights
- Select your flash drive from the list of devices
- Click on the button Flip Removable Bit
- Save your changes by clicking OK.
Reconnect the device and use Device Manager to make sure that its type has changed from Removable to Basic.
If the BootIt utility did not help change the RMB bit on a removable drive, try using the following method, based on the Hitachi Microdrive filter driver
Filter driver for Hitachi Microdrive flash drives
In order for a USB flash drive or SD card to be recognized in the system as a hard drive, we need a special filter driver that allows us to modify the data transmitted through the system stack of the current device driver. We will use a filter driver for USB flash drives from Hitachi ( Hitachi Microdrive driver), which at the OS driver level allows you to change the type of flash drive device from removable to fixed (USB-ZIP -> USB-HDD). Thanks to the use of this driver, you can hide from the system that the connected device is removable. As a result, the system will consider that it is working with a regular hard drive, which can be divided into partitions that will be simultaneously accessible in the system.
Archives with Hitachi Microdrive driver:
- 32 bit systems - (3.0 KB)
- Hitachi Microdrive version for 64 bit systems - (3.8 KB)
You need to download the driver version for your system according to its bit capacity. Both archives have the same structure and consist of two files:
- cfadisk.inf– installation file with driver settings
- cfadisk.sys- Hitachi driver file
The next stage is identifying the device code of our flash drive. To do this, in the disk properties on the tab Details in the parameter Device Instance Path select and copy ( Ctrl+C) device instance code. 
In our example it would be:
USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_Linux&Prod_File-CD_Gadget&Rev_0000\0123456789ABCDEF&0
Let's say we plan to install the driver on 64 bit system. Using any test editor, open the file for editing cfadisk.inf. We are interested in the cfadisk_device and cfadisk_device.NTamd64 sections.
%Microdrive_devdesc% = cfadisk_install,IDE\DiskTS64GCF400______________________________20101008 %Microdrive_devdesc% = cfadisk_install,IDE\DiskTS64GCF400______________________________20101008
We change the value DiskTS64GCF400______________________________20101008 to the code of our device.
Important! In the device instance code, it is necessary to discard the part after the second “\” (in our example we discard 0123456789ABCDEF&0).
We get:
%Microdrive_devdesc% = cfadisk_install,IDE\USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_Linux&Prod_File-CD_Gadget&Rev_0000 %Microdrive_devdesc% = cfadisk_install,IDE\USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_Linux&Prod_File-CD_Gadget&Rev_0000
Save the file.
If the driver is installed on a 32 bit system, you need to download the recommended archive, unpack it and open the cfadisk.inf file for editing. Let's find a section :
%Microdrive_devdesc% = cfadisk_install,USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_LEXAR&Prod_JD_LIGHTNING_II&Rev_1100 %Microdrive_devdesc% = cfadisk_install,USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_JetFlash&Prod_TS1GJF110&Rev_0.00 %Microdrive_devdesc% = cfadisk_install,USBSTOR\DI SK&VEN_&PROD_USB_DISK_2.0&REV_P
Then we change the data in the last line, indicating the code of the instance of our flash drive, i.e. in our example we get:
%Microdrive_devdesc% = cfadisk_install,USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_LEXAR&Prod_JD_LIGHTNING_II&Rev_1100 %Microdrive_devdesc% = cfadisk_install,USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_JetFlash&Prod_TS1GJF110&Rev_0.00 %Microdrive_devdesc% = cfadisk_install,USBSTOR\Di sk&Ven_Linux&Prod_File-CD_Gadget&Rev_0000
Advice. If you want the USB flash drive to appear with a specific name in the device manager, you need to edit the value of the Microdrive_devdesc variable, for example like this:
Microdrive_devdesc = "Transcend 64GB DIY SSD"
Installing the Hitachi Microdrive driver instead of the native USB drive driver
All that remains is to replace the driver used by the USB flash drive.
Important! If the Hitachi Microdrive USB driver is installed on a 64-bit system, then... There is no digital signature for this driver, you will have to either.
Open the Drivers tab and click the button Update Drivers. 
Let's indicate the folder to the directory into which the downloaded archive with the Hitachi driver is unpacked: 
Let's select a new driver. 
We ignore the warning about the missing driver digital signature. 
Advice. In Windows 10 and Windows 8, when installing the driver, the following error appears:
Windows found drivers for this device, but an error occurred when trying to install the drivers.
Hitachi Microdrive
Third party inf does not contain signature information
To disable driver digital signature verification, run the following commands:
bcdedit.exe /set nointegritychecks ON
bcdedit.exe /set TESTSIGNING ON
Restart your computer and try to install the driver again.
All that remains is to restart the computer and, by opening the disk manager, make sure that your flash drive is now recognized as a regular hard drive ( Type: Basic), and the Hitachi driver is used as the driver.
By opening Explorer, you can also make sure that the icon of the flash drive has changed; it is now displayed as a hard drive, a regular drive. 
Now you can work with this flash drive like a regular HDD: create partitions, specify the active partition, create dynamic disks, install software that does not work from flash drives, etc.
Important. On other Windows computers without this driver, the second partition of the device will not be available.
To remove the Hitachi Microdrive driver, open the disk properties and on the Driver tab, click the Update Driver button - the system will install the native driver itself.
Advice. If after installing the Hitachi driver the system stops booting with BSOD, you need to boot the computer from the Windows installation disk / Live CD and manually delete the following files:
- cfadisk.sys in the %windir%\System32\drivers directory
- Directory "cfadisk.inf_amd64_..." from %windir%\System32\DriverStore\FileRepositoty
Restart your computer
You need to understand that this solution will only work on the system on which the appropriate driver is installed.
