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by **dgdavis** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:05 am

Code: Select all: I'm interested in your project for writing improved DOS drivers for USB devices, and yesterday I downloaded and tried your drivers with my USB flash drives. They seem to work correctly with a 32 MB Memorex drive and a 1 GB SanDisk drive. However, I have an 8 GB SanDisk drive that is seen by USBUHCIL and USBDRIVE, but is not assigned drive letters. This drive has had the U3 software removed, and I partitioned it in Win98SE as an extended partition with one FAT16 logical drive of 2,147 MB and one FAT32 logical drive of 5,724 MB. Both logical drives are seen correctly in Windows by the generic Win98 drivers. Under USBASPI.SYS and DI1000DD.SYS in Win98SE DOS, only the first logical drive is seen. Under USBUHCIL and USBDRIVE, neither logical drive is seen, though the drive's activity light flashes. I have loaded USBUHCIL Index 0 and USBDRIVE Ltrs:Q. With this 8 GB drive plugged in, I've redirected to a file the output of the following USBDRIVE switches: USBDRIVE /S USBDRIVE /D USBDRIVE /I USBDRIVE /C USBDRIVE /B USBDRIVE /F USBDRIVE /Q:82h [there are two physical hard drives in this machine] Followed by the output from USBDEVIC and USBUHCIL /Descr. These readouts are appended below. This was with the drive plugged directly into the computer's USB socket, but the drive still does not have letters assigned when plugged into a 3-port hub (with USBHUB loaded). (I have made tests on two PCs, with similar results.) I'd be interested in your comments; please advise if you need more information. I'm guessing that the partition scheme on the drive isn't working with your drivers? Is there a limit to the drive capacity that they can handle? --Donald Davis -------------------- USBDRIVE 0.15, (C) 2007-2009, Bret E. Johnson. DOS Driver for up to 8 SCSI-compatible USB Mass Storage Devices. Initialization Delay: 0 seconds DOS Version: 7.10 Max Bytes per Sector: 512 Mount FAT32 Volumes: Yes Max Sectors per Xfer: 1 USB INFO DISK/LUN DOS DRIVE ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ I R W D n H A I INT m r r d o d n L 13h v P Sect Byte i e s d t U Dsk M r Num Num Per Per Total Approx v Approx x t r f N Num d t Head Cyl Cyl Sect Sectors Capacity e Capacity ÄÄ ÄÄ ÄÄÄ ÄÄ Ä ÄÄÄ Ä Ä ÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ 0 0 2 0 0 82h . . 255 977 63 512 00EF9FFEh 8040 MB Unused USB Dvc/Intf Indexes: 1-3 Unused INT 13h Disk Numbers: 83h-89h Unused DOS Drive Letters: Q:-W:, P: Resident USBDRIVE has been updated with new information. USBDRIVE 0.15, (C) 2007-2009, Bret E. Johnson. DOS Driver for up to 8 SCSI-compatible USB Mass Storage Devices. D r INT i 13h Partition Byte v Dsk ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Boot Per Total Approx e Num Sector Idx Type Sector Sect Sectors Capacity ÄÄ ÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Unused DOS Drive Letters: Q:-W:, P: Resident USBDRIVE has been updated with new information. USBDRIVE 0.15, (C) 2007-2009, Bret E. Johnson. DOS Driver for up to 8 SCSI-compatible USB Mass Storage Devices. INQUIRY RESPONSES FROM COMPATIBLE SCSI DISKS ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ DSK ANSI DATA NUM VENDOR PRODUCT REV VERSION FORMAT ÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄ 82h SanDisk Cruzer 8.02 ANSI? Common USBDRIVE 0.15, (C) 2007-2009, Bret E. Johnson. DOS Driver for up to 8 SCSI-compatible USB Mass Storage Devices. USB HOST INDEX: 0 DEVICE ADDRESS: 2 DEVICE DESCRIPTOR ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ Descr Length: 12h 18 Descr Type: 01h Device USB Release: 0200h 2.00 Device Class: 00h Look at Interface Device SubClass: 00h None Device Protocol: 00h None Max Packet Size EP0: 40h 64 Vendor ID: 0781h SanDisk Corp Product ID: 5406h 21,510 Device Release: 0200h 2.00 Manufacturer String: 01h "SanDisk" Product String: 02h "U3 Cruzer Micro" Serial # String: 03h "258510028A90A80F" # of Configs: 01h 1 CONFIGURATION DESCRIPTOR ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ Descr Length: 09h 9 Descr Type: 02h Configuration Descr Total Length: 0020h 32 # of Interfaces: 01h 1 Configuration Value: 01h 1 Configuration String: 00h None Attributes: 80h Valid Historical Attribute 80h Bus Powered No Remote Wakeup Not Battery Powered Current Draw / 2: 32h 50 (100 mA) INTERFACE DESCRIPTOR ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ Descr Length: 09h 9 Descr Type: 04h Interface Interface Number: 00h 0 Alternate Setting: 00h 0 # of End Points: 02h 2 Interface Class: 08h Mass Storage Interface SubClass: 06h SCSI Transparent Interface Protocol: 50h Bulk-only (Zip) Interface String: 00h None END POINT DESCRIPTOR ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ Descr Length: 07h 7 Descr Type: 05h EndPoint End Point Number: 81h EndPoint = 1 Direction = In Attributes: 02h Bulk NonSynchronous Data Max Packet Size: 0040h 64 Max Poll Interval: 00h 0 END POINT DESCRIPTOR ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ Descr Length: 07h 7 Descr Type: 05h EndPoint End Point Number: 02h EndPoint = 2 Direction = Out Attributes: 02h Bulk NonSynchronous Data Max Packet Size: 0040h 64 Max Poll Interval: 00h 0 USBDRIVE 0.15, (C) 2007-2009, Bret E. Johnson. DOS Driver for up to 8 SCSI-compatible USB Mass Storage Devices. Beep for Bad Disk Drives: Yes BAD (INCOMPATIBLE) DISK DRIVES ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ SCSI REQUEST HOST DVC INTF STAGE ERROR ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ INDX ADDR NUM NUM CODE REQ STP DAT STS CSW RESIDUE KEY INFO ASC/Q ÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄ ÄÄÄ ÄÄÄ ÄÄÄ ÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄ #ÄÄ# #ÄÄ# None #ÄÄÄ# #ÄÄÄ# USBDRIVE 0.15, (C) 2007-2009, Bret E. Johnson. DOS Driver for up to 8 SCSI-compatible USB Mass Storage Devices. CONTENTS OF INQUIRY BUFFER ÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ 0000 00 80 00 01 75 00 00 00-53 61 6E 44 69 73 6B 20 € u SanDisk 0010 43 72 75 7A 65 72 20 20-20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 Cruzer 0020 38 2E 30 32 8.02 CONTENTS OF FORMAT CAPACITY BUFFER ÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ 0000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0020 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0040 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0060 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0070 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0080 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0090 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00A0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00B0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 CONTENTS OF CAPACITY BUFFER ÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ 0000 00 EF 9F FE 00 00 02 00 ïŸþ CONTENTS OF MODE SENSE BUFFER ÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ 0000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0020 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0040 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0060 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0070 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0080 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0090 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00A0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00B0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 CONTENTS OF SECTOR (0000003Fh) BUFFER ÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ 0000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0020 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0040 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0060 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0070 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0080 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0090 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00A0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00B0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0100 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0110 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0120 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0130 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0140 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0150 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0160 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0170 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0180 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0190 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01A0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01B0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 Resident USBDRIVE has been updated with new information. USBDRIVE 0.15, (C) 2007-2009, Bret E. Johnson. DOS Driver for up to 8 SCSI-compatible USB Mass Storage Devices. DEVICE ADDRESSES ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ Í Host Index: 0 Host Type: UHCI Bus Type: PCI IRQ#: 11 Root Hub Ports: 2 Vendor: 8086h = Intel Corp Product: 7112h ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ Í DEVICES INTERFACES ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ L C I A O ADRS o P o n l w ÍÍÍÍ (hex) S o BUS n t t n Test VEND PROD Sub Pro p USB HUB r POWR f f I e Sub Pro RWak ID ID Cls Cls col d VER ADR t (mA) g c n DESCRIPTION d Cls Cls col ÍÍÍÍ ÍÍÍÍ ÍÍÍÍ ÍÍÍ ÍÍÍ ÍÍÍ Í ÍÍÍ ÍÍÍ Í ÍÍÍÍ Í Í Í ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ Í ÍÍÍ ÍÍÍ ÍÍÍ 1 8086 7112 9 0 0 . 1.0 ... . s 0 1 0 0*Root Hub Y 9 0 0 Intel Corp ÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄ ÄÄÄ ÄÄÄ Ä ÄÄÄ ÄÄÄ Ä ÄÄÄÄ Ä Ä Ä ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Ä ÄÄÄ ÄÄÄ ÄÄÄ 2 0781 5406 0 0 0 . 2.0 1 2 100 1 0 0*SCSI Trsp Bulk Y 8 6 80 SanDisk Corp USBUHCIL 0.09, (C) 2007-2009, Bret E. Johnson. DOS Driver for a Universal HCI compatible USB Host Controller. LITE version (maximum 16 Devices, no Isochronous Transactions). DEVICE ADDRESS: 2 CONFIGURATION: 1 DEVICE DESCRIPTOR ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ Descr Length: 12h 18 Descr Type: 01h Device USB Release: 0200h 2.00 Device Class: 00h Look at Interface Device SubClass: 00h None Device Protocol: 00h None Max Packet Size EP0: 40h 64 Vendor ID: 0781h SanDisk Corp Product ID: 5406h 21,510 Device Release: 0200h 2.00 Manufacturer String: 01h "SanDisk" Product String: 02h "U3 Cruzer Micro" Serial # String: 03h "258510028A90A80F" # of Configs: 01h 1 CONFIGURATION DESCRIPTOR ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ Descr Length: 09h 9 Descr Type: 02h Configuration Descr Total Length: 0020h 32 # of Interfaces: 01h 1 Configuration Value: 01h 1 Configuration String: 00h None Attributes: 80h Valid Historical Attribute 80h Bus Powered No Remote Wakeup Not Battery Powered Current Draw / 2: 32h 50 (100 mA) INTERFACE DESCRIPTOR ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ Descr Length: 09h 9 Descr Type: 04h Interface Interface Number: 00h 0 Alternate Setting: 00h 0 # of End Points: 02h 2 Interface Class: 08h Mass Storage Interface SubClass: 06h SCSI Transparent Interface Protocol: 50h Bulk-only (Zip) Interface String: 00h None END POINT DESCRIPTOR ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ Descr Length: 07h 7 Descr Type: 05h EndPoint End Point Number: 81h EndPoint = 1 Direction = In Attributes: 02h Bulk NonSynchronous Data Max Packet Size: 0040h 64 Max Poll Interval: 00h 0 END POINT DESCRIPTOR ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ Descr Length: 07h 7 Descr Type: 05h EndPoint End Point Number: 02h EndPoint = 2 Direction = Out Attributes: 02h Bulk NonSynchronous Data Max Packet Size: 0040h 64 Max Poll Interval: 00h 0

by **Bret** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:24 am

I think the problem might be that you do not have a "regular" partition before the extended partition, but I'm not 100% positive. I'll need to do some experimentation and see. I've never formatted a disk with just an extended partition, so it's not something I've even thought about needing to test before now. I'll let you know what I discover in the next day or two.

If you want to experiment yourself, try formatting as two primary partitions instead of two extended partitions and see what happens. If that is indeed the problem, I'll definitely need to fix it, so you won't need to leave the disk that way too long if you don't want to.

Incidentally, if you "upgrade" to XP or Vista or 7 (or maybe even just to 2000, I'm not sure), you'll only be able to see the first partition. Later versions of Windows don't allow multiple partitions on removable media like USB.

dgdavis wrote:Is there a limit to the drive capacity that they can handle?

The only limit in size is the same one as all disks with 32-bit access: 4 GigaSectors (usually 2 TeraBytes).

by **dgdavis** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 11:43 am

Bret wrote:I think the problem might be that you do not have a "regular" partition before the extended partition, but I'm not 100% positive. I'll need to do some experimentation and see. I've never formatted a disk with just an extended partition, so it's not something I've even thought about needing to test before now. I'll let you know what I discover in the next day or two.

If you want to experiment yourself, try formatting as two primary partitions instead of two extended partitions and see what happens. If that is indeed the problem, I'll definitely need to fix it, so you won't need to leave the disk that way too long if you don't want to.

Incidentally, if you "upgrade" to XP or Vista or 7 (or maybe even just to 2000, I'm not sure), you'll only be able to see the first partition. Later versions of Windows don't allow multiple partitions on removable media like USB.

I believe you've misunderstood the drive's setup. I don't have two extended partitions. I have one extended partition with two logical drives in it, one FAT16 and one FAT32. I may try saving the data elsewhere and formatting two primary partitions experimentally--wouldn't want to leave it that way for actual use, however, because I have many hard drive partitions, and that would be likely to disrupt the order of my hard drive letters if the flash drive with primary partitions is in the machine during bootup.

It's good to know that the NT line of Windows doesn't allow multiple partitions on removable media. Just another way in which they break the setups I've come to rely on up through Win98. I have one machine that dual-boots to XP, but I use it only for a few things I can't do in 98, such as using Google Earth.

--Donald Davis

by **Bret** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 2:22 am

dgdavis wrote:I believe you've misunderstood the drive's setup. I don't have two extended partitions. I have one extended partition with two logical drives in it, one FAT16 and one FAT32.

Sorry for the confusion. I actually did understand your configuration, but did not state it correctly.

I did some experimentation last night, and the location of the extended partition is not the problem. I was able to partition a disk similar to how you did it and it worked just fine. It appears that it may be a problem very specific to SanDisk, maybe somehow indirectly related to the U3 stuff.

Please post the output of a "USBDRIVE /Q:82h". You didn't include that the first time, and I think I need to see what kind of SCSI errors the disk is generating.

by **dgdavis** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 3:11 am

Code: Select all: Sorry about missing the USBDRIVE /Q:82h switch. Here's the output: USBDRIVE 0.15, (C) 2007-2009, Bret E. Johnson. DOS Driver for up to 8 SCSI-compatible USB Mass Storage Devices. SCSI ADDITIONAL SENSE CODE & QUALIFIER HISTORY FOR INT 13h DISK NUMBER 82h ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ SCSI Request 00h = Test Unit Ready Sense Key 06h = Unit Attention (Target Reset) ASC/Q Code 2800h = Not Ready to Ready Transition, Medium Change SCSI Request 00h = Test Unit Ready Sense Key 06h = Unit Attention (Target Reset) ASC/Q Code 3A00h = Medium Not Present I can't rule out that there's some trace of the U3 software installation left. Can you recommend a free utility that can erase a flash drive completely, without harming it? --Donald

by **Bret** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 5:17 am

dgdavis wrote:Can you recommend a free utility that can erase a flash drive completely, without harming it?

I don't know of a utility that will do that, other than the standard disk partitioning software (FDISK or Ranish). I think the only way to uninstall U3 is by using the uninstall option of the software itself.

dgdavis wrote:I can't rule out that there's some trace of the U3 software installation left.

I don't think it's actually the U3 software itself, but a sort of "relic" related to how the U3 software works. The U3 documentation eludes to two different partitions on the disk, one for the U3 software and one for the actual data.

I have a SanDIsk drive very similar to yours, and get the same error, "Medium Not Present". That error code indicates that the disk is something like a floppy drive or multimedia card reader, which has an empty slot with no media currently inserted. Of course, we know that's not true, which means that the firmware in the SanDisk drive is screwed up. That's why I think it's somehow related (at least indirectly) to the U3 software, and the two partitions, and the U3 software needing to "hide" at least one of the partitions from Windows applications for some reason. A flash drive that does not actually have removable media should never return an error of "Medium Not Present" -- that particular error doesn't even make sense.

There is already a work-around for this in USBDRIVE, since my SanDIsk drive does the same thing, but apparently the work-around still needs some fine-tuning. What I do now is retry the SCSI request a couple of times, and my disk eventually responds appropriately (no "Medium Not Present" error). I'll experiment some more and see if I can figure something out, but it may take several days. I may need to retry more times than I do now, or just ignore the error if it's a SanDisk drive, or somehow "reset" the disk to get it past the problem.

by **dgdavis** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 12:26 pm

dgdavis wrote:
I can't rule out that there's some trace of the U3 software installation left.

BJ: I think the only way to uninstall U3 is by using the uninstall option of
the software itself.

DD: I had done that earlier, and there was no evidence of functional U3
on the drive. However, I checked the drive with the KILLDISK utility today,
and found that there was a 7.8 MB unallocated space before the extended
partition. (This unallocated area is apparently normal when extended
partitions are created on a drive without a primary partition.) That was
partly blank, but had some data referring to U3 and SanDisk, so my U3 removal
and repartioning didn't remove traces that were still in that first part
of the drive. But I doubt that this has any connection to the problem with
your drivers; see more below.

BJ: I don't think it's actually the U3 software itself, but a sort of "relic"
related to how the U3 software works. The U3 documentation eludes to two
different partitions on the disk, one for the U3 software and one for the
actual data.

DD: That's probably why I found U3 references in the unallocated area.
That area may have been in the U3 partition before I repartitioned.

BJ: I have a SanDIsk drive very similar to yours, and get the same error,
"Medium Not Present". That error code indicates that the disk is something
like a floppy drive or multimedia card reader, which has an empty slot with no
media currently inserted. Of course, we know that's not true, which means that
the firmware in the SanDisk drive is screwed up. That's why I think it's
somehow related (at least indirectly) to the U3 software, and the two
partitions, and the U3 software needing to "hide" at least one of the
partitions from Windows applications for some reason. A flash drive that does
not actually have removable media should never return an error of "Medium Not
Present" -- that particular error doesn't even make sense.

DD: I experimented more with the drive today. Using Symantec GDISK, I
initially deleted all partitions. Then I created a FAT16 2,047 MB primary
partition (this incorporated the unallocated space at the beginning) and an
extended partition with one FAT32 5,601 MB logical drive. Then I tested the
drive again with your drivers. In this configuration, USBDRIVE /S and /D did
report two logical drive letters, with correct sizes, for the drive--until I
tried a DIR command. That gave a "Not Ready" error, and after that,
subsequent USBDRIVE /S and /D commands gave the same results as before:
correct total drive size, but no logical drives seen. So having a primary
partition begin the drive still doesn't make it work properly.

I subsequently re-deleted the partitions and returned the drive to one
extended partition containing two logical drives as before. That made the 7.8
MB unallocated space come back, and I zeroed that space with KILLDISK just in
case any code in there might be somehow a problem. Then I re-tested with your
drivers. The results of USBDRIVE /S were the same as yesterday: no logical
drives seen, even before I tried to access them.

Incidentally, the JDUSBMS Windows driver also seems to have some
difficulty with this drive. To see it reliably, the drive needs to be
inserted during startup. If I remove and reinsert it in Win98, I may see both
logical drives, the first drive only, or none.

BJ: There is already a work-around for this in USBDRIVE, since my SanDIsk
drive does the same thing, but apparently the work-around still needs some
fine-tuning. What I do now is retry the SCSI request a couple of times, and my
disk eventually responds appropriately (no "Medium Not Present" error). I'll
experiment some more and see if I can figure something out, but it may take
several days. I may need to retry more times than I do now, or just ignore the
error if it's a SanDisk drive, or somehow "reset" the disk to get it past the
problem.

DD: Thank you for your work on this. Let me know if I can do anything
more to assist. (BTW, I have the Forum preferences set to notify me when a
new post is made to the topic, but it doesn't seem to be working; I'm not
getting e-mails when you reply there.)

--Donald

by **Bret** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 11:27 am

dgdavis wrote:I had done that earlier, and there was no evidence of functional U3 on the drive. However, I checked the drive with the KILLDISK utility today, and found that there was a 7.8 MB unallocated space before the extended partition. (This unallocated area is apparently normal when extended partitions are created on a drive without a primary partition.) That was partly blank, but had some data referring to U3 and SanDisk, so my U3 removal and repartioning didn't remove traces that were still in that first part of the drive. But I doubt that this has any connection to the problem with your drivers; see more below.

I never looked in detail at the SanDisk drive after I removed the U3 software, but what you're seeing doesn't surprise me. I suspect some of the data at the beginning of the disk might be needed if you try to re-install the U3 software. Around 8MB of unused space before the first partition is pretty normal for a large disk, since partitioning software usually starts partitions on cylinder boundaries, even though they don't actually need to.

dgdavis wrote:I experimented more with the drive today. Using Symantec GDISK, I initially deleted all partitions. Then I created a FAT16 2,047 MB primary partition (this incorporated the unallocated space at the beginning) and an extended partition with one FAT32 5,601 MB logical drive. Then I tested the drive again with your drivers. In this configuration, USBDRIVE /S and /D did report two logical drive letters, with correct sizes, for the drive--until I tried a DIR command. That gave a "Not Ready" error, and after that,
subsequent USBDRIVE /S and /D commands gave the same results as before: correct total drive size, but no logical drives seen. So having a primary partition begin the drive still doesn't make it work properly.

That's all related to the "Medium Not Present" error code being returned by the disk. In the general SCSI data downloaded for the disk, there is a flag for whether the disk is removable or not, which was originally intended for things like floppy drives and removable hard drives. USB devices are always removable, so this bit is always set (at least from what I've seen). The problem is, there are also USB drives with removable media, which is actually two levels of removability, which isn't accounted for in the SCSI data. So, the only way I've figured out to tell if the disk actually has removable media or not is to test for the "Medium Not Present" error. Whenever that error shows up, USBDRIVE flags the drive as having removable media. So when the SanDIsk drive erroneously returns the error, USBDRIVE thinks it is really does have removable media, and there is no media currently plugged in, so it removes the drive letter. After this happens, USBDRIVE periodically polls the disk in the background to see if the "Medium Not Present' error disappears, in which case it will automatically assign a drive letter again. The SanDisk drive apparently never stops returning the bogus error, so USBDRIVE never re-assigns a drive letter. LIke I stated before, the firmware in the SanDisk drives, at least the ones that originally had U3 software, is completely screwed up. I need to see if I can figure out a way around the screw-up.

dgdavis wrote:Incidentally, the JDUSBMS Windows driver also seems to have some difficulty with this drive. To see it reliably, the drive needs to be inserted during startup. If I remove and reinsert it in Win98, I may see both logical drives, the first drive only, or none.

That makes me feel a little better, at least -- I know it's not just my drivers that have the problem.

[quote="dgdavis"]Thank you for your work on this. Let me know if I can do anything more to assist. (BTW, I have the Forum preferences set to notify me when a new post is made to the topic, but it doesn't seem to be working; I'm not getting e-mails when you reply there.)[quote]

Of course, I'll want you to test it when I think I have a patch figured out. I'll let you know if there's anything else you can do in the mean time.

The forum doesn't always notify me either, for some reason. I'm not sure what to do about that, though.

Bret

by **dgdavis** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 4:23 pm

Bret wrote:The problem is, there are also USB drives with removable media, which is actually two levels of removability, which isn't accounted for in the SCSI data. So, the only way I've figured out to tell if the disk actually has removable media or not is to test for the "Medium Not Present" error. Whenever that error shows up, USBDRIVE flags the drive as having removable media. So when the SanDIsk drive erroneously returns the error, USBDRIVE thinks it is really does have removable media, and there is no media currently plugged in, so it removes the drive letter. After this happens, USBDRIVE periodically polls the disk in the background to see if the "Medium Not Present' error disappears, in which case it will automatically assign a drive letter again. The SanDisk drive apparently never stops returning the bogus error, so USBDRIVE never re-assigns a drive letter. LIke I stated before, the firmware in the SanDisk drives, at least the ones that originally had U3 software, is completely screwed up. I need to see if I can figure out a way around the screw-up.

Could either of the following methods work? If a drive returns the "Medium Not Present" error, try to read from the medium anyway; if that works, override the Medium-Present test result? Or if that's not practical for some reason, add a user switch to USBDRIVE to bypass the Medium-Present test for specific drives?

--Donald Davis

by **Bret** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 4:49 am

I think I have the problem figured out, and have just uploaded an update to the web site. Please test it and see if it works for you.

In case you're interested, the problem definitely seems to be related to the U3 software. There are certain SCSI requests that USBDRIVE normally issues to all drives, Start Unit/Stop Unit and Lock Unit/Unlock Unit. Start/Stop Unit requests are required on some real hard drives to start/stop the disk spinning, since not all drives do that automatically. Obviously, that shouldn't be necessary on a solid-state drive like a flash drive, but I've seen references that lead me to believe even some flash drives need the Start/Stop Requests issued or they don't work correctly. The Lock/Unlock Unit requests are somewhat similar, but are designed for disks with removable media that have a physical locking mechanism to prevent media removal while the disk is being accessed. Again, a flash drive wouldn't need this, but USBDRIVE really has no idea what kind of disk is inserted: it doesn't know whether it is a solid-state flash drive or an external hard drive with magnetic media or whether it has removable media or a locking mechanism or ... The SCSI data just doesn't have that kind of resolution, and even if it did, there would probably be no reason to actually believe what the disk said about itself (disks lie about all kinds of other things in their descriptors).

If a disk does not accept the Start/Stop/Lock/Unlock Unit requests, it is supposed to either return an "Illegal Request" error, or else accept the Request but not really do anything. SanDisk disks with the U3 software removed accept the Start/Stop Unit requests, but this apparently puts them into a mode where they think the U3 software is still installed. The U3 software makes the disk look like a CD instead of a hard drive, and CD's are required to respond to the Start/Stop Unit requests (according to SCSI standards). It seems as though the Start Unit request "triggers" something in the SanDIsk firmware that looks for the CD that isn't there any more, and consequently returns the "Media Not Present" error. At least that what it seems like to me.

The change I made is to not issue Start/Stop/Lock/Unlock Requests to disks that are made by SanDisk. That seems to fix the problem. I should tell you that the SanDIsk drive I used for testing worked very well at one time, because it is the drive I used to make the speed comparison tests for the X:# Option. I normally don't use it, however, so apparently some of the other changes I've made to USBDRIVE over the last couple of months have affected something. When you contacted me about this, I started using the SanDisk drive again and discovered it wasn't working for me, either.

Bret

by **dgdavis** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 2:55 pm

Bret wrote:I think I have the problem figured out, and have just uploaded an update to the web site. Please test it and see if it works for you.

Unfortunately, it still does not. Trying the 8 GB SanDisk drive, I get exactly the same result as with the previous USBDRIVE version: it sees the size of the entire drive, but does not assign letters to the partitions. The error messages from USBDRIVE Q: are unchanged. Since I last posted, I have also tried a 2 GB SanDisk Cruzer drive having a single extended partition containing one FAT16 logical drive. The 2 GB drive works with both USBDRIVE versions. (I don't know whether that drive ever had the U3 software on it--probably not.)

--Donald

by **Bret** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 9:30 am

I have another idea I can try. I'll let you know when I can get around to it.

by **Bret** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 11:39 am

I have just uploaded a new version of USBDRIVE which will hopefully fix the SanDisk problems for good. Please let me kno if it works for you or not.

What USBDRIVE does now is completely ignore any "Medium Not Present" errors if the device is made by SanDisk and the SCSI request was a "Test Unit Ready". If this doesn't work, the only additional thing I can think of doing is ignoring "Medium Not Present" errors for ALL requests, not just "Test Unit Ready". Hopefully, it won't come to anything that drastic, though.

by **dgdavis** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 3:26 pm

Bret wrote:I have just uploaded a new version of USBDRIVE which will hopefully fix the SanDisk problems for good. Please let me kno if it works for you or not.

What USBDRIVE does now is completely ignore any "Medium Not Present" errors if the device is made by SanDisk and the SCSI request was a "Test Unit Ready". If this doesn't work, the only additional thing I can think of doing is ignoring "Medium Not Present" errors for ALL requests, not just "Test Unit Ready". Hopefully, it won't come to anything that drastic, though.

Tested; unfortunately, I'm still not getting drive letters for the 8 GB
SanDisk. The output from USBDRIVE Q is different on two computers:

On Dell Optiplex GX1:

USBDRIVE 0.17, (C) 2007-2009, Bret E. Johnson.
DOS Driver for up to 8 SCSI-compatible USB Mass Storage Devices.

SCSI ADDITIONAL SENSE CODE & QUALIFIER HISTORY FOR INT 13h DISK NUMBER 82h
ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ

SCSI Request 00h = Test Unit Ready
Sense Key 06h = Unit Attention (Target Reset)
ASC/Q Code 2800h = Not Ready to Ready Transition, Medium Change

SCSI Request 00h = Test Unit Ready
Sense Key 06h = Unit Attention (Target Reset)
ASC/Q Code 3A00h = Medium Not Present

On HP Pavilion a656x:

USBDRIVE 0.17, (C) 2007-2009, Bret E. Johnson.
DOS Driver for up to 8 SCSI-compatible USB Mass Storage Devices.

SCSI ADDITIONAL SENSE CODE & QUALIFIER HISTORY FOR INT 13h DISK NUMBER 83h
ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ

SCSI Request 28h = Read / Get Message (10)
Sense Key 02h = Unit Not Ready
ASC/Q Code 3A00h = Medium Not Present

SCSI Request 1Eh = Prevent / Allow Media Removal
Sense Key 05h = Illegal Request (Bad Parameter)
ASC/Q Code 2602h = Parameter Value Invalid

SCSI Request 00h = Test Unit Ready
Sense Key 02h = Unit Not Ready
ASC/Q Code 3A00h = Medium Not Present

--Donald

by **Bret** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:33 am

Unfortunately, the error during a "Read / Get Message" request is a bad sign -- it means that the "Medium Not Present" doesn't just happen during "Test Unit Ready" requests, and also means that it can't simply be ignored. Apparently, the drive must actually be "reset" somehow to get past the error. I do have an idea, and will try to do some research in the Linux drivers to see if there's anything that may help.

It will take several days before I can get around to working on this again, so please bear with me. I hope you can live with the other drives for now.

Just in case, have you experimented with the /Delay:# option for USBDRIVE? Although it hasn't helped with any of my problems, it's probably worth a try on your systems.

Bret

by **dgdavis** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 3:21 pm

I rarely need to use my USB drives under plain DOS (my routine operations are in Win98SE), so if it takes you some time to work on this further, it won't significantly inconvenience me. However, it would be useful if you could give me a heads-up e-mail when you have made another change, so I won't have to monitor the forum daily to learn of it.

I just tried the 8 GB drive again with USBDRIVE delay 5 and USBDRIVE delay 10--it made no difference.

--Donald

by **Bret** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:54 pm

I'll e-mail you and let you know.

by **Bret** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 11:44 pm

I just uploaded a new version of USBDRIVE. As it turns out the "brilliant" idea I had for fixing things only made things worse (much worse). So, I have only made a few minor changes to USBDRIVE, and hopefully it will work a little better than it did before. Unfortunately I don't think what I did is likely to help very much. I'm out of ideas right now on things to try.

I know it's not much consolation, but Googling for Sandisk Media Not Present errors yields all kinds of unresolved results, even in Windows. At least you know you're not alone.

by **dgdavis** » Fri Oct 16, 2009 4:20 pm

Bret wrote:I just uploaded a new version of USBDRIVE. As it turns out the "brilliant" idea I had for fixing things only made things worse (much worse). So, I have only made a few minor changes to USBDRIVE, and hopefully it will work a little better than it did before. Unfortunately I don't think what I did is likely to help very much. I'm out of ideas right now on things to try.

I know it's not much consolation, but Googling for Sandisk Media Not Present errors yields all kinds of unresolved results, even in Windows. At least you know you're not alone.

I belatedly remembered to recheck the forum about this. I downloaded the current version of USBDRIVE, but it still doesn't assign drive letters to my 8 GB extended partition/2-logical-drive SanDisk drive.

I hope you eventually find a solution. It must be possible, because the JDUSBMS Win98 driver does see both logical drives on this unit.

--Donald Davis

by **Bret** » Sat Oct 17, 2009 1:04 am

Still working on some updates to USBDRIVE. Hope to get this all fixed eventually. Sorry for it taking so long.

by **DOS386** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 5:14 pm

Still working on some updates to USBDRIVE. Hope to get this all fixed eventually. Sorry for it taking so long.

Thanks ... I can't use partitioned media either. Please update the INT $13 physical disk
support that it always works even without installing a "block" driver. Details sent by mail.

by **Bret** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 2:17 am

Partitioned media and INT 13h support should work just fine. You'll need to be more specific about exactly what doesn't work (which programs, specific error codes & messages, etc.).

http://bretjohnson.us/forum

Logical drives on 8 GB SanDisk drive not seen by USBDRIVE

Logical drives on 8 GB SanDisk drive not seen by USBDRIVE

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