Kingston DataTraveler 16GB appears as 8MB in Windows 7

[hdog100]

I have an ordinary 16GB USB that I had tucked away for many years, not sure how I got it, but when I put it into my PC, it said it was 8MB despite the fact that is says it's a 16GB USB.

I have searched on the internet for answers, but none of them have worked. Here are the following things I have tried with no success:
- Formatted into every available file format
- Used Disk Manager to format it
- Tried formatting the ONLY partition (people are saying this issue is cause by having multiple partitions on the USB, but all evidence shows that the USB only has one 8MB partition) with 'Bootice'
- Formatted using HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool

Some people are saying to use 'FDisk', but that requires Linux but I want to install that as a last resort.

Would this be physical damage or software damage? So should I just chuck it away or can I actually fix this? I really need a 16GB USB at the moment and I don't want to waste a pointless £20 on one.

Help would be greatly appreciated ^^

 

[steve10765]

I live in the USA but I found a 16gb Flashdrive for 7 pounds with free shipping in the uk
Sandisk 16GB Cruzer USB Flash Drive - Retail Pack: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

if you really want to use euros I am sure you could find a drive for like 9 euros with free shipping

 

[carnageX]

I have an ordinary 16GB USB that I had tucked away for many years, not sure how I got it, but when I put it into my PC, it said it was 8MB despite the fact that is says it's a 16GB USB.

I have searched on the internet for answers, but none of them have worked. Here are the following things I have tried with no success:
- Formatted into every available file format
- Used Disk Manager to format it
- Tried formatting the ONLY partition (people are saying this issue is cause by having multiple partitions on the USB, but all evidence shows that the USB only has one 8MB partition) with 'Bootice'
- Formatted using HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool

Some people are saying to use 'FDisk', but that requires Linux but I want to install that as a last resort.

Would this be physical damage or software damage? So should I just chuck it away or can I actually fix this? I really need a 16GB USB at the moment and I don't want to waste a pointless £20 on one.

Help would be greatly appreciated ^^

Try booting off of a GParted LiveCD. It's a distribution of linux that is specialized towards partitioning.

http://www.techist.com/forums/f128/gparted-usage-tutorial-224994/

 

[RubeSmench]

Disk corruption could very well explain this situation. As the disk labels sectors as corrupt, they are remapped to functioning ones, and the bad ones are discarded (a simplified version of the process).So if after 3 or 4 years of sitting in the wrong conditions, the disk may have decayed, leaving only 8mb of viable space left. Although this seems unlikely, it would explain your situation.
I would first try using this command from a command prompt

chkdsk /X /R dive_letter:

This should give you a basic idea of the total size of the drive that it is checking, as well as reporting any bad sectors it has come across. Should give you an output in bytes of the size of the drive. I had a problem once with a usb drive only displaying 1mb in the properties menu, but would function normally at its respective size--4gb I believe. Have you tried copying over a file larger than 8mb to see what happens? Just a shot in the dark, but you never know.

carnageX's idea will be your best bet if all else fails, Gparted is a great program which will display all partitions--used and unused space as well-- for the drive. It will display your hard disks as the default drive, but the option to change drives should be in the upper right hand corner. Will be something like /device/sdb for USB and /sda for your disk.