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Hey Guys - Need some advice here. I recently bought two 8GB Transcend USB Flash Drives and since discovered they come bundled with 'SecureDrive' software which does not show up anywhere (on the flash drives) and seems impossible to locate and remove. I think it must be installed as some sort of virtual CD drive on a secret/hidden partition. I don't need this security software nor do I want it.
As you can see here, the flash drive and associated CD drive are displayed as separate entities in Disk Management:
[attachment=1:3mgvjcw1]disk management - USB drive.png[/attachment:3mgvjcw1]
[attachment=0:3mgvjcw1]disk management - new CD drive.png[/attachment:3mgvjcw1]
Whenever I connect one of the flash drives I first receive an 'AutoPlay' message for the new CD drive and then immediately after that the 'AutoPlay' options for the flash drive itself appear. It also plonks a shortcut (to the new CD drive) on my desktop each time. The only way I can access the SecureDrive files is by double clicking the desktop shortcut or by going to 'Computer' and opening the new CD drive from there ~ nothing shows up on the flash drive itself:
It isn't really a big deal.....just a right nuisance.
I have tried re-formatting (several times), also tried to find any hidden partitions using every brand of free bootable partition manager I can get my hands on......no go!! There is nothing of any help on the Transcend site either...no advice nor any mention of a removal tool.
I see there are quite a few posts across the net outlining the exact same issue but, as is often the case, zero solutions to date.
If anyone can help, I know it will be you guys.
TIA......Jim
I had trouble finding any information on the 'net about this - maybe I didn't quite understand what software it was, but anyway --
Is this like the S3 things that come on some drives?
Two thoughts come to mind (well three, how do you feel about linux?).
1) Fdisk - this doesn't seem to be on Windows 7 anymore...but it is on older versions. I can't remember if this worked on USB drives though.
2) Diskpart (this may have replaced fdisk, which would explain where it went).
According to [url=http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/991854:14knfcp4]here[/url:14knfcp4]:
DISKPART> list volume
Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 E DVD-ROM 0 B No Media
Volume 1 L 20080902_10 CDFS CD-ROM 4006 KB Healthy
Volume 2 C WINDOWS NTFS Partition 49 GB Healthy System
Volume 3 D DOCS NTFS Partition 650 GB Healthy
Volume 4 H Removable 0 B Unusable
DISKPART> select volume 4
Volume 4 is the selected volume.
DISKPART> list partition
DISKPART> delete volume
Locate the Volume that relates to your USB Drive.
One other program to try: [url=http://en.kioskea.net/download/download-815-hdd-low-level-format-tool:14knfcp4]Low Level Formatter[/url:14knfcp4]
Says it works with flash drives and may be worth a go.
Hey Zig - Thanks for the reply mate. I'm beginning to think the end result may not be worth the angst!!
I have no idea what the "S3" thing is Zig....sorry.
No worries with Linux...I've got a coupla Live CD's on hand.
Diskpart will not work......"DiskPart cannot delete volumes on removable media."
The Low Level Formatter didn't work either.
I do believe this has to be some sort of CD emulation software.
http://superuser.com/questions/178176/h ... s-in-a-usb
http://www.phforums.co.za/f14/transcend ... roy-60882/
Thanks again Zig,
Cheers.....Jim
Hm. S3 is Amazon's storage solution, I was thinking U3.
From what I can see on those links and some other research I've done, the geniuses behind this flash drive decided to partition the USB drive into two parts, masking the actual drive (this is similar to what rootkits do...).
Partition 1 is a hidden partition containing an ISO and Virtual CD emulator, which mounts under windows as a virtual CDROM. Partition 2 is where the data goes on your drive. Because of the way the partitions are hidden from one another, formatting the data drive does just that, formats the data drive, and leaves the CDROM portion untouched.
What I was hoping DISKPART (or even the low level formatter) would do is to ignore the partition table and get down to the base level of the drive, wipe out all partitions (hidden or otherwise) and let you rebuild the partition table.
You can do this in Linux using parted or gparted, but I don't have the syntax near at hand.
Linux has fdisk as well which may get to a low enough level.
I don't have a linux machine / flash drive available for experimenting. Let me get something together and I'll see what I can figure out in the way of a step through.
Jim,
I don't know exactly which model you have but I find references to these tools on the Transcend site...
JetFlash 220 RecoverISP
JetFlash 220 Repartition Tool
JetFlash 220 Advanced Function
I'm guessing one, or both, of the later tools would help you remove the partition. Head over to http://www.transcendusa.com/Su...../DLCenter/ and toward the bottom of the page you can drill down by product, model, etc to find the download links.
Hey Dave - Thanks for that mate ....I really appreciate you having a dig round for me.
Problem is; these flash drives don't have any identifying numbers on them, no model numbers, nothing. All they have on them is "8GB" and "Transcend".....not much help!!!!!!
I downloaded the partition tool for the 220 (security) series but when I ran it the following message popped up..."Cannot locate the device". And yes, I did have the flash drive connected.
Also downloaded what looked like a pretty universal format tool but that didn't work either.
I'll have a look around and see if I can find freeware that will help me identify the exact model of the drive.....SIW didn't help.
Cheers, and thanks again,
Jim
You can remove SecureDrive CDFS partition by using a special tool which reprograms the microcontroller inside the USB Drive.
http://agnipulse.com/2011/08/remove-sec ... usb-drive/
Hey Bharat - Thank you for the reply and possible solution.....much appreciated.
Unfortunately it did not work, because I could not get the software to run. Downloaded the rar file from your site and unpacked using PeaZip. Ran the execute file as administrator but kept getting error message "AlcorMP MFC Application has stopped working------> Check online for solution and close the program/Close the program".
Downloaded and unpacked again, ran again, exact same result.
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Any ideas??
Cheers.....Jim
[b:3jzgy3mm]UPDATE[/b:3jzgy3mm]:
I am running Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) and Vista Home Premium (32-bit) in dual boot. So I booted to 32-bit Vista and tried running the execute file again.......same result, program just crashes and will not run.
This tool runs only in WIndows XP.
So try running it in xp compatibility mode.
Or try on a system running WIndows XP.
Also try downloading the official version from http://www.transcendusa.com/Products/on ... very_2.asp and see if it works.
UPDATE:
Try turning UAC off before running the tool.
Thanks again. Will try in XP compatibility mode.
I already tried with UAC turned off, didn't make any difference.
Also already tried with the official version from the Transcend site.....it ran okay but failed to detect the device.
Just had a thought; might have something to do with DEP, I've experienced program crashes because of DEP before. I'll try adding the program to DEP exceptions and see if that helps.
Cheers.....Jim
No, couldn't get it to work.
Tried everything now. No difference in XP compatibility mode. No difference when I added the executable to DEP exceptions.
Only think now is to try again on an XP machine. I'm not running XP myself any more, but I have access to plenty of friends and associates machines that are.
Thanks again.....Jim
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