Hello everybody,

I am using a 4 GB CompctFlash in a small computer system instead of a HDD. Everything works fine.
The the system crashed (problkem of the operating system) and I wanted to reinstall everything. But the CompactFlash is not accessible anymore.

Windows says, it is a 128 GB Card (not true). If I want to format it, it does not work (of course, Windows expects 128 GB, but there are just 4 GB).
So, the Card can not even "remember" how much memory it has...

I tried to perform a LowLevelFormat with the tool on this website. The card was identified as "137,43 GB". The LowLevelFormat was done without any errors. But then still the same: I can nou use the card.

Is there a possibility, to set the card back to a working state?
I think, there is a memory inside, which tells the controller how big is the capacity - and this data seems to be corrupted.

Thank you for your help!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/8GB-8G-TRANSCEND- ... 439d0b8a24

You CF card is "kaput"

You can open it and all you will see is one main chip and some array of chips. There is not much todo in there.

This is a common problem on heavily used flash devices (except new SSD's specially designed for heavy use)

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You are right, if flash devices are used heavily over a long period, they can be destroyed, of course.
But the system was used just for two days and the CF card was new. Also the identifier (formerly "SMI-Model") shows now "SMI-xcbxyncb". So it seems that the model identifier and the capacaty identifier is simply overwritten by accident.
Because of the short uptime I dont think that the CF card is physically broken. Also I have done a check of the card before using (it was no "fake flash")...

These things cannot be overwritten by accident.
I am sure it could be fixed by somebody who knows how to reprogram that type of controller.

But easiest route now is send back under warranty or buy new one.

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Thank you for this information! So it means, that these data (capacity and identifier) are not stored in the main flash memory but directly in the controller eeprom?

If this is a fact, then the problem was not caused by the crashed system. In this case I can use warranty, right.
I just dont want to use warranty if it was my fault caused by the crashed system.

It was not your fault. It has become defective while normal operation.
So send it for warranty

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It seems that the unluckiest people in the world are those that don't backup.
Free Solutions
Picasaweb- Pictures and movies | Dropbox - Documents and other..