HDD GURU FORUMS

So I have two of these PQI sticks that are a few years old. each 1gb in size. They come with some software that allows you to have a "protected" section of the drive. As near as I can tell, it alters the MBR to define two partitions, and hides one of them. Only after running the software and punching in the password, does the USB drive re-mount, and expose the "secure" partition.

The problem is this was back when Windows XP was popular. They haven't released new versions of this product nor updated the software to work with Windows 7. So now I have a drive w/ a secure area that I can't get to, and one where the main area is less than the full size (I had it divvied up to 512mb and 512mb).

I no longer care about the secure data, I just want the partition table / MBR / whatever set back to the way it came from the factory so I can have all 1gb of available space.

I've tried the tools on this site:
Find and Mount
Capacity Restore
Low Level Format
HDD Wipe

all to no avail

I've also tried to simply use the Disk Management tools in Windows 7 to see if the partition would show up and i could delete them and re-define one for the whole drive, but the "hidden" partition doesn't even show as part of the drive.

Any suggestions? again, I care nothing about the existing data on the drive, or in the secure (hidden) partition that I can no longer access.

bc3tech wrote:As near as I can tell, it alters the MBR to define two partitions, and hides one of them.

FYI, that isn't how this type of "secure" USB stick partitioning system works. That is why...

bc3tech wrote:I've also tried to simply use the Disk Management tools in Windows 7 to see if the partition would show up and i could delete them and re-define one for the whole drive, but the "hidden" partition doesn't even show as part of the drive.

... exactly. That shows you that this is not as simple as just an MBR change.

bc3tech wrote:Any suggestions?

I don't use Windows normally, but in your specific situation, where you have the USB sticks & unlocking software, and you explain that your PC (running Win7) isn't compatible with the (WinXP) unlocking software, I suggest that the easiest thing for you is to find a WinXP PC, since the unlocking software will work there - friends, old internet cafes, a retired PC from your workplace etc. would be the sort of places I'd think of looking for WinXP PCs. (Also, there is also the MS "Windows XP Mode" Virtual PC which can be installed on some versions of Windows 7.)

I know it would be nice to be able to use the full capacity of the sticks, but since you mention that you're only going to gain 512MB per stick (the size of protected area), and considering the low cost of current larger USB sticks, this doesn't seem to be worth much time/effort... Good luck, whatever you decide to do.

Try right-clicking on the program and selecting "run as administrator"

if right click run as administrator don't work. go into properties of the file and have it run in Windows XP mode. Usually you need to do both in some cases.