Troubleshooting a memory stick

[mattmill30]

Hi Everyone,

This is a bit of a challenge, and is for interests sake, as opposed to recovering.

I've been given a memory stick which was from a bulk purchase, which doesn't work.

Apparently in windows, it detects a memory stick which is 8mb in size, perhaps a FAT related issue? (something tells me the minimum partition size when installing windows is 8mb)

Anyway, it should be a tad bigger, bordering 2 gig.

I was wondering what process i should take towards trying to make it work, or perhaps, how i could identify where the problem is? Hardware, etc.

I'm keen to learn about how to troubleshoot hardware, even if it involves working on a level where i need to learn about the usb standards or drivers and hardware addressing, etc.

Could anyone point me in the right direction of where to start looking? or perhaps about any debug tools that're available.

Any help is gratefully received and appreciated.

Thanks,

Matthew Millar

[oz]

Welcome to the forums!

If it were mine, I'd plug it in, then boot with the Parted Magic LiveCD. It has all kinds of diagnostic and recovery tools that might help you to determine any issues that might exist. There are other similar live disks that contain even more utilities should you need them, such as the SystemRescueCD.

[mattmill30]

Thanks ozar,

I'll give it a shot