[How To] Partition a USB stick

[Dave Sell]

I'm working on a project that requires multiple logical drives to operate. I didn't make it; I inherited it.

I do most of my dev. on my laptop which obviously has 1 HD and normally only 1 partition. I don't have access to any 3rd party tools to resize my main NTFS partition safely, so I turned to mass removeable storage to host this odd project.

My normal partitioning utility is simply the Logical Disk Mangler tool. I got myself a 4GB Memorex Traveldrive and got ready to partition it into 2 Logical drives.

To my utter dismay and disbelief, LDM refused to Delete the main partition. This would be the obvious first step in creating 2 partitions on the flash drive.

Google led me to this poster:
http://www.techspot.com/vb/post391796-6.html

The result is great so far. After telling Windows to use the included .SYS driver, I can use my flash stick like a normal hard drive. I will abbreviate the posters instructions here:

1) Go here: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\USBSTOR

2) Copy and paste USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_Generic&Prod_STORAGE_DEVICE&Rev_9144 into notepad.

3) Edit cfadisk.inf - replace all lines like

%Microdrive_devdesc% = cfadisk_install

with

%Microdrive_devdesc% = cfadisk_install,USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_Generic&Prod_STORAGE_DEVICE&Rev_9144

4) Using Device Mangler, tell Windows to use the newly saved .INF file (Have Disk...), being sure to have the included .SYS file in the same folder.

After this procedure, I was able to delete the partition in LDM without rebooting, but since Windows asked to be rebooted so nicely, I oblidged it before doing any disk mangling operations.

After the obligatory reboot, I deleted the main partition and created 2 new ones (I formatted them as NTFS for funzies).

Only the 1st Partition is viewable on different computers, so I made a hidden directory called "Install" into which I placed the .INF and .SYS files. The same Driver Upgrade procedure must be followed to gain access to any other partitions created by the 1st computer. The 2nd computer cried out for a reboot, but it's really not necessary. I was able to see all my partitions right away.

Anyone know how to bundle all this into an Autorun.INF?

Dave