Problem
When creating a bootable USB stick with Blancco USB Creator 2.3.0 and the "Format" option is selected, only a few megabytes of storage space is left on the USB device. This becomes a problem only if the USB stick is used to store data later on. It is quite common to use the bootable USB sticks also for saving Blancco erasure reports. A couple of megabytes provides plenty of report storage space, but for any other use a few megabytes of free space is not sufficient (for example storing Blancco ISO images).
If the USB stick needs to be used for other purposes than booting Blancco ISO images and the full storage space needs to be restored to the full capacity, this will require the use of DiskPart (Windows) or GParted (Linux).
Cause
During the bootable USB creation process, the USB media is re-partitioned to one partition. This partition is the same size as the files required by the Blancco software. Using the "Format" option has been known to minimize booting related issues with some systems.
Resolution
The first solution is "pre-emptive" and should be used if the USB stick is needed for storing larger amounts data than a few megabytes. The second solution is for "fixing" the USB device.
- Uncheck the "Format" box before running the bootable USB Creation (i.e. before clicking "Create").
- To restore the full storage capacity for a bootable USB stick, download either:
- DiskPart for Windows: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490893.aspx
- Follow the instructions on the DiskPart web site for using the software.
- GParted for Linux: http://gparted.org/
- Follow the instructions on the GParted web site for using the software.
- Blancco Removable Media Eraser: https://support.blancco.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=65755
- You can request an evaluation version of the software from Blancco Technical Support team.
- DiskPart for Windows: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490893.aspx