Format NI Flash Drive w/ LabVIEW and LabVIEW NXG for Use as Regular Storage

[beaverpelt]

So the NI 16 and 32GB drives were fixed by using the "Restore" function of UfixIII. Did you use "Format" or "Restore" on the Keysight drive?

I assume you can now read/write on demand, and they function as normal flash drives.

[Ben]

Disclaimer: I have only skimmed this thread...

I feel obliged to point out this is  major disaster waiting to happen. How do we KNOW that software is to be trusted and does not in itself interject malware.

Stuxnet may have come in on a thumb drive.

"Just because I am paranoid does not mean that there is not someone out to get me!"

Ben

[beaverpelt]

Let me make sure I have this right:

So restore and format did not work correctly on both teardrop-shaped drives. However, the 16GB metallic, rectangular one did work as expected with UFix III doing a restore, then format. I assume read/write works even when it is removed and reinserted.

Then you found that you can write and format the teardrop ones just fine after executing a "restore" but this fails when the drive is unplugged and plugged back in. It is necessary to do the restore again to make it work. Is this right?

[beaverpelt]

Can you back up your suspicions? And can you recommend a way to check for malware? Why the reference to Stuxnet? Please be helpful here, otherwise we'll imagine you're wearing a tinfoil hat.

[Ben]

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@beaverpelt wrote:

Can you back up your suspicions? And can you recommend a way to check for malware? Why the reference to Stuxnet? Please be helpful here, otherwise we'll imagine you're wearing a tinfoil hat.

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No I can not back up my suspicions.

No I can not suggest how to check for malware in the driver code loaded to the drive.

Stuxnet snuck into the PLCs used by Iran and attacked the motor drive logic that ran the centrifuges above rated specs while indicating they were running at normal speed. It was a wicked clever attack if you ask  me.

I do where a tin foil hat and I look rather dashing in it if you ask me.

Ben

[beaverpelt]

Got it, thanks. 😉 FYI, PNY is an American company, and the link provided for the software has a Taiwanese suffix. Judge from that what you will.

[Hooovahh]

Okay so to summarize, the 16GB that has the rectangular brushed aluminum was fixed by using the Restore, then Format option on UFix III.  Very happy that I have a good working 16GB drive to repurpose.

The tear drop shaped metallic (maybe steel?) 16GB works once.  After performing the Restore I can write to it all I want, until it is unplugged.  After that the files I wrote will remain but I cannot write to the drive again.  I haven't tested the 64GB version, and I have another 16GB version that I likely broke messing around with it.

As for the tin foil hat.  Ben is likely more paranoid that he needs to be, and I'm likely not paranoid enough.  While the software does look a bit shady, I took some solace in knowing it came from the official website, using https, and the site was registered in 1995.  The previously mentioned MPALL software off of a Russian public forum is a much less trusted resource.  And had Ben mentioned anything on those links I would agree with him.  I still downloaded them and played around with trying to restore these drives, but I'd agree with him that it is untested.

[Bob_Schor]

I'm surprised that this thread is still active!  Here is my $0.02 (a.k.a. Two Cents):

• The Thumb Drives in question are difficult to rewrite/repurpose -- there is reason to believe that this is by design.
• There may be software (of dubious origin, unknown providence, and unknown "cleanliness") that might allow overwriting (once? temporarily?) the contents of the Thumb Drive.
• Reliable Thumb Drives designed for use as R/W "reusable" drives are relatively inexpensive and provide no known danger to the User (until, of course, it fails, but that's why we have Backups).

So Why Bother?  How can you justify the Risk/Reward Ratio?

What I think would be useful (and I might be tempted to try this, myself) is a set of instructions on how to create a USB Thumb Drive that functions as an NI Software Distribution set.  Back in the Day, we got CD/DVD "Kits" consisting of 6-10 disks that had LabVIEW and supporting Files.  A few years ago, these got replaced with a set of USB Read-Only Thumb Drives (I think there were several "flavors" of Drive, with the largest containing almost everything except Mac/Linux).  Now, there seems to be some push to "do it all with Downloads" (which works fine for an N = 1 where you know in advance just what you want, but is otherwise a pain).  Being able to download everything and get a "Setup" that will let you pick and choose, with subsequent Activation governed by your License code, would be a Good Thing to have.

Bob Schor

[Hooovahh]

It's fine if you have this opinion of "why bother", but these types of posts don't really add anything to the conversation.  We are already quite aware of the points you made, but repurposing hardware to my liking brings a satisfaction of less E-waste, and more usefulness at no extra cost.  My time in this is pretty minimal, and done on my free time as a hobby.  There are dedicated forums repurposing old jeans into other things like a bag.  Personally I think buying a bag, or using a single use bag that I have too many of is a better use.  Still I'd rather not waste my time going to these forums and telling people to just buy a bag.  They have a hobby involving sewing machines and other things I'm not good at, and have no interest in, so I just leave them alone.  It brings them joy, and is a hobby so let them have their fun.  I don't mean to offend, and I know where you are coming from, I just wanted to give a different perspective on maybe why there is a conversation about this topic.

As shown by Chrisrobbins, if you have a brushed aluminium NI thumb drive, just run this one program to turn it into a usable USB drive.  Takes probably a minute to download, and a minute to run.  Pretty easy and fast to me.

[beaverpelt]

Thank you Hooovahh, for expanding on my previous thoughts. That's why we're here in the first place.

I must have done something wrong with my 32GB brushed rectangular USB drive, because I'm pretty sure I bricked it. Used Ufix III to restore, which seemed to work, then got a dialogue box that said "Don't forget to plug/unplug before next use!" or something like that. Then I unplugged it and attempted a reformat from the windows 7 right click menu on the flash drive. This didn't work, and just gave me the same old "disk is write protected" error message. Anyway, I tried redoing it all again ONLY in Ufix, but the machine doesn't recognize the disk anymore.

Did I do it wrong? Should I have moved right to the "format" button within Ufix III somehow immediately after the "restore" completed?