Utility to flip removable media bit?

I was wondering is there was a utility that would flip the removable media bit on SanDisk flash drives.  I have a dozen 32GB SanDisk Cruzers that I would like to be able to use for Windows System Images.  The problem is that Windows will not create a backup image on or restore an image from a removable device.  I know I could probably purchase a 3rd party backup program like Ghost or Arconis that would be able to use a flash drive fine, but that is unfortunately not really an option.  I have tried the Lexar utility but it does not work on these drives.  Also since I need this in a recovery environment using a filter driver to trick Windows is not really an option… Unless someone has detailed instructions on how to add those drivers to the Windows recovery environment.

Thanks for any help,

Chris

Well I wasn’t able to find a utility, but I did manageto find a solution.

First download the cfadisk driver and follow the instructions here.  This will allow you to replace the driver for that particular USB drive so the system will see it as a local disk and allow you to make a backup image on it.

Then you need to add the drivers to the boot.wim following these instructions.  There are small issues though, the first is that the drivers aren’t sign so they will not be used by default.  This problem can be solved by adding the " /ForceUnsigned" flag.  The second issue is that there are two images in the boot.wim, you need to add the driver to both by changing the index from 1 to 2.

After that you can restore from the flash drive because the recovery environment will use the drivers you added to the boot.wim by default and see any keys of the same model as local disks.

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I would like to partition a 16 GB Scan Disk into 4 divisions, 3 or 4 ?  partitions.

The purpose is to enable access to 4 virtual devices whose size is limited to 4 GB each for access an use by Ebooster for virtual memory.

Windows systems only recognize the 1st partition on Removable drives so you have IMO two options: 1. boot a Live Linux system and use it’s apps to partition the drive (Parted Magic is good), 2. buy one of the newer flash drives that is configured as Fixed, you should then be able to use a tool like DISKPART or DiskPartitioner to configure it. 

I find two utilities for that, none of them work on my old SanDisk 0.5G CF card (SDCFH-512) or on my SanDisk Extreme PRO 32G CF card (SDCFXPS-032G), connected to the PATA interface by DeLock 91620 adapter.

1 - BootIt v1.07:

http://www.getusb.info/flip-your-bit-usb-utility-to-make-local-drive/

It claim to flip the bit, but it did not do a thing on my DeLock 91620 PATA to CF card interface:

http://imgh.us/Flipping_removable_bit_not_working.png

2 - atcfwchg.com

http://www.ehow.com/how_7811193_set-cf-card-fixed-mode.html

Using atcfwchg /P /F it should switch the bit to “fixed” on primary PATa device, but it give me back for both mentioned cards this:

 D:\>ATCFWCHG /P /F

NAND Athens ID Drive Config Word (Fixed/Removable) Change Utility Version 1.4.
Fail (error #20)
D:\>

If they help someone - I would be happy. Did not work for me. Anyone have something for the SanDisk Extreme PRO 32G CF card (SDCFXPS-032G)…?