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I have a 16GB USB Flash Drive that is partitioned into two different sizes. The first partition contains a bootable version of Ubuntu, the second partition is for general saving of files.

Windows will only recognise the first partition. I have tried using Bootice but this breaks the bootable partition. Disk Management recognises the second partition but does not allow me to do anything with it.

Is there a way to make both partitions accessible by Windows and keep the USB disk bootable?

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Same issue here. Disk Management shows the partition as unmounted without a drive letter assigned. Actioning "Change Drive Letter and Path" issues this error. No amount of refreshing changes anything. – invert Jul 17 '12 at 9:03
For completeness, can you post the output of df -Th /dev/sdaX (where X is your usb disk) to show the partition layout and file system types. thanks :-) – invert Jul 17 '12 at 9:06

2 Answers

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Windows does not allow you to see anything but the first partition on USB flash drives. This is a well known issue and Microsoft doesn't seem to be considering it a major issue. There is a firmware hack for some brands that will tell Windows the drive is not flash media, however doing this may cause performance/reliability problems.

It's a bummer.

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He could use gparted or similar to move the partitions around so that the first partition is no longer ubuntu but the is instead what is currently the second partition. – Matt H Sep 26 '12 at 22:49
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Windows might not be automatically assigning a drive letter to the second partition.

If the option is not greyed out, in Disk management,

  • Right click the partition, and click "Change Drive Letter and Paths"
  • Add a drive letter.

If this works, you should see the disk in My Computer

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