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Formatting MacBook Air Software Reinstall Drive

J

Jkarman8

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 13, 2007
5
0
So, I just received my new MacBook Air 11" and love it! Though I no longer want the USB Software Reinstall Drive to contain the 10.6 and iLife '11 and I am looking for a way to format the USB thumb drive into a usable flash drive. I tried using the disk utility, but it only sees the drive like a CD containing the information and not like a flash drive, eliminating the simple option to just use the disk utility to erase.

Hoping that someone can help me use this neat looking USB drive for something more than a piece of plastic I never pull back out of my box.

Thanks for the ideas in advance!
 
I'd give it a little longer, I'm sure someone will figure out what to do. However, you may be sorry if you ever need to reinstall your OS.
 
It's formatted to be read-only(unchangeable), so you're out of luck there. It is always a good idea to keep a restore disk (or drive in your case). Flash drives are pretty cheap, so if you need one, go pick up a 4GB drive for $20
 
Yeah, not too worried about the need for the restore drive, since my brother bought one at the same time; and I have multiple flash drives, but as nerdy as it may be, something about an Apple flash drive is pretty cool to me. I just figured since it was a flash drive, I'd be able to somehow format it, even though it is read-only, perhaps a third party program?
 
Jkarman8 said:
Yeah, not too worried about the need for the restore drive, since my brother bought one at the same time; and I have multiple flash drives, but as nerdy as it may be, something about an Apple flash drive is pretty cool to me. I just figured since it was a flash drive, I'd be able to somehow format it, even though it is read-only, perhaps a third party program?
Click to expand...

Let us know if you find a third party program to format the flash drive just curious if is possible.
 
The drive is definitely read-only and I haven't had much luck finding any programs that will be able to format it, any suggestions?
 
Jkarman8 said:
The drive is definitely read-only and I haven't had much luck finding any programs that will be able to format it, any suggestions?
Click to expand...

I doubt there ever will be a way around it. The read-only functionality is imbedded in the hardware. I've received similar write only flash drives containing promotional materials, and computers basically see them as CDs. I don't think you can bypass it.
 
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