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How To Format / Unlock / Delete A Clickfree External Portable USB Hard Drive CDFS Partition
By Paul Rudoff on Jun. 23, 2020 at 3:27 PM in Public Service Articles
On Saturday June 20, 2020, I bought an open-box unused Clickfree Plus C2 2-Terabyte USB 3.0 external portable hard drive at a yard sale for the whopping sum of $2.00. (The drive has a model number of CA3C20-2CBK9-F2S and a UPC number of 817048015947, and based on the copyright date on the bottom of the box, it was manufactured in 2014 by Storage Appliance Corporation.) I had never heard of the Clickfree brand before, but I could not pass up buying a 2TB hard drive for two bucks. The box heavily promoted the product's easy automatic backup feature, but I figured that was just some software on the drive that I could easily delete. How wrong I was...
- Clickfree Hard Drives, Clickfree External Hard Disk Drives, Backup and Recovery Software, Clickfree Internal Hard Disk Drives, Seagate Backup Plus, Backup and Recovery Software for Windows, Backup and Recovery Software for Mac, HP Backup and Recovery Software, Seagate Backup Plus 1tb, Linux Backups&Recoveries Software.
- Clickfree automatically backs up every Windows or Mac computer with no software to install or setup. Includes photo viewer, Windows 7 migration, iPod, iPad, iPhone music sharing, Facebook integration and a built-in DVD archiving tool, Clickfree is much more than just another backup hard drive.
You see, the thing I quickly learned about this drive is that is doesn't work like any other external USB hard drive. With other drives, you plug them into your computer, Windows recognizes it as a hard drive and installs the drivers, and then you can immediately copy files onto it from any program. Storage Appliance Corporation didn't want people to be able to use their Clickfree drives like normal hard drives. They wanted to force users to use their included 'easy automatic backup' software. That's great for computer newbies, I guess, but not for the rest of us.
Clickfree is a software application that provides users with a simple means of backing up important information to external data devices, so that.
They accomplished this by having the drive trick Windows into thinking that's it's a CD-ROM drive by showing a CDFS partition as the primary data storage on the drive. Due to this, you will not be able to re-partition the drive because that read-only CDFS partition isn't a 'hard drive', but rather a 'CD-ROM drive', and thus won't be seen by any Windows partition programs. (Maybe it can be re-partitioned in DOS, but I never tried.)
Thankfully, I found an old Windows Secrets forum post (now Ask Woody) written by Hayel2ko on January 29, 2012 at 4:24 pm. The post, which is reprinted below with a couple of additions and corrections from me, gives detailed instructions on how to re-flash the hard drive so that Windows can see it as a hard drive and not as a CD-ROM drive.
THIS ONLY WORKS FOR CERTAIN CLICKFREE DRIVES. IT WILL NOT WORK FOR ALL OF THEM! DO NOT E-MAIL ME ASKING FOR HELP. I DID NOT WRITE THIS INFORMATION AND I HAVE ONLY DONE THIS ONCE WITH THE ONE SPECIFIC DRIVE NOTED AT THE TOP OF THIS ARTICLE.
Gparted and other third-party Windows partitioning software, such as EaseUs and Partition Magic, WILL NOT WORK!!!!!!!!
These software programs will not work because the CDFS partition is in a write protected chip (NAND) and it is impossible to erase. THIS MEANS THE HARD DRIVE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS! Before proceeding with removing the CDFS Partition, I will not take any responsibility of whatever happens, IT IS ALL ON YOU!!!!!!!!! YOU WERE WARNED
THIS METHOD IS GOING TO TURN YOUR HARD DRIVE TO A RAW FORMAT AND THAT MEANS YOUR DATA WILL BE GONE SO PLEASE BACKUP THE DATA ON YOUR COMPUTER
The PRO about this fix is that the CDFS will be removed and the CON is that the LED FROM THE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE WILL NOT WORK (THE HARD DRIVE IS STILL FUNCTIONAL). I DO NOT KNOW WHY THIS HAPPENS. IF YOU CARE ABOUT THE FLASHING LIGHT, DO NOT PROCEED WITH THIS FIX!
IF YOU ARE AN EXTREME RISK TAKER OR REALLY DESPERATE, PROCEED WITH THE FIX, BUT I STRONGLYRECOMMEND THAT YOU RETURN THE HARD DRIVE AND BUY A GENERIC EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE!
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1. Download the JMS-539/551 Series controllers USB2/3 & Sata Firmwares - Version 255.31.3.41.22 (517 Mb, self-extracting 7zip). (This file can also be downloaded from the Internet Archive, and was originally available on Station-Drivers.com.)
2. Extract the file to a folder. (Recommended that you make one)
3. Go to your folder where you extracted the files and run the FwUpdateTool. There are two versions included: 'FwUpdateTool_v1_16_00_T2.exe' and 'FwUpdateTool_v1_17_06.exe'. I don't think it matters which one you use, but I went with the newer one (v1.17.06).
4. In the FwUpdateTool program, select the Clickfree backup drive next to USB DISK.
5. If you see JMS539 next to 'Chip', keep proceeding with the steps. IF YOU SEE SOMETHING ELSE, DO NOT PROCEED WITH THE STEP OTHERWISE YOU WILL BRICK YOUR EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE.
6. Select the firmware file by clicking load file and selecting the 'JMS539_PM_255.31.3.41.22.BIN' file from the ones you extracted. The other two files ('JMS551_v31.0.6.0.13_SleepMode.BIN' and 'JMS551_v31.8.6.0.13_NoSleepMode.BIN') are likely for the JMS551 chipset, and should be ignored.
6A. AGAIN, I WILL NOT TAKE ANY RESPONSIBILITY OF WHAT EVER HAPPENS TO YOUR EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE AND AGAIN IT IS ALL ON YOU.
7. Click on Run, and when it says Programming Succeed (or something like that), disconnect the Clickfree hard drive and re-connect it.
NOTE: Even though the FwUpdateTool program said that my 2TB drive had the JMS539 chipset, it said that the firmware file did not match the chip, which caused me great worry. Then I remembered that I only spent TWO DOLLARS on the drive, so if I ended up bricking it, I would not have been at much of a loss. I proceeded anyway, and got the message saying that it was successful.
7A. So what we did with the Clickfree Hard Drive is that we programmed the JMS539 Bridge controller to bridge the connection directly to the hard drive and not to the Nand Chip that carries the CDFS partition.
8. Now go to device manager (Start -> Control Panel -> Device Manager) and if you see another hard drive that you never saw before, you finished Part I of this method.
NOTE: When I re-plugged the 2TB drive back in, Windows recognized it as a 'TOSHIBA MQ01ABB200 USB Device' in Device Manager -> Disc Drives.
9. Now for Part II. If you don't see the external hard drive on Computer or My Computer, DO NOT PANIC. This is because your External Hard Drive is not formatted and doesn't have a drive letter.
10. What I strongly recommend for formatting an external hard drive is to use a Linux Distro, GParted. However, if you want to use a third-party formatting tool or use disk management, you can proceed with that. If you want to use my recommendation, here is the link to the iso. Click on the Live CD/USB tab to guide you putting the iso on a cd or usb.
NOTE: Although I already have a copy of Gparted, I just rebooted using my copy of the Hirem Boot Disc and then re-formatted/re-partitioned the drive using the Disc Genius program that's on it.
11. I will not provide steps on how to boot the cd/usb and how to format the Clickfree hard drive.
12. After you formatted the external hard drive, you are officially done.
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For users that didn't get JMS539 next to 'Chip', you will have to open the external hard drive enclosure and find the sata controller chip, write down the model number and use that to find yourself a solution because you can't always depend on the internet on something like this. You have to start doing things by yourself, and again, it's not my responsibility if you screw up your external hard drive.
Don't expect to get any help from Storage Appliance Corporation. They seem to be out of business, since the Clickfree.com website, and the Storage-Corp.com company website, both point to something else entirely. The Clickfree Twitter account hasn't been updated since 2013, which is another sign that they are no more. Even if they were in business, I can't imagine them helping anyone defeat their own 'copy-protection scheme'.
Anyway, at this point in time, I would really suggest that unless you find one of these Clickfree drives for less than five Dollars, don't bother buying one - assuming you don't want the automatic backup feature, that is. You're taking a BIG chance on whether it's a drive that can be unlocked or not using the above technique, and a regular Toshiba 2TB external portable hard drive isn't very expensive these days, so why go through all of this Clickfree hassle if you don't have to? :-)
Clickfree Updates
Clickfree is a pretty handy solution for providing an easy way to backup content. We wrote about them awhile back. They've announced some updates. The latest new Clickfree products unveiled at CES 2009 include:
* Clickfree 1 Terabyte Backup Drive: The 1 TB Clickfree Backup Drive is an innovative computer backup device that’s perfect for small and medium enterprises or home offices where users need to backup multiple computers. Based on a larger 3.5-inch hard drive, the 1 Terabyte Clickfree Backup Drive is the latest addition to the hard drive-based Clickfree lineup. As expected with all Clickfree products, there is no need to install or configure any software. Just connect the device to a USB port and it does the rest. The backup application starts automatically, searching and backing up data without requiring any user interaction. The drive stores 220,000 songs, 440,000 photos, and over 2 million documents. Retail price is $249.99.
* Clickfree Transformer USB Cable: Convert any external hard drive into a Clickfree backup drive. There’s no need for any backup software - just plug the Transformer Cable into your PC and plug any size of external hard drive from any manufacturer into the other end of the Transformer. The Clickfree backup application will automatically start, search the computer, organize and backup all of your important data onto the external hard drive. As expected with Clickfree, there is no software to install or set up and over 400 file types are automatically backed up. Use one Clickfree Transformer with many 2.5” or 3.5” external hard drives, giving them all Clickfree simplicity. Retail price is $59.99.
* Clickfree Transformer Combo with 320GB hard drive: The Clickfree Transformer can convert any external hard drive into a Clickfree backup device. For those customers that may not have an external hard drive, Clickfree has bundled one with their Transformer cable. There’s no need for any backup software - just plug the Transformer Cable into your PC and plug the included hard drive (or any other external hard drive) into the other end of the Transformer and backup will automatically start. Retail price with a 320GB hard drive is $189.99.
* DataGuard Clickfree DVDs: Clickfree DVDs are perfect for single use scenarios where data needs to be backed up for archival purposes. The incorporated backup application and DVD burning software make the entire backup process a breeze. Triple Guard Protection feature provides extra security from scratches, blemishes and dust. Retail price is $19.99 for a package of 5 DVDs.
* Total Backup Clickfree DVDs: Now one Clickfree DVD will backup all content types. For customers that want to backup all of their content to DVD, the new Total Backup Clickfree DVD is perfect. The incorporated backup application and DVD burning software make the entire process a breeze. Clickfree Total Backup DVDs automatically back up over 400 file types to cover every office, e-mail, photo and music application. Retail price is $14.99 for a package of 5 DVDs.
Advanced new Clickfree product features unveiled at CES 2009 included:
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* Mac Support: Clickfree products are now Mac compatible. Simply plug any Mac- supported Clickfree product into a USB connection and Clickfree does the rest. Mac requirements: MacOS X 10.5 Leopard, Intel Processor, 100 MB of free space.
* Restore Data by Category and to original locations: Completely revamped restore feature now lets you restore files by category, such as Photos. The application will also automatically restore all files to their original locations on the computer without the user having to know anything more about them.
* Migration: Save valuable time and avoid hassles when moving data from one PC to another - just use the new restore tool integrated into Clickfree products. The migration tool supports migration from Windows XP to Windows Vista and Windows Vista to Windows XP-based computers. MS Outlook is fully supported by the restore tool. Backup e-mail from one PC and restore it to another instantly, even backup files from a PC and restore to a Mac.
* Instant Uploading of Photos to Facebook, MySpace and more: Clickfree now comes with integrated support to upload photos to networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.
* Integrated Music Player: Listen to music directly from the backup application. No need to restore the files to a PC or to launch another application just to listen to a tune. The integrated music player is built into the backup application for your convenience.
Thumbnail View for Video: With built-in thumbnail view, identify and select your videos, click the restore button and you are done!
* Reminder: Clickfree software now includes a backup reminder application that can be configured to remind users by week or month.
Password protection: ClickFree devices and content are now protected by a password to maximize security of data.
Clickfree products coming in 2009 and being presented at CES 2009 for the first time include:
* Clickfree Online Backup: Never lose another document again, knowing that even in the worst case scenario, your precious data is safely stored off-site. Clickfree Online Backup ushers in a new age in data protection and file recovery by offering the easiest online backup ever. Users can backup multiple computers, have flexible scheduling options, can access their data from anywhere and share files and folders, with support for over 400 different file types.
* Clickfree Flash Backup: This ultra portable, credit card-sized flash memory-based backup solution goes with you everywhere; as expected from Clickfree, it requires no software installation or hardware configuration to start the backup process. Just plug it into a USB port on your computer and it does the rest.
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