Non-destructive fdisk working with USB sticks?

[Peter Frank]

Hi,

I am looking for a non-destructive fdisk or similar tool that allows
me to re-create a partition table without doing anything to the rest
of the storage media.

For this particular case (damaged/destroyed partition table on a USB
stick), it should also work with USB sticks.

I heard Linux fdisk can do this, but I would much prefer a DOS or
Windows tool - or a Linux-based tool with a GUI. I just don't like
working under the Linux console.

Peter

 

[Arno Wagner]

Hi,

I am looking for a non-destructive fdisk or similar tool that allows
me to re-create a partition table without doing anything to the rest
of the storage media.

For this particular case (damaged/destroyed partition table on a USB
stick), it should also work with USB sticks.

I heard Linux fdisk can do this,

Yes, definitively.

but I would much prefer a DOS or Windows tool - or a Linux-based
tool with a GUI. I just don't like working under the Linux console.

Hmm. The problem with cfdisk (has a Curses-Gui) is that it
has very strange output, as it counts individual sectors.
I don;t think there is any other non-commandline partitioner
for Linux.

Do you have the original partition information? If so,
you should choose a tool that allows you to enter it in
the format you have it. Most likely fdisk will be what you
want.

If you do not know exactly where your partitions are, you
are stuck with something like GNU parted anyways, since it
has a function to find partitions that have been deleted.

Whatever you do, make a sector-image of the stick first,
so that you have a backup copy. You can do that e.g. with
cat or dd_rescue. Method:

cat /dev/<memorystick> > image

or

dd_rescue /dev/<memorysick> image

You can also make multiple copies, use the device-mapper
to map one and partition the image-file.

I would advise that you try to get over the aversion to
the commandline. GUIs are necessarily limited in what they
allow you to do and often targetted at an audience that is
willing to pay for even simple functionality as you need,
hence often non-free.

Arno

 

[Eric Gisin]

mbrwiz from mbr.bigr.net. DOS or Win 2K/XP.

 

[dew]

Yes, definitively.


Hmm. The problem with cfdisk (has a Curses-Gui) is that it
has very strange output, as it counts individual sectors.
I don;t think there is any other non-commandline partitioner
for Linux.

Do you have the original partition information? If so,
you should choose a tool that allows you to enter it in
the format you have it. Most likely fdisk will be what you
want.

If you do not know exactly where your partitions are, you
are stuck with something like GNU parted anyways, since it
has a function to find partitions that have been deleted.

Whatever you do, make a sector-image of the stick first,
so that you have a backup copy. You can do that e.g. with
cat or dd_rescue. Method:

cat /dev/<memorystick> > image

or

dd_rescue /dev/<memorysick> image

You can also make multiple copies, use the device-mapper
to map one and partition the image-file.

I would advise that you try to get over the aversion to the commandline.
GUIs are necessarily limited in what they allow you to do

Oh bullshit. Any decent GUI allows you to
do anything any command line ute can do.

Its just a matter of where you enter the parameters, stupid.

 

[Jan van Wijk]

I am looking for a non-destructive fdisk or similar tool that allows
me to re-create a partition table without doing anything to the rest
of the storage media.


For this particular case (damaged/destroyed partition table on a USB
stick), it should also work with USB sticks.

I heard Linux fdisk can do this, but I would much prefer a DOS or
Windows tool - or a Linux-based tool with a GUI. I just don't like
working under the Linux console.

DFSee could do that (I often use it with memory sticks)

It actually comes in all the versions you mention, each with
the same windowed text-mode interface.

The DOS most likely will access the USB stick when using
the drivers (as supplied in the bootable diskette/CD) and
the Windows one will certainly be able to access it ...

It is not freeware though, however, the evaluation download
is fully functional (no crippleware so you can see if it
fits your problem ...

It includes some analysis functionality too, to find remains
of partition tables, bootsectors and such ...

Regards, JvW

 

[Arno Wagner]

Oh bullshit. Any decent GUI allows you to
do anything any command line ute can do.

That is what most people afraid of commandlines believe. Unfortunately
it is completely untrue. Habe a look at the relevant research.

Its just a matter of where you enter the parameters, stupid.

Stupid yourself, thank you very much. Unless you suggest embedding
a commandline into a GUI? Then it is still a commandline....

Arno

 

[Quaoar]

Hi,

I am looking for a non-destructive fdisk or similar tool that allows
me to re-create a partition table without doing anything to the rest
of the storage media.

For this particular case (damaged/destroyed partition table on a USB
stick), it should also work with USB sticks.

I heard Linux fdisk can do this, but I would much prefer a DOS or
Windows tool - or a Linux-based tool with a GUI. I just don't like
working under the Linux console.

Peter

Most USB flash memory is formatted FAT, so whatever you use has to honor
that format.

Q

 

[dew]

That is what most people afraid of commandlines believe. Unfortunately
it is completely untrue. Habe a look at the relevant research.

Taint got a damned thing to do with research. Its obviously
possible to design a gui so that whatever parameters are
used with a command line can be entered into the gui.

AND the big advantage with a gui is that its a lot easier
to display the data in alternative formats where it can be
edited directly in the display of the data and validated
as the user moves out of that field etc.

An absolutely classic example of that is the original Norton's
Disk Edit which allows the first physical sector of the drive to
be displayed in a variety of formats, including partition table
format, and allows the partition table entrys to be directly
edited in that format. Leaves a command line for dead.

Stupid yourself, thank you very much. Unless you
suggest embedding a commandline into a GUI?

Nope, just including PARAMETERS in the gui.

One obvious example is with an imager. Perfectly viable
to allow the user to specify the size of the chunks that
the image file should be chopped up into and whether to
chop at all or not, in the gui. In spades with the basic
stuff like whether the MBR and track 1 are written to a
physical drive when an image of a physical drive is
restored to a physical drive etc.

Completely trivial to specify the location of
a partition when restoring with a gui too.

Then it is still a commandline....

Wrong. Have a look at Norton's Disk Edit or True Image some
time. Both have MORE power than a command line ute.

 

[Arno Wagner]

Taint got a damned thing to do with research. Its obviously
possible to design a gui so that whatever parameters are
used with a command line can be entered into the gui.

That is exactly wrong, unless the problem area is near and exactly
specified. And you need one GUI per problem area. You just need one
commandline for whatever you want to do. And there are text UIs,
that work very well together with commandlines. Incidentially
Linux fdisk in interactive mode is not a commandline tool. It
is menu-driven.

But please, keep your illusions.

Arno

 

[dew]

That is exactly wrong, unless the problem area is near and exactly specified.

Wrong, as always.

And you need one GUI per problem area.

Wrong, as always. Most obviously with the Disk Edit GUI.

You've clearly never seen a decent GUI app.

You just need one commandline for whatever you want to do.
Irrelevant.

And there are text UIs, that work very well together with commandlines.

A decent GUI works a lot better, essentially because
you dont need a separate manual for a decent GUI,
all the documentation you need should be in the app.

Incidentially Linux fdisk in interactive mode
is not a commandline tool. It is menu-driven.

Irrelevant to what is being discussed.

But please, keep your illusions.

Never ever could bullshit its way out of a wet paper bag.

 

[news.rcn.com]

I wonder whether what this guy is asking is the question I asked some time
ago to which no one seemed to know the answer at that stage: Namely what one
can do with USB flash memory drives which have stopped working.

I have been following a thread on a SysAdmin newsgroup on which no one
seemed to know the question either. But it seems it MAY be something to do
with the mbr or partition table (or whatever they use) becoming corrupted if
you take them out of PCs without formally disconnecting them through the
software first. [though I do have ONE which has never worked on USB 1.0 and
which now of course wont work with 2.0 either]

Has anyone figured this one out yet? Although they do sometimes
mysteriously spring to life, they wont read, format, - obviously write or do
anything else. And in the bargain, some of mine actually stop windows
explorer from opening while the system tries to figure out what to do with
this storage medium which doesn't seem to have a function but which seems
windows explorer should show.

 

[news.rcn.com]

DFSee could do that (I often use it with memory sticks)

Seems like a good idea Jan, though for this purpose it is exceptionally
expensive, costing about the same as the average USB drive itself!

But I tried it on my non-working flash memory USB drives (see earlier post)
and it doesnt seem to be able to see or identify these drives at all
anywhere on the screen.

In any event, it's bafflingly clunky interface certainly solves the argument
currently going on in this thread between those who like command lines and
those who prefer GUIs!!