Thumb drive with weird partition

  • Thread starter Thread starter JimR
  • Start date Start date
J

JimR

At my computer club meeting, we got 512 MB thumb drive handouts from
Microsoft. It included 2 partitions, one of 415 MB with normal write
capability, but the other is 74 MB that is filled with read-only
Microsoft marketing propaganda that tells me why I want Vista. I'd
really like to get that 74 MB back so that I could have a normal, full
size 512 MB contiguous thumb drive. I run Linux, and really do *not
want Vista*.

If I try to delete the files, it tells me that it is a Read-only File
System.

If I try to fsck.ext2 the partition, it tells me Read-only file system.

If I try to remount it rw, it gives no error, but when I try to delete
or format, I once again get the R/O file system error.

If I try to cfdisk on this partition, it shows
"Opened disk read-only - you have no permission to write"

Here are the two filesystems listed in /etc/mtab
/dev/sr1 /media/MYCD_VOL iso9660
ro,nosuid,nodev,noatime,uhelper=hal,uid=500,utf8 0 0
/dev/sdc1 /media/disk vfat
rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,uhelper=hal,flush,uid=500,utf8,shortname=lower 0 0

Note that the problematic one has references to it being an iso9660 CD.

If I remount it rw, this is how it shows in mtab
/dev/sr1 /media/MYCD_VOL iso9660 rw 0 0
but as I said, I still cannot write/delete/format.

Does anybody have any good ideas for this one?

Thansks,

JimR
 
JimR said:
At my computer club meeting, we got 512 MB thumb drive handouts from
Microsoft. It included 2 partitions, one of 415 MB with normal write
capability, but the other is 74 MB that is filled with read-only
Microsoft marketing propaganda that tells me why I want Vista. I'd
really like to get that 74 MB back so that I could have a normal, full
size 512 MB contiguous thumb drive. I run Linux, and really do *not
want Vista*.
Click to expand...

Copy any files on the stick you want to save to your harddrive, then use
gparted (or another partitioning program) to repartition the drive.
 
["Followup-To:" header set to comp.os.linux.setup.]
If I try to cfdisk on this partition, it shows
"Opened disk read-only - you have no permission to write"
Click to expand...
You have to run *fdisk as root, and you have to run it on the whole
drive, not a partition. In this case I think it would be /dev/sdc.
(That could change if you unplug the USB drive and plug it in again.)
It would be a good idea to unmount both partitions before running
cfdisk.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys.

To Propman - cfdisk *is* a partitioning tool. It at least recognizes
the /dev/sr1 partition. gparted doesn't even list it as being an option.

To Bill. Yes, I *am* running as root, and both partitions are unmounted
when I try to partition them. When I run against /dev/sdc, it only
lists the sdc1 partition with 434 MB. It makes no mention of the other
77 MB that I am trying to reclaim. I cannot find that there is any
higher-level partition that list both of the lower ones.

Here is a list output from fdisk.

[root@kd1yv6 ~]# fdisk -l /dev/sdc

Disk /dev/sdc: 434 MB, 434372608 bytes
16 heads, 32 sectors/track, 1657 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 512 * 512 = 262144 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x91f72d24

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 1657 424176 b W95 FAT32


[root@kd1yv6 ~]# fdisk -l /dev/sr1
Note: sector size is 2048 (not 512)

Disk /dev/sr1: 77 MB, 77594624 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 2048 = 32901120 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/sr1 doesn't contain a valid partition table

And before somebody else suggests it, no there is no switch on the flash
drive to enable/disable write protect.

Thanks,

JimR
 
JimR said:
If I remount it rw, this is how it shows in mtab
/dev/sr1 /media/MYCD_VOL iso9660 rw 0 0
but as I said, I still cannot write/delete/format.

Does anybody have any good ideas for this one?
Click to expand...

look at the device names.
They're not different partitions.
They're appearing as different DEVICES entirely.
Different partitions would be /dev/sdc1 and /dev/sdc2
This one appears as /dev/sr1 and /dev/sdc1

And as it's a standard CD format, that's a read only filesystem nomatter
what you set it as.

Looks like it's nobbled by design...
Similar to most microsoft products.
:)
--
| |What to do if you find yourself stuck in a crack|
| (e-mail address removed) |in the ground beneath a giant boulder, which you|
| |can't move, with no hope of rescue. |
| Andrew Halliwell BSc |Consider how lucky you are that life has been |
| in |good to you so far... |
| Computer Science | -The BOOK, Hitch-hiker's guide to the galaxy.|
 
In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage JimR said:
At my computer club meeting, we got 512 MB thumb drive handouts from
Microsoft. It included 2 partitions, one of 415 MB with normal write
capability, but the other is 74 MB that is filled with read-only
Microsoft marketing propaganda that tells me why I want Vista. I'd
really like to get that 74 MB back so that I could have a normal, full
size 512 MB contiguous thumb drive. I run Linux, and really do *not
want Vista*.
Click to expand...
If I try to delete the files, it tells me that it is a Read-only File
System.
Click to expand...
If I try to fsck.ext2 the partition, it tells me Read-only file system.
Click to expand...
If I try to remount it rw, it gives no error, but when I try to delete
or format, I once again get the R/O file system error.
Click to expand...
If I try to cfdisk on this partition, it shows
"Opened disk read-only - you have no permission to write"
Click to expand...
Here are the two filesystems listed in /etc/mtab
/dev/sr1 /media/MYCD_VOL iso9660
ro,nosuid,nodev,noatime,uhelper=hal,uid=500,utf8 0 0
/dev/sdc1 /media/disk vfat
rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,uhelper=hal,flush,uid=500,utf8,shortname=lower 0 0
Click to expand...
Note that the problematic one has references to it being an iso9660 CD.
Click to expand...
If I remount it rw, this is how it shows in mtab
/dev/sr1 /media/MYCD_VOL iso9660 rw 0 0
but as I said, I still cannot write/delete/format.
Click to expand...
Does anybody have any good ideas for this one?

JimR
Click to expand...

This might be some wired U3 setup. These sticks have a
microcontroller that allows emulation of two different
devices on one. Repartitioning will not help, but you may try
U3 remover software (worked on my PQI U3 stick). There
are two packages out there, google for them.

Arno
 
If you can plug on a Windows system maybe you can run the U3
uninstaller, usually included. I did it that way.

hans
 
Back
Top