USB Thumb Drive Issues?

[Jason Spatafore]

Sometimes, you can simply wipe the drive then setup as normal.

dd if=/dev/zero of=<usb drive> bs=512k 

It will wipe with zeroes until completed. Then your drive should be
clean. That will rule out whether there is a chip making it read-only or
the partitioning scheme. 

I do this drive wipe every day on drives and it works pretty well. Those
"secure" drives are a different story as they have a firmware based 1MB
partition you cannot "delete" via traditional means. 



On Thu, 2009-10-29 at 08:17 -0700, Lisa Kachold wrote:
> 
> 
> On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 3:16 PM, mike Enriquez <mylinux at cox.net>
> wrote:
>         I have a 4GB PNY thumb drive that has issues? It has become
>         "Write
>         Protected". It is an Optima pro Attache. I searched the net
>         and nothing
>         that I have found has helped me out.
>         Has any one in the group had this happen to them and how did
>         you remove
>         the write protection.
>         I cannot see any special files on it except 2 of my own.
>         Any suggestions out there?
>         Thanks
>         
>         Mike Enriquez
> 
> Hi Mike!
> 
> There are a load of Window$ type repair suggestions here (Since this
> is a known bug in Xp SP2):
> http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windows/t-18654-USB-Flash-Drive-Write-protection.html
> 
> Linux solutions are going to be basic drive management:
> 
> plug in usb flash drive and mount (if you don't have automouter)
> 
> dmesg to verify the device:
> 
> # dmesg 
> # mkdir /mnt/usbwork
> # mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usbwork
> (it might whine that you didn't specify the type if so:)
> # mount -t vfat (or NFS) /dev/sda1 /mnt/usbwork
> # cd /mnt/usbwork
> Copy off your old files
> # cp -r * $HOME  
> # umount /mnt/usbhome
> # fdisk /dev/sda
> 
> Remove all the partitions using  the "d" command.
> create new partitions using the "n" command (you only really need one
> big one)
> set the file type "W95 FAT32 (LBA)"  (or ext3 if making a bootable
> Linux distro) "t" (types will display)
> if this is going to hold a distro set the bootable flag "a"
> check your work:  "p"
> save "w"
> 
> Lay on a file system (that matches your file type):
> 
> mkfs.vfat -I -n USBDRIVE /dev/sda1
> 
> Your drive should work now just fine!
> 
> Reference:  http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=346737
> -- 
> Skype: (623)239-3392 
> AT&T: (503)754-4452 
> www.obnosis.com
> 
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