USB Key File System

[Mumia W.]

On 08/22/2008 11:47 PM, hippie dream wrote:
> Apologies for the tardy reply. I was out of internet access for quite some
> time.
> 
> I tried this:
> 
> mkdosfs -n MYLABEL /dev/sda14
> 
> This produced this message:
> 
> mkdosfs 2.11 (12 Mar 2005)
> /dev/sda14: No such file or directory
> 
> So I tried another suggestion typing in dmesg:
> 
> [10656.976585] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
> [10656.978629] scsi5 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
> [10656.980057] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
> [10656.980065] USB Mass Storage support registered.
> [10656.980562] usb-storage: device found at 2
> [10656.980565] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
> [10661.986557] usb-storage: device scan complete
> [10661.987074] scsi 5:0:0:0: Direct-Access     SanDisk  U3 Cruzer Micro 
> 4.04 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
> [10661.987697] scsi 5:0:0:1: CD-ROM            SanDisk  U3 Cruzer Micro 
> 4.04 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
> [10661.994449] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] 8013457 512-byte hardware sectors (4103 MB)
> [10661.995416] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
> [10661.995422] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
> [10661.995424] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
> [10661.998162] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] 8013457 512-byte hardware sectors (4103 MB)
> [10661.998901] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
> [10661.998905] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
> [10661.998908] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
> [10661.998916]  sdb: sdb1
> [10662.000806] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
> [10662.000861] sd 5:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
> [10662.005153] sr1: scsi3-mmc drive: 8x/40x writer xa/form2 cdda tray
> [10662.005217] sr 5:0:0:1: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr1
> [10662.005264] sr 5:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 5
> 
> Any ideas at this point? Thanks alot for your help.
> 
> Sam
> 

It seems like your usb-key's partition is at /dev/sdb1; however, you 
need to be sure sure sure before you issue the format command, or you 
could format your HD instead. That's why I gave you a command that 
wouldn't work unless you read the manual page for mkdosfs.

Read "man mkdosfs"

Look at the output of "sudo fdisk -l" and look for a FAT partition on 
your usb-key. If you find one, it's probably safe to format that. Since 
formatting destroys all data, you need to be sure of what you're doing 
before you issue the command. Also, superuser privileges are required to 
format disks. I used MYLABEL in my example, but you can use almost any 
volume label you wish; again, read "man mkdosfs"