formatting protected USB memory sticks

[Colin Rowat]

On Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:45:07 +0200, "xerces8" <xerces8 at butn.net> said:
> There is a bug in parted:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/parted/+bug/232175
> 
> (WARNING : use the proper device name instead of /dev/sdb in the commands
> !)
> 
> Just delete the old partition table : dd if=dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=512
> count=1 

Thank you David.  I've just tried

 dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/scd1 bs=512 count=1

(/dev/scd1 is the write-protected partition that I'm trying to erase). 
In return, I received 

 dd: opening `/dev/scd1': Read-only file system

as an error message.

Thus, it seems that I'm still not overcoming whatever write protection
is in place.  Should I see about a powerful magnetic field at this
point, or are there still software options?

Thank you again,

Colin Rowat

> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Colin Rowat" <c.rowat at espero.org.uk>
> To: ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
> Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 00:12:40 +0100
> Subject: formatting protected USB memory sticks
> 
> > I was recently given a 1GB USB memory stick, formatted as drives E: and
> > F: for Windows.  One of the drives (/dev/sdb1, or /media/DISK_IMG) is
> > formatted as a fat16 blank disc.  The other is loaded with promotional
> > material that I would like to remove.  However, I cannot get gparted to
> > even recognise this partition (/media/Autorun).  It has also been
> > protected against reformatting by standard Windows XP administrative
> > tools.
> > 
> > Is there any way to completely clear the memory stick, creating a
> > single, 1GB partition?
> > 
> > Thank you in advance,
> > 
> > Colin Rowat
> > 
> > 
> > 
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