formatting protected USB memory sticks

[xerces8]

After another look, I see the stick is either U3 or a non standard imitation of U3.

What does "sudo fdisk -l" print ?

Regards,
David


-----Original Message-----
From: "Colin Rowat" <c.rowat at espero.org.uk>
To: "xerces8" <xerces8 at butn.net>, "Ubuntu user technical support,  not for general discussions"
<ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:45:21 +0100
Subject: Re: formatting protected USB memory sticks

> 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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> > 
> > 
> 
> 
> 
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