formatting protected USB memory sticks

Colin Rowat c.rowat at espero.org.uk
Wed Jun 4 10:31:59 UTC 2008


On Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:26:45 +0200, "xerces8" <xerces8 at butn.net> said:
> 1.) delete the partition table, not the a boot sector: sxx , not sxx1
> 2.) /dev/scd1 is a CD-ROM
> 3.) use roo privileges : _sudo_ dd if=....

Thanks David.  I've now tried:

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

This takes my sudo password, and then gives me the

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

error.  I've therefore also tried

 sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/scd bs=512 count=1

which tells me that

 1+0 records in
 1+0 records out
 512 bytes (512 B) copied, 3.7665e-05 s, 13.6 MB/s 

The volume (/dev/scd1) still shows up when I place the USB stick back
into the port, though.

The output from "sudo fdisk -l" is:

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes [*** my HDD ***]
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x41ab2316

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1          22      176683+  de  Dell Utility
/dev/sda2   *          23        6522    52211250    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3            6523        9729    25760227+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5            6523        9591    24651711   83  Linux
/dev/sda6            9592        9729     1108453+  82  Linux swap /
Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 496 MB, 496959488 bytes [*** the writable half of the USB
stick ***]
2 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7703 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 126 * 512 = 64512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00947222

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1        7704      485296    6  FAT16

Thus, the CD-ROM configured half, /dev/scd1, does not appear.

As always, any help very appreciated.

Thank you,

Colin Rowat

> -----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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