formatting protected USB memory sticks

Wed Jun 4 11:19:59 UTC 2008

1.) Delete the phony /dev/scd file you just created ;-)
2.) the stick has two halves (CD-ROM emulation and regular flash), no amount of partitioning will
fix that.

Did you try this : http://www.u3.com/uninstall/files/u3%20uninstall.exe ?

If that does not work, you could ask around on the U3 forum.
Or try contacting the manufacturer/vendor/whoever is responsible for creating this stick.

Or you could just live with it ;-)
(USB sticks are cheap, by now you could have bought a dozen new ones)

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: Wed, 04 Jun 2008 11:31:59 +0100
Subject: Re: formatting protected USB memory sticks

> 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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> > 
> 
> 
> 
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