formatting protected USB memory sticks

[Karl Larsen]

Colin Rowat wrote:
> Thank you Karl and Dan.
>
> Could you walk me through the console commands that I should run?  
>   

        How to configure a hard drive or USB memory Stick


1. Find the name of your memory:

        The first thing you need to do is find out where the hard drive 
is located. Hard drives are usually /dev/hda2 or like that. Memory 
sticks are usually like /dev/sdf1 and the way to tell which your's is is 
to use df.

        In a terminal window type df and you see a bunch of hard drive 
listed. Now plug in your USB memory and then do df again. My USB memory 
is partitioned into 2 types of file system. One has VFAT and it has the 
name windows. The other large partition and is maned ext3. Here is how 
it looks when you use df:

/dev/sdf1               986024         4    986020   1% /media/windows
/dev/sdf2              2909452     69952   2691704   3% /media/ext3

Your new USB memory may show many partitions that are strange to Linux. 
They will be fixed and look like the above.

2. Un-mount the hard drive or USB memory:

        In a terminal type sudo umount /dev/sdf1 and give your password. 
Then do it again for /dev/sdf2. And any others you want un-mounted.


3. Run fdisk to remove, make partitions:

        For example I will say my memory is /dev/sdf and I want to use 
fdisk to change things. To use fdisk in a terminal type sudo fdisk 
/dev/sdf and give your password. You get this:

karl at karl-desktop:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdf
[sudo] password for karl:

Command (m for help):

If you type m it gives you a list of commands. I remember most so I will 
use p which Prints a list of all the partitions. It looks like this on 
my USB memory:

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sdf: 4043 MB, 4043308544 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 491 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x91f72d24

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdf1   *           1         123      987966    e  W95 FAT16 (LBA)
/dev/sdf2             124         491     2955960   83  Linux

There are two partitions one for windows files and another for Linux 
files. This is what I wanted. Before using fdisk it was a mess!

        Now to explain something important. If you end fdisk with a q it 
changes nothing. If you end with a w as in write, it will change the 
hard disk to the current settings in fdisk.

        So first I will remove /dev/sdf1 which is done with d and is 
shown here:

Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-4): 1

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sdf: 4043 MB, 4043308544 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 491 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x91f72d24

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdf2             124         491     2955960   83  Linux

Command (m for help):

Now I will remove /dev/sdf2 and the memory looks empty.


Disk /dev/sdf: 4043 MB, 4043308544 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 491 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x91f72d24

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System

Command (m for help):

        Now if you wanted to change things you can now use n to make a 
new partition. I will make it one Linux partition:

Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-491, default 1):
Using default value 1
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-491, default 491):
Using default value 491

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sdf: 4043 MB, 4043308544 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 491 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x91f72d24

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdf1               1         491     3943926   83  Linux

Command (m for help):

If I wanted to save this I would use w to exit. But I want to save the 
current things so I quit with q.

4. Make a file system for your partition:

        You need the target of the file system to be un-mounted. Then in 
a terminal we will use mkfs. If you want a windows file-system I use the 
following: In a terminal type mkfs.vfat -n name /dev/sdf1 in my case. 
For the Linux I use: mkfs.ext3 -L name /dev/sdf2 and that completes the job.

This should help. If it is unclear please say so. I hope this will help 
many others.

Karl

-- 

	Karl F. Larsen, AKA K5DI
	Linux User
	#450462   http://counter.li.org.
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