Reformatting a USB stick that shows up as two devices?

[Mark Haney]

Adam Funk wrote:

> 
> I typed some of that wrong.  It shows up as two devices, /dev/sdc and
> /dev/sdd, and each has its own single partition, /dev/sdc1 and
> /dev/sdd1, respectively.
> 
>> Normally yes.
>> You could use fdisk or gperted to repartition the whole stick to 
>> whatever file system you prefer.
> 
> I don't see how to use those tools to merge the two devices together,
> since they work on only one device at a time.
> 
> It may be that what I'm asking for is impossible --- is that the case?
> 
> 

Hmm, I've seen this alot on my MP3 player (not so much my flash drive 
since I rarely if ever leave it connected for any but the shortest 
periods of time.  (My MP3 player uses the USB port to charge the battery.)

It might be HAL making it LOOK like two devices and partitions.  I've 
seen HAL recognize a flash device, mount it, then mount it again on the 
next free drive letter available (hence sdc, then sdd)

The recommendation of unmounting to see if the drive disappear isn't 
going to help in this case.  As HAL is likely to unmount both drives 
together.

I would try this, shut down hald, insert the flash drive and mount 
/dev/sdc1 manually.  See if the drive space (using df or just doing an 
ls) shows the same free space/used space that you should expect to see.

That'll tell you if it's HAL doing that.

Just a thought.




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Mark Haney
Sr. Systems Administrator
ERC Broadband
(828) 350-2415

Call (866) ERC-7110 for after hours support