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Flashdrive troubles...

Posted: 14 May 2014, 22:24
by jamxray
I put Porteus on a flash drive (San Disk Cruiser 8GB) and It stuck a few read only files (.55 GB) on it that I want to get rid of. They only show up in the terminal with ls after I mkdir /mnt/usb then mount /dev/sdb /mnt/usb ls.

Code: Select all

myputer usb # ls
boot  porteus  USB_INSTALLATION.txt
myputer usb # cd boot
myputer boot # ls
docs                             Porteus-installer-for-Windows.exe
Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com  syslinux
myputer boot # cd syslinux
myputer syslinux # ls
chain.c32      isolinux.bin   lilo.conf    porteus.png   vmlinuz
extlinux.conf  isolinux.boot  plpbt        syslinux.cfg
initrd.xz      isolinux.cfg   porteus.cfg  vesamenu.c32
myputer syslinux # cd ..
myputer boot # ls
docs                             Porteus-installer-for-Windows.exe
Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com  syslinux
myputer boot # cd docs
myputer docs # ls
cheatcodes.txt  GNU_GPL  install.txt  License.txt  requirements.txt
myputer docs # cd ..
myputer boot # ls
docs                             Porteus-installer-for-Windows.exe
Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com  syslinux
myputer boot # cd ..
myputer usb # ls
boot  porteus  USB_INSTALLATION.txt
myputer usb # cd porteus
myputer porteus # ls
base  make_iso.sh  modules  optional  porteus-v3.0-x86_64.sgn  rootcopy
base, modules, optional and rootcopy are also directories.... but you get the point... all of this is read only and I can't get rid of it. I have another 7.45 GB on the drive and the flag is set to boot, but the disk is not bootable without something else on it, so it's wasted space. It says they are read only and the owner is unknown. How can I get rid of these files and free up the disk?

Re: Flashdrive troubles...

Posted: 15 May 2014, 00:22
by brokenman
but the disk is not bootable without something else on it
After you run the installer script Porteus-installer-for-Linux.com then the drive is bootable. Just setting the boot flag isn't enough.

To get rid of the files you can format the device. If you don't want to format it you can elevate your rights to root and then delete files from the device.

Code: Select all

su
toor
rm -rf /mnt/usb/*
Perhaps you didn't give enough information and I misunderstood what you want.

Re: Flashdrive troubles...

Posted: 15 May 2014, 01:27
by Ed_P
jamxray, this wouldn't be a SanDisk U3 USB drive would it?

Re: Flashdrive troubles...

Posted: 15 May 2014, 05:46
by jamxray
@Ed... nope, it a cruiser, no switches to prevent file deletion...

Re: Flashdrive troubles...

Posted: 15 May 2014, 06:45
by Ed_P
jamxray wrote:no switches to prevent file deletion...
No, but a U3 drive has 2 partitions, one a small CD partition and one a normal R/W partition. What did you use to get your Porteus on the drive?

Re: Flashdrive troubles...

Posted: 15 May 2014, 13:55
by francois
This could be a sandisk usb key meeting the windows 8 certification requirements, see:
http://aussiestorageblog.wordpress.com/ ... fts-fault/

This seems a commercial practice from windows to stop the linux market. =@

I have a few usb keys of that type at home. There is no way I could install a linux system on these. I have the impression that I just threw my $$$ into the garbage can.

Try to format the key with gparted. If it fails, you are the lucky owner of a windows 8 certified usb key.

Re: Flashdrive troubles...

Posted: 15 May 2014, 15:00
by donald
Try what has been suggested in the previous posts.
As a last option, you could overwrite the whole USB-flash and then format it new.
( dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX )..replace sdX with your device.
Be careful not to overwrite the wrong drive..if you're unsure do not do it.

Re: Flashdrive troubles...

Posted: 15 May 2014, 18:32
by Ed_P
francois wrote:This could be a sandisk usb key meeting the windows 8 certification requirements,
TTBOMK Those drives don't have multiple partitions. The U3 models were the only ones.
This seems a commercial practice from windows to stop the linux market. =@
In that Linux is free I don't think it has a market. And even if it did it would be tiny compared to all the OSs out there now days.
I have a few usb keys of that type at home. There is no way I could install a linux system on these. I have the impression that I just threw my $$$ into the garbage can.
Why does Linux care if the drive it's being written to is fixed or removable. Windows has that problem and many Windows apps now do but I don't understand why Linux does.

If your drives are SanDisk I believe you can return them to SanDisk for free replacements.
Try to format the key with gparted. If it fails, you are the lucky owner of a windows 8 certified usb key.
If the drive is a U3 drive and the write portion was password protected, screwing up the CD's apps will make getting to the writable partition difficult.