dosfsck "Unable to create unique name"

**zorblek** · September 5th, 2010

I have an Archos 605 media player that seems to have become corrupted, so I'm trying to run fsck on it. It mounts as a FAT32 hard drive, so I ran

Code:

sudo dosfsck -a

and this is what I got:

Code:

dosfsck 3.0.7, 24 Dec 2009, FAT32, LFN
There are differences between boot sector and its backup.
Differences: (offset:original/backup)
  65:03/00
  Not automatically fixing this.
Unable to create unique name

I suspect this means I'm screwed, but I'd appreciate any additional insight from someone who knows more about dosfsck than I do.

**Keilaron** · September 25th, 2010

I had that issue just now trying to get my own media player from being put into read-only mode:

Code:

# fsck.vfat -r -f -v /dev/sdb1
dosfsck 3.0.7 (24 Dec 2009)
dosfsck 3.0.7, 24 Dec 2009, FAT32, LFN
Checking we can access the last sector of the filesystem
Boot sector contents: [... snip ...]
Cluster 429 out of range (199905107 > 1830012). Setting to EOF.
[... snip tons of these ...]
Cluster 509 out of range (207337444 > 1830012). Setting to EOF.
/Music/Games/Mario & Zelda Big Band Live/12 Theme of The DOLPHIC TOWN (NINTENDO GAMECUBE - ''SUPER MARIO SUNSHINE'').mp3
  File size is 6561796 bytes, cluster chain length is 16384 bytes.
  Truncating file to 16384 bytes.
Reclaiming unconnected clusters.
Unable to create unique name

Turns out that you have to run fsck with ONLY the -r option, nothing else. After the "Truncating file to 16384 bytes." line I got:

Code:

Reclaimed 479 unused clusters (7847936 bytes).
Free cluster summary wrong (636575 vs. really 637054)
1) Correct
2) Don't correct
? 1
Perform changes ? (y/n) y
/dev/sdb1: 6213 files, 1192957/1830011 clusters

(Naturally, the 1 and y were my own answers.)

EDIT: And y'know, it did tell you that it wouldn't automatically fix it for you. You have to use the -r option in that case.