# The Ubuntu Forum Community > Ubuntu Official Flavours Support > New to Ubuntu > [ubuntu] [SOLVED] USB Flash Drive Read Only

## Spooky5

Earlier this evening, I copied some files to a 16 GB flash drive. When I was done, I right clicked on the desktop icon and selected unmount. A dialog box which said it was safe to remove popped up. So I removed it. A little while later I plugged it back in to recopy a file I had changed. Only one the video podcast folder and my bookmark back-up is displayed on the drive. Yet, it says there are 8 files with 12.1 GB of the 16 being free. It won't let me do anything with it cause it says it is read-only.

How do I get full access back?  :Confused:

----------


## Loaded.len

My key has a physical switch on it to set it to read-only mode.  This has caused me grief a few times because it's always the last thing I think to check.  Does your key have that?

----------


## Spooky5

No, it doesn't have any switches.

----------


## Patb

Spooky, did you try rebooting?  

The reason for the behaviour may possibly be explained by your fstab setup and folder permissions which is a long subject. If you want to go into it, you might start here. 

Cheers, Pat

----------


## etnlIcarus

Try restarting the whole PC and see if it's more agreeable again.

Also a possibility that the data on the drive is corrupted. I've had linux suddenly go read-only on drives when there was something wrong with them. Might be worth trying to reformat the flashdrive with gparted in super user mode.

----------


## seagullplayer77

You might also try right-clicking the drive to make sure that it did indeed mount again. I've had situations where the drive would pop up and you could read data, but Ubuntu never actually mounted the drive so you couldn't write to it. I believe there's a read-only option under "Properties" if you right-click the media. Good luck!

----------


## Spooky5

> Try restarting the whole PC and see if it's more agreeable again.
> 
> Also a possibility that the data on the drive is corrupted. I've had linux suddenly go read-only on drives when there was something wrong with them. Might be worth trying to reformat the flashdrive with gparted in super user mode.


I think that's what happened. I plugged it into my windows machine and tried to open the bookmark file. It said it was corrupted. I reformatted and it's working beautifully now. I've recopied the files, unmounted and plugged it back in. All of the files are still there.  :Smile: 

Thanks, everyone!

----------


## itsdarklikehell

i have the same prob, but on a 500 gig usb hd, ive tried to change the permissions on ubuntu and with my freenas server witch both came up with the same error and i am not willing to repartition the whole damn thing cos it is gonna cost me a sh1tlo@d of time and bandwith to get all of my data back, so is there another option to fix this like fsck or scandisk to correct the possebly lost/corrupt data?? and how do i get to know witch file is corrupted? pls mail me mailto:bauke.molenaar@gmail.com

----------


## az

> i have the same prob, but on a 500 gig usb hd, ive tried to change the permissions on ubuntu and with my freenas server witch both came up with the same error and i am not willing to repartition the whole damn thing cos it is gonna cost me a sh1tlo@d of time and bandwith to get all of my data back, so is there another option to fix this like fsck or scandisk to correct the possebly lost/corrupt data?? and how do i get to know witch file is corrupted? pls mail me mailto:bauke.molenaar@gmail.com


Are you able to read your files?

----------


## itsdarklikehell

read yes, write no! 
ill post the errormessage i get (if i get it again) lateron, cos im running fsck so i cant mount my drive atm.
thnx for the fast reply m8!

----------


## itsdarklikehell

TQ so much people! 
seems fsck kinda fixxed it.. mayb it was a corrupted file/block..

U rock! :Guitar:

----------


## Glace

For me to fix my read only usb drive:
mount your usb driveopen gparted (must be root)find you're drive in the menu (try different selections in the top right if you can't see it)right click -> unmountit loaded for a while then next time I mounted it it was like normal

----------


## csk1103

> Try restarting the whole PC and see if it's more agreeable again.
> 
> Also a possibility that the data on the drive is corrupted. I've had linux suddenly go read-only on drives when there was something wrong with them. Might be worth trying to reformat the flashdrive with gparted in super user mode.


I solved the problem by rebooting. Thank you.

----------


## oldos2er

Closed, please don't bump old threads.

----------

