USB is read only and won't unlock

[ShadowGuardian]

i have a kingston datatravaler 32gb. I got it a week ago so its brand new.

i partitioned 10.5gb to ext4 with 3.5gb swap. then installed ubuntu 12.10. it worked great. partitioned the other "half" the same way and tried to install fedora (which i havent used much) it said install failed. after that it said the half i partitioned for fedora was unallocated when using minitool partitioner. and the usb has gone read only. it mounted in ubuntu at first but now it wont mount (something about bad superblock).

i have tried: gparted, testdisk, disk utility, partitioners in windows 7.

I just want to wipe it clean and take back to default so i can try again (install fedora first this time, then ubuntu)

sorry for the choppy sentences but i really want some help. I am new to the forum as well.

p.s. i hate windows

[zero2xiii]

Hay,

You can try writing zero to the drive and try to repartition it.

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/usb_drive bs=512

See "man dd" for details on the above syntax.
"of=" is the path to the device eg
/dev/sdb
NOT
/dev/sdb5

Good luck

[ShadowGuardian]

I believe i have already tried dd but i will try again. I dont see a r/o switch on the casing either just so you know. Its like the ubuntu that i installed on it has "locked" itself up. It wont partition at all. everything just says: You do not have permission. Also, if i try to mount it, it says:

Error mounting: mount: block device /dev/sdb1 is write-protected, mounting read-only
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb1,
missing codepage or helper program, or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so

The drive could be defective but i doubt it.

Is there any programs that just overide permissions?

Thanks for the help so far.

[ShadowGuardian]

Just tried dd, then repartition with disk utility. no go. it says:

Error modifying partition: helper exited with exit code 1: In part_change_partition: device_file=/dev/sdb, start=1048576, new_start=1048576, new_size=11262754816, type=0x0c
Entering MS-DOS parser (offset=0, size=31347965952)
MSDOS_MAGIC found
looking at part 0 (offset 1048576, size 11262754816, type 0x83)
new part entry
looking at part 1 (offset 11264850944, size 20081280000, type 0x0f)
Entering MS-DOS extended parser (offset=11264850944, size=20081280000)
readfrom = 11264850944
No MSDOS_MAGIC found
Exiting MS-DOS extended parser
looking at part 2 (offset 0, size 0, type 0x00)
new part entry
looking at part 3 (offset 0, size 0, type 0x00)
new part entry
Exiting MS-DOS parser
MSDOS partition table detected
containing partition table scheme = 0
Warning: Unable to open /dev/sdb read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sdb has been opened read-only.
got it
Warning: Unable to open /dev/sdb read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sdb has been opened read-only.
Error: Invalid partition table on /dev/sdb -- wrong signature d569.
ped_disk_new() failed

thanks anyway

[xp15]

I remember something similar happend to me, but I don't remember well what I've done.
If you are getting into nautilus with sudo-in the terminal:

sudo nautilus

Are you able to do something with rightclick (Through the sudo nautilus' window) on the device > Properties? Can you free it from there?

[carl4926]

I had similar once
I had to trash it, but it was only 8GB

Will Imagewriter write an image to it?

[sudodus]

Maybe the drive is physically bad. You can check that with badblocks. Learn how to run it in

man badblocks

.

For example if your USB pendrive is recognized as /dev/sdx

sudo badblocks -n /dev/sdx

[ShadowGuardian]

universal installer failed to write ubuntu 12.10 to it, but unetbootin ran and appears to have "worked". so i will give it a try, although my partitioner shows nothing has changed. i have been bouncing back between windows 7 and ubuntu to try and fix this thing.

[ShadowGuardian]

tried badblocks, this is what it says:

shadowaviator@shadow-Aspire-7740:~$ sudo badblocks -n /dev/sdb
[sudo] password for shadowaviator:
badblocks: Read-only file system while trying to open /dev/sdb
shadowaviator@shadow-Aspire-7740:~$

[sudodus]

tried badblocks, this is what it says:

shadowaviator@shadow-Aspire-7740:~$ sudo badblocks -n /dev/sdb
[sudo] password for shadowaviator:
badblocks: Read-only file system while trying to open /dev/sdb
shadowaviator@shadow-Aspire-7740:~$

Yes, it could be a bug, but maybe we can try another thing before giving up:

Did you connect and unmount (not eject) the USB drive before the two crucial operations?

sudo dd ... and sudo badblocks ...

Try again to connect the USB drive and then

sudo umount /dev/sdb1

(if it is still mounting as /dev/sdb1)
and run the zeroising dd command and the badblock command again