cant detect usb flash drives

[david98]

Hi i recently re-installed ubuntu 12.04 on my samsung np270e laptop. Since i re-installed i can't seem to access my usb flash drives. i previously had no problem detecting them but i had to reinstall because i wanted to delete windows 8 and use the partition.

[sudodus]

Have you updated/upgraded Ubuntu so that all packages are up to date?

Are other things working properly in the newly installed Ubuntu 12.04?

What about the install media? If you installed from a USB drive, can't you see that one?

[david98]

Everything but the usb's seem to be working fine. I've already updated. And i used a live dvd to install on the hdd

[sudodus]

Can you see the USB drives with

lsusb

or

sudo parted -l

Please post the output of these commands within code tags (mark and click the # icon at the top of the editing window).

[david98]

lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0cf3:3004 Atheros Communications, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0c45:64e0 Microdia
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0781:556b SanDisk Corp.

[sudodus]

So Sandisk device is detected. Is it a USB pendrive?

What is seen by

sudo parted -l

and if problems

sudo fdisk -lu

[david98]

sudo parted -l
[sudo] password for dave:
Model: ATA TOSHIBA MQ01ABD0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos


Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 106MB 105MB primary ntfs boot
2 106MB 262GB 262GB primary ntfs
3 262GB 500GB 238GB extended
5 262GB 494GB 232GB logical ext4
6 494GB 500GB 6128MB logical linux-swap(v1)




Model: SanDisk Cruzer Edge (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 8004MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos


Number Start End Size Type File system Flags




Model: Multiple Card Reader (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 2003MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos


Number Start End Size Type File system Flags




Warning: Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sr0
has been opened read-only.
Error: /dev/sr0: unrecognised disk label





sudo parted -l
[sudo] password for dave:
Model: ATA TOSHIBA MQ01ABD0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos


Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 106MB 105MB primary ntfs boot
2 106MB 262GB 262GB primary ntfs
3 262GB 500GB 238GB extended
5 262GB 494GB 232GB logical ext4
6 494GB 500GB 6128MB logical linux-swap(v1)




Model: SanDisk Cruzer Edge (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 8004MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos


Number Start End Size Type File system Flags




Model: Multiple Card Reader (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 2003MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos


Number Start End Size Type File system Flags




Warning: Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sr0
has been opened read-only.
Error: /dev/sr0: unrecognised disk label


dave@dave-300E5EV-300E4EV-270E5EV-270E4EV:~$ sudo fdisk -lu


WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.




Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xdd49c7c1


Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 206847 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 206848 512002047 255897600 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 512004094 976771071 232383489 5 Extended
Partition 3 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda5 512004096 964800511 226398208 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 964802560 976771071 5984256 82 Linux swap / Solaris


Disk /dev/sdb: 8004 MB, 8004304896 bytes
247 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1020 cylinders, total 15633408 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xbd76c5f9


Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System


Disk /dev/sdc: 2002 MB, 2002780160 bytes
62 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1017 cylinders, total 3911680 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000


Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

[sudodus]

Something is wrong. No partitions are visible on

Model: SanDisk Cruzer Edge (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 8004MB

and

Model: Multiple Card Reader (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 2003MB

Only the drive info. I guess there are partitions (with data), that you could see before. Can you check in another computer or with another version of Ubuntu or Windows or Mac OS?

Is it really Ubuntu 12.04? It should be very reliable nowadays, more than one year after the release.

[david98]

windows 7 not detecting the sandisk 8gb. t's detecting the 2 gb sd card but wont let me open or format it. and yes definitely 12.04 going to see if a live disk will detect it

[sudodus]

Probably something is wrong with the pendrive. Maybe also with the sd card.

It is very important to unmount external drives before unplugging, hard disk drives as well as flash drives. It corresponds to 'safe removal' in Windows. The procedure is to finish writing whatever is scheduled to be written, and then making the drive unavailable for further read/write operations.