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Thread: [SOLVED] USB Flash Drive Read Only

  1. #1
    Join Date
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    [SOLVED] USB Flash Drive Read Only

    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?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
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    Re: USB Flash Drive Read Only

    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?

  3. #3
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    Re: USB Flash Drive Read Only

    No, it doesn't have any switches.

  4. #4
    Join Date
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    Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

    Re: USB Flash Drive Read Only

    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
    It's never too late to have a happy childhood! (Bumper sticker - Zimbabwe)
    To mark your thread solved, go to Thread Tools and select Mark this thread as solved

  5. #5
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    Re: USB Flash Drive Read Only

    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.

  6. #6
    Join Date
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    Ubuntu Studio 10.10 Maverick Meerkat

    Re: USB Flash Drive Read Only

    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!

  7. #7
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    Re: USB Flash Drive Read Only

    Quote Originally Posted by etnlIcarus View Post
    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.

    Thanks, everyone!

  8. #8
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    Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

    Re: [SOLVED] USB Flash Drive Read Only

    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
    Last edited by itsdarklikehell; October 15th, 2009 at 04:24 PM.

  9. #9
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    Re: [SOLVED] USB Flash Drive Read Only

    Quote Originally Posted by itsdarklikehell View Post
    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?
    I lost a "z". Anyone seen it around here?

  10. #10
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    Re: [SOLVED] USB Flash Drive Read Only

    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!

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