Re: [gentoo-user] Formating a USB stick

[Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com>]

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On Friday 09 October 2009, Stroller wrote:
> On 8 Oct 2009, at 22:10, Paul Hartman wrote:
> > ...
> > With SD cards, often times there are no partitions. So if you create
> > proper partitions sometimes it won't read in other devices/computers.
> > (in linux terms that means you would format /dev/sda not /dev/sda1)
>
> Uh, unless SD cards are seriously goofy - a possibility I concede -
> then they're just a bunch of blocks. Partitions are just something you
> - either you the user, or the manufacturer if they come pre-formatted
> - put on there.
>
> I'm pretty sure that my experience with at least one external hard-
> drive (USB mass-storage device) was that formatting /dev/sda worked
> just fine under Linux (and, I think OS X) but was not recognised by
> Windows XP. IIRC mkfs.vfat gave a warning. When formatted by Windows
> XP and remounted in Linux the drive was of the /dev/sda1 type of
> partition layout.
>
> This seems to be the opposite of how you describe, unless I am
> misreading.

Some USB sticks are formatted as floppy disks (?) and show up as /dev/sda 
(instead of /dev/sda1).  I have had no problems mounting these in Linux or 
MSWindows, but wouldn't know how to format them in Linux.  Their partitions 
look all over the shop.  dmesg shows:
======================================
usb-storage: device scan complete
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] 1997312 512-byte hardware sectors: (1.02 GB/975 MiB)
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
 sda:
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk
======================================

and fdisk:
======================================
# fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 1022 MB, 1022623744 bytes
32 heads, 61 sectors/track, 1023 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1952 * 512 = 999424 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x69737369

This doesn't look like a partition table
Probably you selected the wrong device.

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   ?      957875     1044294    84344761   69  Unknown
Partition 1 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
     phys=(68, 13, 10) logical=(957874, 21, 37)
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(288, 115, 43) logical=(1044293, 15, 36)
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2   ?      871681     1829612   934940732+  73  Unknown
Partition 2 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
     phys=(371, 114, 37) logical=(871680, 1, 61)
Partition 2 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(366, 32, 33) logical=(1829611, 4, 30)
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3   ?           2           2           0   74  Unknown
Partition 3 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
     phys=(371, 114, 37) logical=(1, 10, 12)
Partition 3 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(372, 97, 50) logical=(1, 10, 11)
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda4               1     1759792  1717556736    0  Empty
Partition 4 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
     phys=(0, 0, 0) logical=(0, 0, 1)
Partition 4 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(0, 0, 0) logical=(1759791, 23, 37)
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.

Partition table entries are not in disk order
======================================

While parted again has no problem seeing it and identifying the partition 
tablet as "loop" instead of MSDOS:
======================================
# parted /dev/sda
Warning: GNU Parted has detected libreiserfs interface version mismatch.  
Found 1-1, required 0. ReiserFS support will be disabled.
GNU Parted 1.8.8
Using /dev/sda
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) p                                                                
Model: Crucial Gizmo! overdrive (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1023MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: loop

Number  Start  End     Size    File system  Flags
 1      0.00B  1023MB  1023MB  fat16
======================================
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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