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Thread ID: 46989 2004-07-12 07:56:00 Is it possible to partition a USB Thumbdrive? Chilling_Silence (9) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
251689 2004-07-13 04:23:00 I was just a bit wary that if I _did_ format it, I might not for some reason or another be able to get it back... Chilling_Silence (9)
251690 2004-07-13 05:26:00 I had a go at formatting mine under XP (formats ok but I can't get it to partition) and whilst all of the help says it is possible to partition it, I'm buggered if I can get it to work. Hasn't done any damage to the memory stick though so no harm done. andrew93 (249)
251691 2004-07-13 05:30:00 fdisk, partition magic, qtparted, cfdisk, ranish partition manager, disk druid... Want me to go on?! ;-)


Chill.
Chilling_Silence (9)
251692 2004-07-13 05:46:00 tried fdisk - didn't find the drive
don't get me started on Partition Magic - their free software deletes partitions but you need to pay to get the create functionality, I'm like WTF! - XP got me out of that hole.
andrew93 (249)
251693 2004-07-13 07:10:00 Well, it is just a harddrive effectively. (arstechnica.com) mmmmm that would be nice. -=JM=- (16)
251694 2004-07-16 02:49:00 I have a 64MB DSE MP3 player which works fine as a portable disk in W98 (with the added software), with WinME straight off, and with no real trouble in Linux.

Last night I did fdisk /dev/sda. (In Linux it emulates a SCSI drive -- /dev/sdaX for the partitions -- and appears in "/mnt/removable" .)

Fdisk happily deleted the vfat partition, then made a 32MB vfat, and a 32MB Linux (type83) one. mkfs /dev/sda2 formatted the linux partition as ext2. I could mount that to /tmp with mount -t ext2 /dev/sda2 /tmp .The preexisting MP3 files (mostly) were still there according to both Linux and W98 in the vfat partition on mnt/removable. (Terrible practice ... some of them would still think they own allocation units in the Linux partition.:D) So I copied the files off, then did a mkfs of a vfat in /dev/sda1. The files copied back, and played with xmms from the vfat partition.;-)

So if you use fdisk, you can delete the existing partition, and make new ones. Linux probably won't make an NTFS format, but you could make a vfat one,and the Win XP stuff should be able to convert it. Or you could leave an area unallocated,and see of the XP will find it and use it.
Graham L (2)
251695 2004-07-16 03:56:00 Thats what I figured it would be like, having done something similar for my External 120GB HDD.

Only problem now is working out why my 2.6.7-love7 kernel wont even create /dev/sd*.
I have devfs working, mounted at boot, scsi-generic, usb mass-storage, vfat, hotplug, USB2.0 Support...

Still at a loss....

Mounts fine though from the Love-LiveCDv2, which I nicked the .config from /proc/config.gz and based mine from so Im not sure why its not working :-(

I will look into it more tonight hopefully when I can.

Cheers


Chill.
Chilling_Silence (9)
251696 2004-07-16 04:08:00 the /dev/sd nodes are created when the device appears. I think. :D You can help devices to appear by modprobe-ing a few of the appropriate modules... try modprobe usb-storage first. Then you might find an entry in /etc/modules.conf will make it work consistnely. I still don't understand the hotplug stuff. I just poke it until it works. Or not. Graham L (2)
251697 2004-07-16 04:51:00 Hmm... modprobe'd it fine, its my only scsi or usb-related module though.

Still no luck.

Might pay to hit Freenode and see if the folk in #gentoo or #love-sources can help :-)

Will post back when Ive done it


Chill.
Chilling_Silence (9)
251698 2004-07-16 05:03:00 > Aside from that anybody can read it without any hassles at all!

But you would probably pick up on this pretty quick, it being around your neck and all. You could try saying "Hey stop that" lol
Rob99 (151)
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