I have a hard drive from a friends Windows XP computer that has a really bad virus on it. He could not even boot his computer in safe mode. I have the drive attached to my Mepis 7.0 computer via a USB port. I can read the drive but have been unable to modify the drive in any way. I tried changing permissions and owner but I keep seeing a message that the drive is read only. What I want to do is format the drive so that I can reinstall Windows XP and I want to make it a duel boot hard drive with Ubuntu so that he can try Linux out and surf the internet with Ubuntu so that he does not get anymore viruses. I have checked my fstab file but the external hard drive is not there. I would try to format the drive with another Windows computer but am afraid the virus might infect that computer to. Does anyone have a solution for this problem or is this hard drive junk like the OS that is on it? Your help will be appreciated.
Eric

Hi Eric,

You can use one of many programs to format that hdd. "fdisk" is one, "parted" is another, and if you have GNOME as your desktop, probably the easiest for you would be to install "gparted" and use that to format the errant hdd. (You will need to be "root" to modify the drive.)

PS. "man fdisk" and "man parted" will give you heaps of info. Good luck.

Thank You for your suggestions. I tried gparted first in a bash terminal as root. The program gparted opened up but did not show the external Windows XP drive that I want to format then I tried as root fdisk. I got this error message "you will not be able to write the partition table". Next I tried as root parted with the same result. The message I got was "unable to open disk as disk has been opened read only". I am not really familiar with any of these programs so I might not be doing it right. This disk has been a real pain and the thought that a hammer might fix it did cross my mind! In any of these programs is there an option to force a format of the disk?
Thanks Eric

First things first. When the drive is attached and "dmesg" shows that the drive is recognised, then do a "lsusb -v" as root and post the results here. Please also post the "dmesg" results as well. We'll go from there. Thanks.

Here are the results of the command lsusb -v

eric@erb11:~$ su
Password:
root@erb11:/home/eric# cd /media/disk
root@erb11:/media/disk# lsusb -v

Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Device Descriptor:
bLength 18
bDescriptorType 1
bcdUSB 1.10
bDeviceClass 9 Hub
bDeviceSubClass 0 Unused
bDeviceProtocol 0 Full speed hub
bMaxPacketSize0 64
idVendor 0x0000
idProduct 0x0000
bcdDevice 2.06
iManufacturer 3 Linux 2.6.22-1-mepis-smp uhci_hcd
iProduct 2 UHCI Host Controller
iSerial 1 0000:00:1d.2
bNumConfigurations 1
Configuration Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 2
wTotalLength 25
bNumInterfaces 1
bConfigurationValue 1
iConfiguration 0
bmAttributes 0xe0
Self Powered
Remote Wakeup
MaxPower 0mA
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 0
bAlternateSetting 0
bNumEndpoints 1
bInterfaceClass 9 Hub
bInterfaceSubClass 0 Unused
bInterfaceProtocol 0 Full speed hub
iInterface 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x81 EP 1 IN
bmAttributes 3
Transfer Type Interrupt
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0002 1x 2 bytes
bInterval 255
Hub Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 41
nNbrPorts 2
wHubCharacteristic 0x000a
No power switching (usb 1.0)
Per-port overcurrent protection
bPwrOn2PwrGood 1 * 2 milli seconds
bHubContrCurrent 0 milli Ampere
DeviceRemovable 0x00
PortPwrCtrlMask 0xff
Hub Port Status:
Port 1: 0000.0100 power
Port 2: 0000.0100 power
Device Status: 0x0003
Self Powered
Remote Wakeup Enabled

Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Device Descriptor:
bLength 18
bDescriptorType 1
bcdUSB 1.10
bDeviceClass 9 Hub
bDeviceSubClass 0 Unused
bDeviceProtocol 0 Full speed hub
bMaxPacketSize0 64
idVendor 0x0000
idProduct 0x0000
bcdDevice 2.06
iManufacturer 3 Linux 2.6.22-1-mepis-smp uhci_hcd
iProduct 2 UHCI Host Controller
iSerial 1 0000:00:1d.1
bNumConfigurations 1
Configuration Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 2
wTotalLength 25
bNumInterfaces 1
bConfigurationValue 1
iConfiguration 0
bmAttributes 0xe0
Self Powered
Remote Wakeup
MaxPower 0mA
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 0
bAlternateSetting 0
bNumEndpoints 1
bInterfaceClass 9 Hub
bInterfaceSubClass 0 Unused
bInterfaceProtocol 0 Full speed hub
iInterface 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x81 EP 1 IN
bmAttributes 3
Transfer Type Interrupt
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0002 1x 2 bytes
bInterval 255
Hub Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 41
nNbrPorts 2
wHubCharacteristic 0x000a
No power switching (usb 1.0)
Per-port overcurrent protection
bPwrOn2PwrGood 1 * 2 milli seconds
bHubContrCurrent 0 milli Ampere
DeviceRemovable 0x00
PortPwrCtrlMask 0xff
Hub Port Status:
Port 1: 0000.0100 power
Port 2: 0000.0100 power
Device Status: 0x0003
Self Powered
Remote Wakeup Enabled

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Device Descriptor:
bLength 18
bDescriptorType 1
bcdUSB 1.10
bDeviceClass 9 Hub
bDeviceSubClass 0 Unused
bDeviceProtocol 0 Full speed hub
bMaxPacketSize0 64
idVendor 0x0000
idProduct 0x0000
bcdDevice 2.06
iManufacturer 3 Linux 2.6.22-1-mepis-smp uhci_hcd
iProduct 2 UHCI Host Controller
iSerial 1 0000:00:1d.0
bNumConfigurations 1
Configuration Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 2
wTotalLength 25
bNumInterfaces 1
bConfigurationValue 1
iConfiguration 0
bmAttributes 0xe0
Self Powered
Remote Wakeup
MaxPower 0mA
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 0
bAlternateSetting 0
bNumEndpoints 1
bInterfaceClass 9 Hub
bInterfaceSubClass 0 Unused
bInterfaceProtocol 0 Full speed hub
iInterface 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x81 EP 1 IN
bmAttributes 3
Transfer Type Interrupt
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0002 1x 2 bytes
bInterval 255
Hub Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 41
nNbrPorts 2
wHubCharacteristic 0x000a
No power switching (usb 1.0)
Per-port overcurrent protection
bPwrOn2PwrGood 1 * 2 milli seconds
bHubContrCurrent 0 milli Ampere
DeviceRemovable 0x00
PortPwrCtrlMask 0xff
Hub Port Status:
Port 1: 0000.0100 power
Port 2: 0000.0100 power
Device Status: 0x0003
Self Powered
Remote Wakeup Enabled

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0402:5621 ALi Corp. USB 2.0 Storage Device
Device Descriptor:
bLength 18
bDescriptorType 1
bcdUSB 2.00
bDeviceClass 0 (Defined at Interface level)
bDeviceSubClass 0
bDeviceProtocol 0
bMaxPacketSize0 64
idVendor 0x0402 ALi Corp.
idProduct 0x5621 USB 2.0 Storage Device
bcdDevice 1.03
iManufacturer 0
iProduct 1 USB 2.0 Storage Device
iSerial 2 00042222200000139952
bNumConfigurations 1
Configuration Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 2
wTotalLength 32
bNumInterfaces 1
bConfigurationValue 1
iConfiguration 0
bmAttributes 0xc0
Self Powered
MaxPower 0mA
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 0
bAlternateSetting 0
bNumEndpoints 2
bInterfaceClass 8 Mass Storage
bInterfaceSubClass 6 SCSI
bInterfaceProtocol 80 Bulk (Zip)
iInterface 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x81 EP 1 IN
bmAttributes 2
Transfer Type Bulk
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0200 1x 512 bytes
bInterval 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x02 EP 2 OUT
bmAttributes 2
Transfer Type Bulk
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0200 1x 512 bytes
bInterval 0
Device Qualifier (for other device speed):
bLength 10
bDescriptorType 6
bcdUSB 2.00
bDeviceClass 0 (Defined at Interface level)
bDeviceSubClass 0
bDeviceProtocol 0
bMaxPacketSize0 64
bNumConfigurations 1
Device Status: 0x0001
Self Powered

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Device Descriptor:
bLength 18
bDescriptorType 1
bcdUSB 2.00
bDeviceClass 9 Hub
bDeviceSubClass 0 Unused
bDeviceProtocol 1 Single TT
bMaxPacketSize0 64
idVendor 0x0000
idProduct 0x0000
bcdDevice 2.06
iManufacturer 3 Linux 2.6.22-1-mepis-smp ehci_hcd
iProduct 2 EHCI Host Controller
iSerial 1 0000:00:1d.7
bNumConfigurations 1
Configuration Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 2
wTotalLength 25
bNumInterfaces 1
bConfigurationValue 1
iConfiguration 0
bmAttributes 0xe0
Self Powered
Remote Wakeup
MaxPower 0mA
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 0
bAlternateSetting 0
bNumEndpoints 1
bInterfaceClass 9 Hub
bInterfaceSubClass 0 Unused
bInterfaceProtocol 0 Full speed hub
iInterface 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x81 EP 1 IN
bmAttributes 3
Transfer Type Interrupt
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0004 1x 4 bytes
bInterval 12
Hub Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 41
nNbrPorts 6
wHubCharacteristic 0x000a
No power switching (usb 1.0)
Per-port overcurrent protection
TT think time 8 FS bits
bPwrOn2PwrGood 10 * 2 milli seconds
bHubContrCurrent 0 milli Ampere
DeviceRemovable 0x00
PortPwrCtrlMask 0xff
Hub Port Status:
Port 1: 0000.0100 power
Port 2: 0000.0100 power
Port 3: 0000.0100 power
Port 4: 0000.0503 highspeed power enable connect
Port 5: 0000.0100 power
Port 6: 0000.0100 power
Device Status: 0x0003
Self Powered
Remote Wakeup Enabled
root@erb

I hope it is not to much and that it will help solve this puzzle.
Thanks Eric

Here are the results of the command dmesg

[B]eric@erb11:~$ cd /media/disk
eric@erb11:/media/disk$ su
Password:
root@erb11:/media/disk# dmesg
Linux version 2.6.22-1-mepis-smp (root@mepis-pro) (gcc version 4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)) #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Feb 18 21:44:02 EST 2008
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000000e4000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000003ff40000 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000003ff40000 - 000000003ff50000 (ACPI data)
BIOS-e820: 000000003ff50000 - 0000000040000000 (ACPI NVS)
127MB HIGHMEM available.
896MB LOWMEM available.
found SMP MP-table at 000ff780
Entering add_active_range(0, 0, 261952) 0 entries of 256 used
Zone PFN ranges:
DMA 0 -> 4096
Normal 4096 -> 229376
HighMem 229376 -> 261952
early_node_map[1] active PFN ranges
0: 0 -> 261952
On node 0 totalpages: 261952
DMA zone: 32 pages used for memmap
DMA zone: 0 pages reserved
DMA zone: 4064 pages, LIFO batch:0
Normal zone: 1760 pages used for memmap
Normal zone: 223520 pages, LIFO batch:31
HighMem zone: 254 pages used for memmap
HighMem zone: 32322 pages, LIFO batch:7
DMI 2.3 present.
ACPI: RSDP 000F72A0, 0014 (r0 ACPIAM)
ACPI: RSDT 3FF40000, 002C (r1 GATEWA N1CPP057 4000301 MSFT 97)
ACPI: FACP 3FF40200, 0081 (r2 GATEWA N1CPP057 4000301 MSFT 97)
ACPI: DSDT 3FF40370, 3FB4 (r1 GATEWA N1CPP057 10A MSFT 100000D)
ACPI: FACS 3FF50000, 0040
ACPI: APIC 3FF40300, 0068 (r1 GATEWA N1CPP057 4000301 MSFT 97)
ACPI: PM-Timer IO Port: 0x408
ACPI: Local APIC address 0xfee00000
ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x01] lapic_id[0x00] enabled)
Processor #0 15:0 APIC version 20
ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x02] lapic_id[0x81] disabled)
ACPI: LAPIC_NMI (acpi_id[0x01] dfl dfl lint[0x1])
ACPI: LAPIC_NMI (acpi_id[0x02] dfl dfl lint[0x1])
ACPI: IOAPIC (id[0x01] address[0xfec00000] gsi_base[0])
IOAPIC[0]: apic_id 1, version 32, address 0xfec00000, GSI 0-23
ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 0 global_irq 2 dfl dfl)
ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 9 global_irq 9 high level)
ACPI: IRQ0 used by override.
ACPI: IRQ2 used by override.
ACPI: IRQ9 used by override.
Enabling APIC mode: Flat. Using 1 I/O APICs
Using ACPI (MADT) for SMP configuration information
Allocating PCI resources starting at 50000000 (gap: 40000000:c0000000)
Built 1 zonelists. Total pages: 259906
Kernel command line: root=/dev/sda1 nomce quiet splash vga=791 resume=/dev/sda2
mapped APIC to ffffd000 (fee00000)
mapped IOAPIC to ffffc000 (fec00000)
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Initializing CPU#0
PID hash table entries: 4096 (order: 12, 16384 bytes)
Detected 1500.064 MHz processor.
Console: colour dummy device 80x25
Dentry cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Memory: 1033952k/1047808k available (2644k kernel code, 13264k reserved, 1001k data, 244k init, 130304k highmem)
virtual kernel memory layout:
fixmap : 0xfff4f000 - 0xfffff000 ( 704 kB)
pkmap : 0xff800000 - 0xffc00000 (4096 kB)
vmalloc : 0xf8800000 - 0xff7fe000 ( 111 MB)
lowmem : 0xc0000000 - 0xf8000000 ( 896 MB)
.init : 0xc0496000 - 0xc04d3000 ( 244 kB)
.data : 0xc0395029 - 0xc048f5a4 (1001 kB)
.text : 0xc0100000 - 0xc0395029 (2644 kB)
Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode... Ok.
Calibrating delay using timer specific routine.. 3003.44 BogoMIPS (lpj=5003919)
Security Framework v1.0.0 initialized
SELinux: Disabled at boot.
Capability LSM initialized
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
CPU: After generic identify, caps: 3febfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: Trace cache: 12K uops, L1 D cache: 8K
CPU: L2 cache: 256K
CPU: Hyper-Threading is disabled
CPU: After all inits, caps: 3febfbff 00000000 00000000 0000b080 00000000 00000000 00000000
Compat vDSO mapped to ffffe000.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
SMP alternatives: switching to UP code
Freeing SMP alternatives: 14k freed
ACPI: Core revision 20070126
CPU0: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1500MHz stepping 0a
Total of 1 processors activated (3003.44 BogoMIPS).
ENABLING IO-APIC IRQs
..TIMER: vector=0x31 apic1=0 pin1=2 apic2=-1 pin2=-1
Brought up 1 CPUs
NET: Registered protocol family 16
ACPI: bus type pci registered
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xf0031, last bus=2
PCI: Using configuration type 1
Setting up standard PCI resources
ACPI: Interpreter enabled
ACPI: (supports S0 S1 S3 S4 S5)
ACPI: Using IOAPIC for interrupt routing
ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (0000:00)
PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
* The chipset may have PM-Timer Bug. Due to workarounds for a bug,
* this clock source is slow. If you are sure your timer does not have
* this bug, please use "acpi_pm_good" to disable the workaround
PCI quirk: region 0400-047f claimed by ICH4 ACPI/GPIO/TCO
PCI quirk: region 0480-04bf claimed by ICH4 GPIO
PCI: Firmware left 0000:02:08.0 e100 interrupts enabled, disabling
PCI: Transparent bridge - 0000:00:1e.0
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT]
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.P0P1._PRT]
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 *11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs *3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 *9 10 11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs 3 4 *5 6 7 9 10 11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKE] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 *11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKF] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12 14 15) *0, disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKG] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 *11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKH] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 *10 11 12 14 15)
ACPI: Power Resource [URP1] (off)
ACPI: Power Resource [FDDP] (off)
ACPI: Power Resource [LPTP] (off)
Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay
pnp: PnP ACPI init
ACPI: bus type pnp registered
pnp: PnP ACPI: found 14 devices
ACPI: ACPI bus type pnp unregistered
PnPBIOS: Disabled by ACPI PNP
SCSI subsystem initialized
libata version 2.21 loaded.
usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
usbcore: registered new device driver usb
PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
PCI: If a device doesn't work, try "pci=routeirq". If it helps, post a report
NET: Registered protocol family 8
NET: Registered protocol family 20
ACPI: RTC can wake from S4
pnp: 00:0c: ioport range 0x400-0x47f has been reserved
pnp: 00:0c: ioport range 0x680-0x6ff has been reserved
pnp: 00:0c: ioport range 0x480-0x4bf has been reserved
pnp: 00:0c: iomem range 0xfec00000-0xfec00fff has been reserved
pnp: 00:0c: iomem range 0xfee00000-0xfee00fff has been reserved
pnp: 00:0d: iomem range 0x0-0x9ffff could not be reserved
pnp: 00:0d: iomem range 0xc0000-0xdffff could not be reserved
pnp: 00:0d: iomem range 0xe0000-0xfffff could not be reserved
pnp: 00:0d: iomem range 0x100000-0x3fffffff could not be reserved
Time: tsc clocksource has been installed.
PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:01.0
IO window: disabled.
MEM window: fc900000-fe9fffff
PREFETCH window: e4600000-f46fffff
PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:1e.0
IO window: d000-dfff
MEM window: fea00000-feafffff
PREFETCH window: f4700000-f47fffff
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1e.0 to 64
NET: Registered protocol family 2
IP route cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
TCP established hash table entries: 131072 (order: 9, 2097152 bytes)
TCP bind hash table entries: 65536 (order: 7, 786432 bytes)
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 131072 bind 65536)
TCP reno registered
audit: initializing netlink socket (disabled)
audit(1234114042.189:1): initialized
highmem bounce pool size: 64 pages
VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.1
Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 4096 bytes)
squashfs: version 3.2-r2 (2007/01/15) Phillip Lougher
NTFS driver 2.1.28 [Flags: R/W].
io scheduler noop registered
io scheduler anticipatory registered
io scheduler deadline registered
io scheduler cfq registered (default)
Boot video device is 0000:01:00.0
vesafb: framebuffer at 0xe8000000, mapped to 0xf8880000, using 3072k, total 65536k
vesafb: mode is 1024x768x16, linelength=2048, pages=0
vesafb: protected mode interface info at c000:c650
vesafb: pmi: set display start = c00cc695, set palette = c00cc71a
vesafb: pmi: ports = b4c3 b503 ba03 c003 c103 c403 c503 c603 c703 c803 c903 cc03 ce03 cf03 d003 d103 d203 d303 d403 d503 da03 ff03
vesafb: scrolling: redraw
vesafb: Truecolor: size=0:5:6:5, shift=0:11:5:0
Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 128x48
fb0: VESA VGA frame buffer device
isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
Real Time Clock Driver v1.12ac
Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 4 ports, IRQ sharing enabled
serial8250: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
00:08: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 65536K size 1024 blocksize
loop: module loaded
input: Macintosh mouse button emulation as /class/input/input0
ata_piix 0000:00:1f.1: version 2.11
PCI: Enabling device 0000:00:1f.1 (0005 -> 0007)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.1[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.1 to 64
scsi0 : ata_piix
scsi1 : ata_piix
ata1: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0x000101f0 ctl 0x000103f6 bmdma 0x0001ffa0 irq 14
ata2: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0x00010170 ctl 0x00010376 bmdma 0x0001ffa8 irq 15
Switched to high resolution mode on CPU 0
ata1.00: ATAPI: AOPEN COM5232/AAH, 1.06, max UDMA/33
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/33
ata2.00: ATA-7: Maxtor 6Y080P0, YAR41BW0, max UDMA/133
ata2.00: 160086528 sectors, multi 16: LBA
ata2.00: configured for UDMA/100
scsi 0:0:0:0: CD-ROM AOPEN COM5232/AAH 1.06 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 4x/52x writer cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
sr 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0
sr 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 5
scsi 1:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA Maxtor 6Y080P0 YAR4 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] 160086528 512-byte hardware sectors (81964 MB)
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] 160086528 512-byte hardware sectors (81964 MB)
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
sda: sda1 sda2 sda3
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
sd 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
ieee1394: raw1394: /dev/raw1394 device initialized
usbmon: debugfs is not available
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.7[D] -> GSI 23 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.7 to 64
ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: EHCI Host Controller
ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: debug port 1
PCI: cache line size of 128 is not supported by device 0000:00:1d.7
ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: irq 17, io mem 0xfebffc00
ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00, driver 10 Dec 2004
usb usb1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 1-0:1.0: 6 ports detected
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
PNP: PS/2 Controller [PNP0303:PS2K,PNP0f03:PS2M] at 0x60,0x64 irq 1,12
serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
usbcore: registered new interface driver appletouch
TCP cubic registered
NET: Registered protocol family 1
NET: Registered protocol family 17
Using IPI No-Shortcut mode
input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /class/input/input1
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
VFS: Mounted root (ext3 filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 244k freed
USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v3.0
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.0 to 64
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: UHCI Host Controller
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: irq 18, io base 0x0000e800
usb usb2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 2-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.1[B] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.1 to 64
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: UHCI Host Controller
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: irq 19, io base 0x0000e880
usb usb3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
hub 3-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 3-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.2[C] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.2 to 64
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: UHCI Host Controller
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 4
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: irq 16, io base 0x0000ec00
usb usb4: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
hub 4-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 4-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
input: PC Speaker as /class/input/input2
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.3 -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 20
FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
Linux agpgart interface v0.102 (c) Dave Jones
agpgart: Detected an Intel 830M Chipset.
agpgart: AGP aperture is 64M @ 0xf8000000
e100: Intel(R) PRO/100 Network Driver, 3.5.17-k4-NAPI
e100: Copyright(c) 1999-2006 Intel Corporation
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:08.0[A] -> GSI 20 (level, low) -> IRQ 21
e100: eth0: e100_probe: addr 0xfeafe000, irq 21, MAC addr 00:07:E9:56:E0:29
input: ImPS/2 Logitech Wheel Mouse as /class/input/input3
parport_pc 00:09: reported by Plug and Play ACPI
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778), irq 7, dma 3 [PCSPP,TRISTATE,COMPAT,ECP,DMA]
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:01.0[A] -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 22
gameport: CS4281 Gameport is pci0000:02:01.0/gameport0, speed 1355kHz
Adding 1028152k swap on /dev/sda2. Priority:1 extents:1 across:1028152k
EXT3 FS on sda1, internal journal
device-mapper: ioctl: 4.11.0-ioctl (2006-10-12) initialised: dm-devel@redhat.com
ndiswrapper version 1.47 loaded (smp=yes)
usbcore: registered new interface driver ndiswrapper
fuse init (API version 7.8)
fuse distribution version: 2.7.0
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS on sda3, internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
Netfilter messages via NETLINK v0.30.
nf_conntrack version 0.5.0 (8186 buckets, 65488 max)
e100: eth0: e100_watchdog: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex
ACPI: Processor [CPU1] (supports 8 throttling states)
ACPI Exception (processor_core-0783): AE_NOT_FOUND, Processor Device is not present [20070126]
input: Power Button (FF) as /class/input/input4
ACPI: Power Button (FF) [PWRF]
input: Sleep Button (CM) as /class/input/input5
ACPI: Sleep Button (CM) [SLPB]
NET: Registered protocol family 10
lo: Disabled Privacy Extensions
lp0: using parport0 (interrupt-driven).
ppdev: user-space parallel port driver
Bluetooth: Core ver 2.11
NET: Registered protocol family 31
Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
Bluetooth: L2CAP ver 2.8
Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
Bluetooth: HIDP (Human Interface Emulation) ver 1.2
Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.8
powernow: This module only works with AMD K7 CPUs
eth0: no IPv6 routers present
ABORTED IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:07:e9:56:e0:29:00:18:3a:4d:23:07:08:00 SRC=74.6.104.11 DST=192.168.1.90 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=44 ID=0 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=443 DPT=2364 SEQ=3673271211 ACK=0 WINDOW=0 RES=0x00 RST URGP=0
ABORTED IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:07:e9:56:e0:29:00:18:3a:4d:23:07:08:00 SRC=74.6.104.11 DST=192.168.1.90 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=44 ID=0 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=443 DPT=2364 SEQ=3673271211 ACK=0 WINDOW=0 RES=0x00 RST URGP=0
ABORTED IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:07:e9:56:e0:29:00:18:3a:4d:23:07:08:00 SRC=74.6.104.11 DST=192.168.1.90 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=44 ID=0 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=443 DPT=2406 SEQ=3233153437 ACK=0 WINDOW=0 RES=0x00 RST URGP=0
ABORTED IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:07:e9:56:e0:29:00:18:3a:4d:23:07:08:00 SRC=74.6.104.11 DST=192.168.1.90 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=44 ID=0 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=443 DPT=2425 SEQ=3239937547 ACK=0 WINDOW=0 RES=0x00 RST URGP=0
ABORTED IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:07:e9:56:e0:29:00:18:3a:4d:23:07:08:00 SRC=74.6.104.11 DST=192.168.1.90 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=44 ID=0 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=443 DPT=2425 SEQ=3239937547 ACK=0 WINDOW=0 RES=0x00 RST URGP=0
ABORTED IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:07:e9:56:e0:29:00:18:3a:4d:23:07:08:00 SRC=74.6.104.11 DST=192.168.1.90 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=44 ID=0 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=443 DPT=2448 SEQ=3715647268 ACK=0 WINDOW=0 RES=0x00 RST URGP=0
ABORTED IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:07:e9:56:e0:29:00:18:3a:4d:23:07:08:00 SRC=216.77.188.54 DST=192.168.1.90 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=52 ID=11396 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=80 DPT=1689 SEQ=2070982046 ACK=3118106090 WINDOW=0 RES=0x00 ACK RST URGP=0
ABORTED IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:07:e9:56:e0:29:00:18:3a:4d:23:07:08:00 SRC=216.77.188.54 DST=192.168.1.90 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=52 ID=11402 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=80 DPT=1688 SEQ=3815310656 ACK=3123271997 WINDOW=0 RES=0x00 ACK RST URGP=0
ABORTED IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:07:e9:56:e0:29:00:18:3a:4d:23:07:08:00 SRC=204.127.218.22 DST=192.168.1.90 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=43 ID=39277 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=443 DPT=2202 SEQ=3337739875 ACK=0 WINDOW=33396 RES=0x00 RST URGP=0
ABORTED IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:07:e9:56:e0:29:00:18:3a:4d:23:07:08:00 SRC=76.13.220.11 DST=192.168.1.90 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=48 ID=0 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=443 DPT=2943 SEQ=2872035820 ACK=0 WINDOW=0 RES=0x00 RST URGP=0
ABORTED IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:07:e9:56:e0:29:00:18:3a:4d:23:07:08:00 SRC=76.13.220.11 DST=192.168.1.90 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=48 ID=0 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=443 DPT=2943 SEQ=2872035820 ACK=0 WINDOW=0 RES=0x00 RST URGP=0
ABORTED IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:07:e9:56:e0:29:00:18:3a:4d:23:07:08:00 SRC=216.52.167.81 DST=192.168.1.90 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=241 ID=56266 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=80 DPT=4311 SEQ=2037897859 ACK=371865705 WINDOW=7679 RES=0x00 ACK RST URGP=0
ABORTED IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:07:e9:56:e0:29:00:18:3a:4d:23:07:08:00 SRC=216.77.188.54 DST=192.168.1.90 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=52 ID=21697 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=80 DPT=2867 SEQ=2073101350 ACK=2188320638 WINDOW=0 RES=0x00 ACK RST URGP=0
usb 1-4: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 1-4: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
scsi2 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usb-storage: device found at 2
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
usb-storage: device scan complete
scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access USB 2.0 Storage Device 0100 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] 160086528 512-byte hardware sectors (81964 MB)
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 08 00 00 00
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] 160086528 512-byte hardware sectors (81964 MB)
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 08 00 00 00
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
sdb: sdb1
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
NTFS volume version 3.1.
NTFS-fs error (device sdb1): load_system_files(): $LogFile is not clean. Mounting read-only. Mount in Windows.
ABORTED IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:07:e9:56:e0:29:00:18:3a:4d:23:07:08:00 SRC=64.236.144.228 DST=192.168.1.90 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=113 ID=0 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=80 DPT=4443 SEQ=1403949964 ACK=3582231374 WINDOW=0 RES=0x00 ACK RST URGP=0
root@erb11:/media/disk#

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb1 .....this says i am going to write zeros to the whole hard drive sdb1 and wipe it out. according to your dmesg it loaded your dev as sdb. then saw a mbr then shows a partition sdb1 . this is a powerful tool so make sure your device is sdb1.now go back and use gparted.
if you want the data instead
You can go into fstab and /dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1 auto noauto,users,rw 0 0
and go to diretory /mnt/ and create the folder sdb1. now when you boot users can mount the drive get all your cool stuff off it. and then you have to as root umount /dev/sdb1
now go run gparted and do what ever you want.

Eric, what Drakeo above says is correct, although don't do the "dd" command if you want to get data off this drive. Otherwise it is ok to go ahead. What has happened is that the drive is mounted read only because of the following error message from your dmesg output:-

NTFS volume version 3.1.
NTFS-fs error (device sdb1): load_system_files(): $LogFile is not clean. Mounting read-only. Mount in Windows.

In your first post you said you wanted to format the drive and start again. You have the choice of trying to get the data off first, or "dd"ing to wipe it clean and start again. BTW you will be able to use "gparted" once you have wiped the drive.

I would do the following as root:-

# fdisk dev/sdb

You will then be in the fdisk interactive mode :-

Command (m for help):

(here you can type in m for help)

You will see that the letter "d" will delete partitions. I would delete all partitions on your drive and then use "w" to write to disk and "q" to exit. Then use the "gparted" program as root, which will make your life easier. Make sure that the drive is unmounted first (leave it plugged in :-)) by using the command

# umount /dev/sdb1

In "gparted" select /dev/sdb from the top right hand box and go from there. (It should display as "unallocated" if you did the "fdisk" part correctly). You may then create new partitions using the gparted GUI which may be easier for you.

Good luck.

I did the following and here is the result...

eric@erb11:~$ cd /media/disk
eric@erb11:/media/disk$ su
Password:
root@erb11:/media/disk# fdisk dev/sdb1

Unable to open dev/sdb1
root@erb11:/media/disk# fdisk /media/disk
You will not be able to write the partition table.

Unable to read /media/disk

I do not want to save any data if I can wipe the drive I am going to reinstall Windows XP than create a partition for Ubuntu 8.10. I want to show them that there are more operating systems than Winblows. I think that once they try Ubuntu they will see what I mean.
Eric

This is what I found in my /etc/fstab file. My external Windows HD is running and plugged in. I can read the Windows files ok.

# Pluggable devices are handled by uDev, they are not in fstab
/dev/sda1 / ext3 defaults,noatime 1 1
/dev/sda2 swap swap sw,pri=1 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /proc/bus/usb usbfs devmode=0666 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0622 0 0
none /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
/dev/sda3 /home ext3 defaults,noatime 1 2
# Dynamic entries below
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,users,exec,ro 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,users,exec,ro 0 0


Eric

Open a terminal and type as root: fdisk /dev/sdb (leave the one (1) off!)
You will get the following paragraph displayed:

Here you should type lower case letter M (m). This will give a number of optiions including delete. Read through it. You can enter "p" lower case letter P to print the partition table so you know what you are dealing with. You can enter a "d" lower case letter D to delete any partitions you have on sdb.

I tried this command that was suggested previously...
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb1

After running this command in bash as root and waiting for the operation to complete I was able to format the hard drive using gparted. SUCCESS!
I want to thank everyone for their help it is very much appreciated.
Eric
LINUX IS THE BEST!