non fat filesystem on flashdisk

zefram · 04-25-2009, 12:30 PM

Hi,

I'm having trouble with a new flashdisk: Kingston DataTraveler 8GB.

It seams this flashdisk doesn't want any other filesystem than fat. I've tried ext3 and ntfs, in different partition sizes and configurations.

Also ran badblocks on it, and all seams fine. Is it possible that this flashdisk can only do fat?

Below are the output of me trying to put ext3 on the drive:

Code:

fdisk /dev/sdb

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 8000.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
   (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sdb: 8388 MB, 8388608000 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 8000 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe1b8cba1

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1        8000     8191984   83  Linux

mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb1 
mke2fs 1.41.3 (12-Oct-2008)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
512064 inodes, 2047996 blocks
102399 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=2097152000
63 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
8128 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks: 
	32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632

Writing inode tables: done                            
Creating journal (32768 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

This filesystem will be automatically checked every 32 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.

mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/1/
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb1,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so

headrift · 04-25-2009, 12:51 PM

The output of fdisk and mkfs.ext3 seem good, so based on that I'd say that the filesystem is created properly. It's obviously the mount that's not good... have you tried mount with the -t switch?

I'd also go with ext2. Journals might need extra writes and decrease lifetime. That's just a hunch, though.

I'm guessing you don't want this readable on Windows.

zefram · 04-26-2009, 01:27 AM

I've tried ext2 just now, and was very surprised that it worked!

I only tried ntfs to see if I can create anything other than fat, but I'll be able to do what i wanted ext2, so I'm happy. Thanks for the answer.

But that still leaves me curious as to why the ext3 and ntfs filesystems didn't work. I can create ntfs and ext3 filesystems with my other flashdisk just fine. I also tried doing this from different computers, but the problem definitely has something todo with the flashdisk.

When trying to mount an ext3 filesystem on the drive i get the following in the log:

Code:

JBD: no valid journal superblock found

When trying to mount an ntfs partition nothing gets logged, but i still get the following:

Code:

fdisk /dev/sdb

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 8000.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
   (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sdb: 8388 MB, 8388608000 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 8000 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe1b8cba1

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1        8000     8191984   87  NTFS volume set


mkfs.ntfs /dev/sdb1 
Cluster size has been automatically set to 4096 bytes.
Initializing device with zeroes: 100% - Done.
Creating NTFS volume structures.
mkntfs completed successfully. Have a nice day.

mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/1
$MFTMirr does not match $MFT (record 0).
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb1': Input/output error
NTFS is either inconsistent, or you have hardware faults, or you have a
SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows
then reboot into Windows TWICE. The usage of the /f parameter is very
important! If you have SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first you must activate
it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g.
/dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation
for the details.

zefram · 04-26-2009, 01:31 AM

Also specifying the appropriate type with mount -t makes no difference.

zefram · 04-29-2009, 11:44 PM

Yesterday I realized the flashdisk is broken. Data that are copied onto it gets corrupted instantly. That explains why ext3 and ntfs didn't work.