[SOLVED] partitions on "thumb" drives

SaintDanBert · 08-27-2012, 03:10 PM

I see the following:

Code:

prompt$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb1

Disk /dev/sdb1: 16.0 GB, 16009641984 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 15267 cylinders, total 31268832 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x34704b1b

     Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1p1   *           0      854015      427008   17  Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb1p4          854016    31268831    15207408    b  W95 FAT32

However, I get the following when I try to prepare the file system:

Code:

prompt$ sudo mkfs.vfat -n "TH-RscuData" /dev/sdb1p4

mkfs.vfat 3.0.9 (31 Jan 2010)
/dev/sdb1p4: No such file or directory

--and--

Code:

prompt$ sudo mkfs.vfat -n "TH-RscuData" /dev/sdb4

mkfs.vfat 3.0.9 (31 Jan 2010)
/dev/sdb4: No such file or directory

The target media is a Verbatim 16Gbyte "thumb" drive.
It already has the Clonzilla-SystemRescueCD parts installed per USB Instructions and related pages.
Can someone please help?

Follow-up:
When I connect the "thumb" drive, I get an automatic mount of the initial partition at /dev/sdb1. I would expect that other partitions on that device, aka -- "sdb", would follow as "/dev/sdb1", "/dev/sdb2", "/dev/sdb3", "/dev/sdb4" ... and so on.

Instead, fdisk reports "sdb1p1", "sdb1p4" ...
What is that all about?

Also, gparted reports there is only one partition on the device and that it consumes the entire thumb drive.

Now I'm thoroughly confused.

Thanks in advance,
~~~ 0;-Dan

michaelk · 08-27-2012, 03:54 PM

You created a partition table and partitions within a partition. I assume when you created the additional partitions you ran the command fdisk /dev/sdb1 instead of fdisk /dev/sdb.

The partition table which is part of the MBR is not associated with a partition and I assume that gparted will only read the MBR.

SaintDanBert · 08-27-2012, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaelk

You created a partition table and partitions within a partition. I assume when you created the additional partitions you ran the command fdisk /dev/sdb1 instead of fdisk /dev/sdb.

The partition table which is part of the MBR is not associated with a partition and I assume that gparted will only read the MBR.

(blush)
up-arrow edits to commands will help make those mistakes
...

I repeated the process from scratch and noticed my error then.
Thanks for a reply to such an obvious SNAFU.

However, when I look at the newly re-made thumb drive, parted continues to complain.

Code:

prompt$ sudo parted /dev/sdb

...
Error: Invalid partition table - recursive partition on /dev/sdb.         
Ignore/Cancel? ignore                                                     

Model: Verbatim STORE N GO (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 16.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Number  Start  End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 2      437MB  16.0GB  15.6GB  primary  fat32
...

NOTE -- Unrelated device and partition details omitted.

Can anyone explain this?
~~~ 0;-Dan

michaelk · 08-27-2012, 05:02 PM

Not at the moment but it could be related to you having a sdb2 instead of sdb1.

SaintDanBert · 08-27-2012, 09:26 PM

Could be...

re: your signature quote. I like this one:
"Never tell a young person that anything cannot be done. God may have been waiting centuries for someone ignorant enough of the impossible to do that very thing." - G M Trevelyan