Hi. It's the same usb drive (Verbatim 3 GB) I asked about in the forum here before. I'd just deleted everything on the drive and it seemed to be working fine, but then I'd get these lock icons next to all the files and the whole thing got snarky.

Someone in another forum suggested this:

I've had several flash drives mount themselves as "read only", which will lock up on a write. This was usually because the file system had become corrupted. Running "dosfsck" from the command prompt fixes it up.

And I did it. It seemed to work but then the drive got mega-snarky. It would copy a file to it, but then when I looked at the drive the file wasn't there. And sometimes it would copy the file perfectly.

I'm on the verge of bailing on the drive, so I don't really care if I wreck it (with risky advice). But I can't keep using a drive that's unreliable.

Any ideas? Thanks!

May I ask what method you're using to copy files to the usb stick? Are you doing it from a terminal? If so, are there any error messages when things go "snarky"? You haven't been doing it from a terminal, you might want to try that and see if any useful information is forthcoming.

Oh, and what filesystem are you using on the usb stick?
jdk

here is a tool to identify your usb device http://agnipulse.com/2010/03/chipgen...rmation-tools/ (look for vendor id and product id) and try to find a low level format tool. Probably that helps.
Unfortunately I have no idea if there are any similar software(s) exist on linux, these are running on windows.

I had that problem too and I have 2 solutions for you. [First one fixed mine]

1. Connect USB device to a Windows based computer and check and repair device. Suit for NTFS and FAT devices.
2. Create a new partition table with GParted or something. Then create a Linux related partition on disk. [ext2, ext3, ReiserFS etc.]

Throw it away and get a new one.

I have seen ones that drive me mad trying to run it in a linux format and ones that drive me mad trying to get linux to work on it.

They all tend to do OK on ntfs or fat formats. I suspect the controller timing is causing this.

LZM jdk,

Method: mostly working in LO and "save as" on the usb drive. Not from terminal. (Didn't know you could.) And yes, when I first go to save on the usb drive it says something like (I don't have it with me): 'When you tried to save this on 05.09.14 you locked this device on a different system. Do you want to get out of that system and retry saving here, or do you want to proceed with the save anyway?'

Well, I proceeded with the save anyway and it saved it--and then the next time I did the 'save as' it didn't give me the message and it just saved it. So I'm actually thinking it might be okay.

And I don't know (and I bet Uncle Bob doesn't either) what filesystem the usb stick is.

Thanks pan. I downloaded Deview (looks like a great program) and it opened with Wine but didn't show any data. (Almost makes me wish I had windows just to see it in action. (emphasis on "almost"))

Thanks Enindu. The USB drive kind of started working properly again, so I'm going the keep using it, but it's good to know these potential solutions are out there. (I bookmarked Gparted.)

Ha ha, jefro. That's probably the best advice, but for some nutty reason I really like this drive. Gonna play with it a bit more.

It's official. I gave up and pitched it. (Took Jefro's advice!)