Memory Flash Stick in Linux and Windows XP
 

This is an odd problem, folks!

I mounted the USB memory stick (64 MB) and it works fine. When I go to my usbstick directory, /mnt/usbstick/, it works. So I copy my files onto there and it works fine. I type 'ls' in the /mnt/usbstick/ directory and my files are there. Cool!

I take my memory stick to work and plug it into my computer (Windows XP) and it recognizes the memory stick. I then open the drive and NOTHING is on there! I copy some files onto the memory stick from Windows XP. So after work, I take it back home and plug it back into my Linux and the Linux files are there but NO Windows XP files are there! What's going on??!?!? Are these operating systems not wanting to read each others files????

The memory stick is not being mounted. The floppy and CDROM drives are configured for supermount so that you do not explicitly need to use the mount / umount.

For me it never really worked for my memory stick and I don't use supermount or let kudzu detect it. So therefore I created a desktop shortcut that mount / umounts the stick.

Do you have a /etc/fstab line for the memory stick?

Sorry, I should be more specific than general.

I went to a website and they told me to add lines in my /etc/fstab, which I did.
Yes, I do have a /etc/fstab line for the memory stick. I am at work so I will copy and paste later tonight when I get home. So maybe I didn't exactly MOUNT it, per se, but it is in the /mnt/usbstick/ directory.

I'm just confused as to why the files ARE being copied onto the memory stick, but neither operating system will acknowledge the other's files on the memory stick. Really weird!

Unless the filesystem is mounted data is not being written to the usbstick.

In a nutshell all filesystems are part of a big tree. Unlike windows there are not seperate c: d: e: drives. Everything falls under / (root).

Creating a directory called /mnt/usbstick is no different then creating a directory called /home/username/mp3_files. Either way you can create, copy or move files etc. etc. However, since /mnt is usually not a seperate partition the data is actually written to the / partition.

But when you mount the memory stick you are attaching the filesystem i.e. data on the stick to the directory. So now /mnt/usbstick is actually the contents of the device and not the directory. The actual files written to the directory will disappear until the device is unmounted.

Ah, I see what you're saying. So basically the /mnt/usbstick/ may not even actually be the physical memory stick, rather, just another directory on the hard drive. Bummer. :(

I will post my /etc/fstab/ when I get home. I think this will show you if my Linux is really detecting the physical USB memory stick.

here is my fstab. Can anyone see what's wrong with it??

/dev/hdb1 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/hdb7 /back2 ext3 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
/dev/hdb6 /home ext3 defaults 1 2
none /mnt/cdrom supermount dev=/dev/scd0,fs=auto,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
none /mnt/cdrom2 supermount dev=/dev/hdd,fs=auto,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=auto,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows ntfs iocharset=iso8859-1,ro,umask=0 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hdb5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/usbstick vfat user,noauto,umask=0 0 0
/dev/sda2 /mnt/hd auto user,iocharset=iso8859-1,kudzu,codepage=850,noauto,umask=0,exec 0 0

Nevermind guys, I think I solved my own problem!

I just type

and it works! I know it works because I can see my Windows XP files on the flash memory stick.