Unplugging usb mass storage in linux

launchpadtt · 03-14-2007, 04:36 PM

I just got a GP2X. It's awesome. I got a 4GB SD Card to use with the GP2X. When I got it they were selling it as a value pack, which included some games and some accessories. With it came a little SD, to USB stick dongle thingy (In one end you put in the SD Card, the other end's the USB connector).

So I was using it to copy over some files. I right-clicked and chose Unmount Volume in Xubuntu and then unplugged it. Now I think I may have unplugged it just a little bit too early because when I plugged it back in later on, nothing showed up. Tried it Ubuntu. Nothing showed up. Tried to dosfsck it. It said there was no /dev/sda1. Took the SD card out and plugged it into the GP2X. Nothing showed on the GP2X.

Of course I'm unhappy and panicking because I think at best it won't be awhile till I get it fixed and at worst the SD Card that I just got is broken.

I went into to work next morning and plugged it in on a Windows desktop, it showed up but when I double-clicked it said that the it needed to be formatted. Tried to format it. Didn't work. Tried again, but this time did a quick format. It worked, but three files showed up with garbage text for names with each, and Windows Explorer saying that each file's size was 4GB. I double click them and it says that 'there was no source file or disk' or something along those lines. So I do a Scandisk from Disk Properties, and have it automatically fix errors. That seemed to fix it.

Now my first question is, how would I have fixed this in Linux?

Next question is, why would this have happened in Linux? This has actually happened to me before with a regular USB Flash stick. Is there some sort of write-caching that Windows does that Linux doesn't? If there is how would I turn it on in Linux?

elsheikhmh · 03-14-2007, 04:50 PM

may be you may try to do from shell:

Code:

umount /dev/sda1
eject /dev/sda1

BR,
mustafa

elsheikhmh · 03-14-2007, 04:57 PM

* say your flash memory is on /dev/sda1 then the device is actually /dev/sda. that is, the hole drive is /dev/sda
* you can do

Code:

fdisk /dev/sda

and do printing, delete existing partition sda1, and then create new.
* or use cfdisk it's easier.
* to create file system:

Code:

mke2fs /dev/sda1

BR,
mustafa

launchpadtt · 03-14-2007, 05:02 PM

Well I tried 'dosfsck /dev/sda1' and it said there was no sda1. Hopefully I never see a next time of that but if I do I'll try fdisk /dev/sda , cfdisk , and mke2fs as well.

Thanks