USB Flash drive not being detected

g35 · 09-28-2008, 11:41 PM

I have a Sandisk 512mb flash drive that isn't being detected. When i plugged it into the Windows computers at school, it just froze them. The linux computers at school didn't detect it. At home I have Slax and it doesn't show it in the my computer window. The light on the USB drive is on, though.

linux version is 2.6.24.5
currently using slax 6.0.7 to remedy the problem

fdisk -l

Code:

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9726 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xd0f4738c

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1               1           5       40131   de  Dell Utility
/dev/hda2   *           6        9333    74927160    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda3            9334        9725     3148740   db  CP/M / CTOS / ...

Disk /dev/sda: 4022 MB, 4022337536 bytes
12 heads, 4 sectors/track, 163669 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 48 * 512 = 24576 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x04030201

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *          23      163670     3927516    b  W95 FAT32

Disk /dev/sdb: 512 MB, 512483328 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 993 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1         993      500355+   b  W95 FAT32

The 4gb drive is the Kingston USB drive i'm Running Slax off of, not the problematic one.

parted /dev/sdb1

Code:

root@slax:~# parted /dev/sdb1
Error: Could not stat device /dev/sdb1 - No such file or directory.
Retry/Cancel?

/sbin/lsusb

Code:

root@slax:~# /sbin/lsusb
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0781:5150 SanDisk Corp. SDCZ2 Cruzer Mini Flash Drive (thin)
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0951:1603 Kingston Technology Data Traveler 1GB/2GB Pen Drive
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 045e:00cb Microsoft Corp.
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 413c:2003 Dell Computer Corp. Keyboard
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

Thae Sandisk drive is the one I'm having problems with. It's showing up here just fine. It also appears in the "USB Devices" section of KInfoCenter, but not in the "Partitions" section (though the Kingston one does). It seems like it's detecting that the drive is plugged in, but not as a drive, just an anonymous usb device? PLease help. I don't mind formatting it if you can explain how.

htnakirs · 09-29-2008, 12:48 AM

Could be due to bad partition information. Try using testdisk to rectify this problem.

A bad sector could also be the cause for system hanging, since in this case the system will take a long time to read the disk. In that case probably testdisk will also face the same problem. I think a complete format (not quick) should help in this case.

Bruce Hill · 09-29-2008, 04:52 AM

Is it /dev/sdb1 ?

If so, my suggestion is to write zeros to it with dd:

Code:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=1024

Then write some new partitions with "cfdisk /dev/sdb"
and label them your desired type. Then format with the
appropriate Linux tools. My flash disks are FAT32, to
work in both Windows and Linux systems reliably:

Code:

/sbin/mkdosfs -F32 -v /dev/sdb1