I had some music on a 1Go usb drive
I removed all the mp3 in there to put some new ones
I had some write access (beeing root) pbs with some files in hidden dirs (.Trash or something ...), it says read-only file system....
so I decided to low level format the drive: right after that, I made a new whole primary partition with cfdisk: I used all the possible space.

then I tried the following commands but none of them work, the hi-fi mp3 reader cannot read a song anymore.

output: I use blkid as well to check out if the drive is formated correctly:
=> NO SONG

output:=> NO SONG

output:=> NO SONG

output:=> NO SONG

I even tried ntfs (but I am pretty sure it was not ntfs formated last time it worked out).
output:=> NO SONG

I tried a last time with a label:
output:=> NO SONG

(just for your info), I always follow these steps:
- insert usb key into pc
- umount it because of auto-mount
- check the partition is umounted
- mkfs
- mount the device
- copy a mp3 to the device
- check the copy is all right
- umount the device
- make a test on a hi-fi mp3 reader.

If it does not work, I re-try from mkfs.
Just once I did all the processus over again from cfdisk: In cfdisk, instead of the default type (which is ext3), I chose DRDOS (FAT 16 < 32 M) but it did not work either.

I tried the usb under windows, it works and the mp3 can be read.

I do not know what else I can try. any idea folks??? thank you so much to help.

How are your permissions. Are you root?

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Seems you may not have made a new partition after wiping the disk with "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb", what does "fdisk -l" show? How was the partition created?
I also don't see any steps explaining how you are copying songs onto the new file system.

1 members found this post helpful.

Post the make/model of your HiFi device. There might be some specific limitations on the number of directories/files/naming, type of MP3 i.e bit rate, CBW versus VBW etc that the player can read.

Make sure the partition ID is for a FAT32 i.e C (hex value). linux does not care and if it was not correct I would expect Windows to pop an error box requesting to format the drive. If you format the drive in windows and it works can you then insert it in your linux box and copy a MP3? What happens when you try to play the file in the MP3 reader?

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I always use the GUI program gparted for these things.

Just noticed you said hi-fi device - is FAT32 suitable for hi-fi???

2 members found this post helpful.

I feel a lot of the earlier responses are right on the mark.

You need to use sudo or be root.

You need to create a partition before you can create a file system.

You can consider fdisk which is needed prior to the mkfs.

The use of gparted will help things immensely if you happen to have difficulties with command line operations.

@ kudsu
with permissions set to default, you cannot dd, nor cfdisk nor mkfs. So yes I am root.

@273
as I said, I made a new whole partition with cfdisk before mkfs.
but please, continue reading because you put me on a lead and you may be very surprised.

@michaelk
it's one of the smallest philips hi-fi. before I put approximatively 1 hundred mp3 files int the usb drive root (no folders) and it worked out perfectly.
for this test, I put only 1 mp3 file on the drive.

as I said, I tried the usb on windows and there was no pbs at all: mp3 could be read both under linux and windows

@JeremyBoden
cfdisk is maybe better than a gui; you just need 4 buttons to handle it: 'tab','enter','up/down arrow'.
fat32 should be used for usb, particulary if volume is > 2Go. Anyway I tried, fat16,fat32 and ntfs.

@rtmistler
You need to use sudo or be root -> yes I was (see above)
You need to create a partition before you can create a file system -> Yes I did (as I said).
You can consider fdisk which is needed prior to the mkfs. -> I used cfdisk, but next time I will try fdisk, sure thing.
The use of gparted will help things immensely if you happen to have difficulties with command line operations. -> trust me, you cannot make simpler than cfdisk.

Anyway, I thank you so much guys because you put me on the right lead:
@273 said you may not have made a partition after wiping the volume.
I was just wondering wether it could be possible to format without partitioning before (the way I understand things, it should not work, right?)
so I did the following
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb
output:
dd: writing to ‘/dev/sdb’: No space left on device
1956736+0 records in
1956735+0 records out
1001848320 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 376.86 s, 2.7 MB/s

after I check out with cfdisk (it says "device does not contain a recognized partition table..."). I just quit cfdisk and did nothing there (ctrl C)

I check out with blkid:
blkid /dev/sdb (there is no output at all!)

I check out with file cmd and nothing either:
file -s /dev/sdb
output:
/dev/sdb: data (nothing as well).

Now I mkfs:
mkfs.vfat -I /dev/sdb
and check out the result:

blkid /dev/sdb
output:
/dev/sdb: UUID="1C00-262E" TYPE="vfat"

file -s /dev/sdb
output:
/dev/sdb: DOS/MBR boot sector, code offset 0x58+2, OEM-ID "mkfs.fat", sectors/cluster 8, Media descriptor 0xf8, sectors/track 62, heads 31, sectors 1956735 (volumes > 32 MB) , FAT (32 bit), sectors/FAT 1908, serial number 0x1c00262e, unlabeled

mount /dev/sdb /mnt
cp /path/to/file.mp3 /mnt
umount /dev/sdb

and guess what? it WORKS!!!!!
but it only works with '-I' options with mkfs.

thanx folks !!

I'm glad it worked out for you, have to admit I missed that you created the partition because you only typed you did it but didn't list the command.
I was actually looking for things like errors creating the partition or letters or numbers in each not agreeing (as per your reply above ).

[QUOTE=gilliat;5717921]@ kudsu
with permissions set to default, you cannot dd, nor cfdisk nor mkfs. So yes I am root.

@273
as I said, I made a new whole partition with cfdisk before mkfs.
but please, continue reading because you put me on a lead and you may be very surprised.

@michaelk
it's one of the smallest philips hi-fi. before I put approximatively 1 hundred mp3 files int the usb drive root (no folders) and it worked out perfectly.
for this test, I put only 1 mp3 file on the drive.

as I said, I tried the usb on windows and there was no pbs at all: mp3 could be read both under linux and windows

@JeremyBoden
cfdisk is maybe better than a gui; you just need 4 buttons to handle it: 'tab','enter','up/down arrow'.
fat32 should be used for usb, particulary if volume is > 2Go. Anyway I tried, fat16,fat32 and ntfs.

@rtmistler
You need to use sudo or be root -> yes I was (see above)
You need to create a partition before you can create a file system -> Yes I did (as I said).
You can consider fdisk which is needed prior to the mkfs. -> I used cfdisk, but next time I will try fdisk, sure thing.
The use of gparted will help things immensely if you happen to have difficulties with command line operations. -> trust me, you cannot make simpler than cfdisk.

Anyway, I thank you so much guys because you put me on the right lead:
@273 said you may not have made a partition after wiping the volume.
I was just wondering wether it could be possible to format without partitioning before (the way I understand things, it should not work, right?)
so I did the following
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb
output:
dd: writing to ‘/dev/sdb’: No space left on device
1956736+0 records in
1956735+0 records out
1001848320 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 376.86 s, 2.7 MB/s

after I check out with cfdisk (it says "device does not contain a recognized partition table..."). I just quit cfdisk and did nothing there (ctrl C)

I check out with blkid:
blkid /dev/sdb (there is no output at all!)

I check out with file cmd and nothing either:
file -s /dev/sdb
output:
/dev/sdb: data (nothing as well).

Now I mkfs:
mkfs.vfat -I /dev/sdb
and check out the result:

blkid /dev/sdb
output:
/dev/sdb: UUID="1C00-262E" TYPE="vfat"

file -s /dev/sdb
output:
/dev/sdb: DOS/MBR boot sector, code offset 0x58+2, OEM-ID "mkfs.fat", sectors/cluster 8, Media descriptor 0xf8, sectors/track 62, heads 31, sectors 1956735 (volumes > 32 MB) , FAT (32 bit), sectors/FAT 1908, serial number 0x1c00262e, unlabeled

mount /dev/sdb /mnt
cp /path/to/file.mp3 /mnt
umount /dev/sdb

and guess what? it WORKS!!!!!
but it only works with '-I' options with mkfs.

Many thanx folks !!

I can't figure out, and I'm sure no one else can either, what the purpose of is in your examples. And I'm pretty sure you'll need to actually write files to the drive in order for there to be any on it.

Is there no song on an mp3 player? Can the mp3 player format the drive? Be sure to DOS partition and probably mkfs.fat -F 16 depending on how OLD the mp3 player is. Also older readers could only read up to a certain sized card. Which would be a hardware limit. Try making the first partition only 2GB and leaving the rest of the card unallocated. Then mkfs and the likes.

Edit: actually 2GB since that is the max size for a partition with Fat16. But try 4GB, 8GB, and such if Fat32.

According to the file man page,So gives me

Yes, it does. But why do you need that as part of a format command? I never needed it to formate a drive. The answer is you don't need it. The drive will format whether or not that extra output is produced. It has nothing to do with formatting the drive.

It indicates that the partition was successfully formatted with a file system.
Of course you don't need to use it, since it only answers an existential question...

I guess I'm just too trusting.