Hi, I have just acquired 2 Kingston USB memory sticks. How do I use these for back-ups of my documents etc. I am running Mandriva 2010.1. Using Dolphin the Kingston is not shown. Using Ark I can see Kingston is shown but the software refuses to let me do anything with it. I have tried using a command shell as SU but I still cannot get the data onto the stick. Sorry if I appear a bit thick, I am an experienced Linux user but this one has me stumped as to just what and how to do. Thanks for any help

This old post suggests that MAYBE (wild guess here) you inadvertantly formatted the drive such that only "root" has write permissions:

http://mandrivausers.org/index.php?/...-drive-solved/

Strong suggestion:
1. Mount the drive
2. Format the drive as FAT32 (allowing you to read and copy files on any PC, not just Linux PCs)
3. See if the problem persists with the FAT32 filesystem

Two problems with FAT32:
* You'll lose Linux permissions or the ability to do soft links (if these are critical)
<= If you're just copying "files" (especially "tar" files, which allow you to RETAIN directories and Linux permissions), there should be no problem
* You'll be limited to max filesize of 2GB

'Hope that helps .. PSM

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Thanks for that. I have not formatted the stick, it is not shown where it is mounted. In /dev there is /bus/usb/001 and /bus/usb/002 which corresponds to the 2 main USB ports on the motherboard. Port 001 has the printer on it, port 002 has the stick on it but neither is shown in Dolphin. How do I format the stick? What is the path to the stick? Is there a particular software package I should have to access the stick? Thanks,

Joe.

Does the blkid command output include the stick? If not, does anything appear in the /var/log/* files when you plug the stick in (use ls -lrt /var/log to see which, if any, have changed immediately after plugging in the stick)?

to format the usb sticks Id use the diskdrake, all with the gui from Mandrivia control center / local disks.
the once formatted drop and drag with dolphin.

Thanks for the replies. The blkid command clearly shows the Kingston stick as disk C (now formatted as ext4 fs (thanks to above advice from mecelec415).When the stick is plugged in the system sees it (window on bottom right of screen comes up saying "Kingston Storage Volume plugged in".In dolphin I mounted it on /var/ftp (don't know if this is right) then had to change permissions. Using dolphin I got the back up done and checked. All seems OK and thanks for all your help,

Joe.