How do I format or partition a read-only USB drive?
Whenever I try formatting my Sandisk Cruzer Glide 16GB, I get this error message on Gparted.
GParted 0.11.0 --enable-libparted-dmraid
Libparted 2.3
Create Primary Partition #1 (ntfs, 14.42 GiB) on /dev/sdc 00:00:00 ( ERROR )
create empty partition 00:00:00 ( ERROR )
libparted messages ( INFO )
Unable to open /dev/sdc read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sdc has been opened read-only.
Unable to open /dev/sdc read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sdc has been opened read-only.
Unable to open /dev/sdc read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sdc has been opened read-only.
Can't write to /dev/sdc, because it is opened read-only.
Unable to open /dev/sdc read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sdc has been opened read-only.
========================================
How do I disable / delete the read only filesystem? Is my USB corrupted?
usb gparted format read-only
bumped to the homepage by Community♦ 2 days ago
This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.
|
show 4 more comments
Whenever I try formatting my Sandisk Cruzer Glide 16GB, I get this error message on Gparted.
GParted 0.11.0 --enable-libparted-dmraid
Libparted 2.3
Create Primary Partition #1 (ntfs, 14.42 GiB) on /dev/sdc 00:00:00 ( ERROR )
create empty partition 00:00:00 ( ERROR )
libparted messages ( INFO )
Unable to open /dev/sdc read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sdc has been opened read-only.
Unable to open /dev/sdc read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sdc has been opened read-only.
Unable to open /dev/sdc read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sdc has been opened read-only.
Can't write to /dev/sdc, because it is opened read-only.
Unable to open /dev/sdc read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sdc has been opened read-only.
========================================
How do I disable / delete the read only filesystem? Is my USB corrupted?
usb gparted format read-only
bumped to the homepage by Community♦ 2 days ago
This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.
What file system do you want to format the drive to?
– njallam
Sep 1 '12 at 6:10
Is/dev/sdc
being used by the system in anyway? such as mounting a partition in it during boot withro
option. Can you provide the output of the commandsudo umount -a
?
– Anwar
Sep 1 '12 at 6:37
1
Maybe a stupid question -- but did you run gparted as root (viasudo
) -- or using a non-privileged account? In the latter case, try the former -- as it requires root privileges to access the devices at that level ;)
– Izzy
Sep 1 '12 at 16:36
I having this problem too. can't format a USB stick of fat32 bacause it's read-only.
– yinon
Dec 2 '12 at 18:03
Check the stick --- sometime they have a physical read-only switch on them. Check if you are superuser and if the stick is unmounted. If all this checks fails, try reporting the lines that appears in/var/log/syslog
when you plug the stick in. If all else fails, I will suggest to try to zero the device withdd
--- but it's a last option kind of thing. (And yes, it can be that it's physically damaged. It happens.)
– Rmano
Nov 9 '15 at 9:14
|
show 4 more comments
Whenever I try formatting my Sandisk Cruzer Glide 16GB, I get this error message on Gparted.
GParted 0.11.0 --enable-libparted-dmraid
Libparted 2.3
Create Primary Partition #1 (ntfs, 14.42 GiB) on /dev/sdc 00:00:00 ( ERROR )
create empty partition 00:00:00 ( ERROR )
libparted messages ( INFO )
Unable to open /dev/sdc read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sdc has been opened read-only.
Unable to open /dev/sdc read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sdc has been opened read-only.
Unable to open /dev/sdc read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sdc has been opened read-only.
Can't write to /dev/sdc, because it is opened read-only.
Unable to open /dev/sdc read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sdc has been opened read-only.
========================================
How do I disable / delete the read only filesystem? Is my USB corrupted?
usb gparted format read-only
Whenever I try formatting my Sandisk Cruzer Glide 16GB, I get this error message on Gparted.
GParted 0.11.0 --enable-libparted-dmraid
Libparted 2.3
Create Primary Partition #1 (ntfs, 14.42 GiB) on /dev/sdc 00:00:00 ( ERROR )
create empty partition 00:00:00 ( ERROR )
libparted messages ( INFO )
Unable to open /dev/sdc read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sdc has been opened read-only.
Unable to open /dev/sdc read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sdc has been opened read-only.
Unable to open /dev/sdc read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sdc has been opened read-only.
Can't write to /dev/sdc, because it is opened read-only.
Unable to open /dev/sdc read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sdc has been opened read-only.
========================================
How do I disable / delete the read only filesystem? Is my USB corrupted?
usb gparted format read-only
usb gparted format read-only
edited Sep 1 '12 at 5:41
jokerdino♦
32.5k21118186
32.5k21118186
asked Sep 1 '12 at 4:36
Johnny Boy
36113
36113
bumped to the homepage by Community♦ 2 days ago
This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.
bumped to the homepage by Community♦ 2 days ago
This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.
What file system do you want to format the drive to?
– njallam
Sep 1 '12 at 6:10
Is/dev/sdc
being used by the system in anyway? such as mounting a partition in it during boot withro
option. Can you provide the output of the commandsudo umount -a
?
– Anwar
Sep 1 '12 at 6:37
1
Maybe a stupid question -- but did you run gparted as root (viasudo
) -- or using a non-privileged account? In the latter case, try the former -- as it requires root privileges to access the devices at that level ;)
– Izzy
Sep 1 '12 at 16:36
I having this problem too. can't format a USB stick of fat32 bacause it's read-only.
– yinon
Dec 2 '12 at 18:03
Check the stick --- sometime they have a physical read-only switch on them. Check if you are superuser and if the stick is unmounted. If all this checks fails, try reporting the lines that appears in/var/log/syslog
when you plug the stick in. If all else fails, I will suggest to try to zero the device withdd
--- but it's a last option kind of thing. (And yes, it can be that it's physically damaged. It happens.)
– Rmano
Nov 9 '15 at 9:14
|
show 4 more comments
What file system do you want to format the drive to?
– njallam
Sep 1 '12 at 6:10
Is/dev/sdc
being used by the system in anyway? such as mounting a partition in it during boot withro
option. Can you provide the output of the commandsudo umount -a
?
– Anwar
Sep 1 '12 at 6:37
1
Maybe a stupid question -- but did you run gparted as root (viasudo
) -- or using a non-privileged account? In the latter case, try the former -- as it requires root privileges to access the devices at that level ;)
– Izzy
Sep 1 '12 at 16:36
I having this problem too. can't format a USB stick of fat32 bacause it's read-only.
– yinon
Dec 2 '12 at 18:03
Check the stick --- sometime they have a physical read-only switch on them. Check if you are superuser and if the stick is unmounted. If all this checks fails, try reporting the lines that appears in/var/log/syslog
when you plug the stick in. If all else fails, I will suggest to try to zero the device withdd
--- but it's a last option kind of thing. (And yes, it can be that it's physically damaged. It happens.)
– Rmano
Nov 9 '15 at 9:14
What file system do you want to format the drive to?
– njallam
Sep 1 '12 at 6:10
What file system do you want to format the drive to?
– njallam
Sep 1 '12 at 6:10
Is
/dev/sdc
being used by the system in anyway? such as mounting a partition in it during boot with ro
option. Can you provide the output of the command sudo umount -a
?– Anwar
Sep 1 '12 at 6:37
Is
/dev/sdc
being used by the system in anyway? such as mounting a partition in it during boot with ro
option. Can you provide the output of the command sudo umount -a
?– Anwar
Sep 1 '12 at 6:37
1
1
Maybe a stupid question -- but did you run gparted as root (via
sudo
) -- or using a non-privileged account? In the latter case, try the former -- as it requires root privileges to access the devices at that level ;)– Izzy
Sep 1 '12 at 16:36
Maybe a stupid question -- but did you run gparted as root (via
sudo
) -- or using a non-privileged account? In the latter case, try the former -- as it requires root privileges to access the devices at that level ;)– Izzy
Sep 1 '12 at 16:36
I having this problem too. can't format a USB stick of fat32 bacause it's read-only.
– yinon
Dec 2 '12 at 18:03
I having this problem too. can't format a USB stick of fat32 bacause it's read-only.
– yinon
Dec 2 '12 at 18:03
Check the stick --- sometime they have a physical read-only switch on them. Check if you are superuser and if the stick is unmounted. If all this checks fails, try reporting the lines that appears in
/var/log/syslog
when you plug the stick in. If all else fails, I will suggest to try to zero the device with dd
--- but it's a last option kind of thing. (And yes, it can be that it's physically damaged. It happens.)– Rmano
Nov 9 '15 at 9:14
Check the stick --- sometime they have a physical read-only switch on them. Check if you are superuser and if the stick is unmounted. If all this checks fails, try reporting the lines that appears in
/var/log/syslog
when you plug the stick in. If all else fails, I will suggest to try to zero the device with dd
--- but it's a last option kind of thing. (And yes, it can be that it's physically damaged. It happens.)– Rmano
Nov 9 '15 at 9:14
|
show 4 more comments
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
I had the same problem. The issue at my case was that it was formatted as Ubuntu live CD. And instead of listing the mounpoint of the USB itself in /etc/mtab
, the Live-Folder within the USB was listed. Therefore, it was impossible to unmount the USB-drive itself. My solution was to remove the mountpoint of the USB with the command
$ sudo rm -rf /media/<name of drive>
This had the same effect as unmounting the USB and I was able to use gparted for further steps (formatting etc.)
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "89"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: true,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: 10,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2faskubuntu.com%2fquestions%2f182849%2fhow-do-i-format-or-partition-a-read-only-usb-drive%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
I had the same problem. The issue at my case was that it was formatted as Ubuntu live CD. And instead of listing the mounpoint of the USB itself in /etc/mtab
, the Live-Folder within the USB was listed. Therefore, it was impossible to unmount the USB-drive itself. My solution was to remove the mountpoint of the USB with the command
$ sudo rm -rf /media/<name of drive>
This had the same effect as unmounting the USB and I was able to use gparted for further steps (formatting etc.)
add a comment |
I had the same problem. The issue at my case was that it was formatted as Ubuntu live CD. And instead of listing the mounpoint of the USB itself in /etc/mtab
, the Live-Folder within the USB was listed. Therefore, it was impossible to unmount the USB-drive itself. My solution was to remove the mountpoint of the USB with the command
$ sudo rm -rf /media/<name of drive>
This had the same effect as unmounting the USB and I was able to use gparted for further steps (formatting etc.)
add a comment |
I had the same problem. The issue at my case was that it was formatted as Ubuntu live CD. And instead of listing the mounpoint of the USB itself in /etc/mtab
, the Live-Folder within the USB was listed. Therefore, it was impossible to unmount the USB-drive itself. My solution was to remove the mountpoint of the USB with the command
$ sudo rm -rf /media/<name of drive>
This had the same effect as unmounting the USB and I was able to use gparted for further steps (formatting etc.)
I had the same problem. The issue at my case was that it was formatted as Ubuntu live CD. And instead of listing the mounpoint of the USB itself in /etc/mtab
, the Live-Folder within the USB was listed. Therefore, it was impossible to unmount the USB-drive itself. My solution was to remove the mountpoint of the USB with the command
$ sudo rm -rf /media/<name of drive>
This had the same effect as unmounting the USB and I was able to use gparted for further steps (formatting etc.)
edited Feb 9 '15 at 20:39
user364819
answered Feb 9 '15 at 19:58
Martin Heimsoth
1
1
add a comment |
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to Ask Ubuntu!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Some of your past answers have not been well-received, and you're in danger of being blocked from answering.
Please pay close attention to the following guidance:
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2faskubuntu.com%2fquestions%2f182849%2fhow-do-i-format-or-partition-a-read-only-usb-drive%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
What file system do you want to format the drive to?
– njallam
Sep 1 '12 at 6:10
Is
/dev/sdc
being used by the system in anyway? such as mounting a partition in it during boot withro
option. Can you provide the output of the commandsudo umount -a
?– Anwar
Sep 1 '12 at 6:37
1
Maybe a stupid question -- but did you run gparted as root (via
sudo
) -- or using a non-privileged account? In the latter case, try the former -- as it requires root privileges to access the devices at that level ;)– Izzy
Sep 1 '12 at 16:36
I having this problem too. can't format a USB stick of fat32 bacause it's read-only.
– yinon
Dec 2 '12 at 18:03
Check the stick --- sometime they have a physical read-only switch on them. Check if you are superuser and if the stick is unmounted. If all this checks fails, try reporting the lines that appears in
/var/log/syslog
when you plug the stick in. If all else fails, I will suggest to try to zero the device withdd
--- but it's a last option kind of thing. (And yes, it can be that it's physically damaged. It happens.)– Rmano
Nov 9 '15 at 9:14