[SOLVED] How to Format Read Only USB Drive

[Ozo]

I am using the 19 Cinnamon Beta. I try to format the drive and it says (immediately) "Finished" but it is not formatted. I see that it is Read Only and will not format etc.. How do I Format it? It is a 1TB external hard drive which I had previously made a bootable drive and thought I could reformat but now find that I can not.

[all41]

I try to format the drive and it says (immediately) "Finished" but it is not formatted.

How are you doing this--gparted? If so after you choose format you must click the 'Apply all operations' arrow under 'Help' in the toolbar.
gparted operates with root privileges and does not observe read-only or ownership attributes.
When root creates a partition it is automatically owned by root and the group is root.

To change ownership and group to yourself you can open a terminal and enter:
sudo chown $USER:$USER /media/Ozo?/name of device
Navigate to /media/Ozo? (use your correct computer username) You will see the mount-point of the device listed there. If you did not give it a specific label it will be a long alpha-numeric name--put that in place of 'name of device' in the above command and also make sure to put the correct username in place of 'Ozo?'
Enter that command and you will become owner/group and then you will be able to change the permissions.
You can do this by navigating to that devices mount-point in /media/Ozo? and right-click the external drive icon and choose 'Properties/Permissions'
and change them there.
or in a terminal:
sudo chmod 755 /dev/sdX
make sure sdX is the correct designation for the external device as reported by gparted.
You should be good to go

[trytip]

open gparted select your drive (be sure it's the drive you want format) Device > Create Partition Table > msdos that will (should) make it so you can now format

[Ozo]

I was using the USB Stick Formatter not GParted. I went to GParted and art first did not see the drive just my main drive but it was on the drop down so I did as you (trytip) suggested. However, after the format I can no longer see the drive in GParted and the drive is no longer recognized in Mint.

[trytip]

after create new partition did you format?

[Ozo]

Yes.

After a restart I can now see the drive listed in devices but it will not open and says Can not Mount.

[trytip]

so you open gparted select your drive > device > create partition table > msdos > apply > partition > new > primary/fat32 >add >apply ?

[Ozo]

so you open gparted select your drive > device > create partition table > msdos > apply > partition > new > primary/fat32 >add >apply ?

I believe so though I do not really remember selecting primary/fat32. When I applied it pow it just disappeared from GParted.

[trytip]

i don't understand. it's invisible in gparted as well now? did you try it again

[Ozo]

i don't understand. it's invisible in gparted as well now? did you try it again

Right, it is no longer in GParted. Therefor I can not "try it again".

[Sir Charles]

Hi Ozo,

Does the drive show up in "Disks"?

[Ozo]

Yes it does.

[Ozo]

I formatted it from Disks and it shows up in GParted now but is not recognized in Files.

[Sir Charles]

You have just deleted that partition without creating a new one and formatting it.
Right-click on that unallocated space in Gparted and from the menu choose "new" and decide the size of the new partition. Next, right-click on it once again and "format to" choosing the format you want and then "apply". When it's all done, close Gparted and see if it shows up in Files. If it doesn't, launch "Disks" once again and click on the triangle:

Disks.png

It should show up in Files now.

[trytip]

+1 @ Marziano
Ozo, your drive is NOT FORMATTED. (you created a new partition table but not a new partition) there are instances where drives are locked and can't be accessed but don't know unless you at the least follow instructions in order posted

[Ozo]

Umm, I am not sure what to enter here.

[Sir Charles]

If you want only one partition on the whole disk, just set the "file system" you want by clicking on the arrows and choosing from the menu. Next click "add" and finally "apply".

[Reorx]

What do you want (in terms of partitions) on your 1 TB drive. The image you posted will result in the creation of a single ext4 partition that will occupy the entire disk... is that what you want?

[trytip]

you said you want fat32 ? what will this drive be used for ? fat32 for 1TB drive is not very useful in linux

[Ozo]

That works, thanks for all the help.