installed "TAILS" on USB - now can't clear it

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djevanstn
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installed "TAILS" on USB - now can't clear it

Post by djevanstn »

(SOLVED - possibly a defective USB drive)

- 64GB USB drive
- PC was unable to "see" (or report anything about the drive) the USB drive when inserted (didn't show up in "lsusb" either but the computer detected the USB insertion"
- this drive previously had "TAILS installed
- used gparted to delete TAILS partition
- total drive size is now being incorrectly reported
- went ahead and created a total drive partition of what is now being reported and formatted the drive "FAT32
- drive now shows up as 62GB drive and is "usable"

Not a big deal, but can anyone tell me how to recover the space "apparently reserved" somehow by the previous "tails" install? Just trying to learn...
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: installed "TAILS" on USB - now can't clear it

Post by AZgl1800 »

what is 'tails' ??

nevermind, Google to the Rescue

https://tails.boum.org/
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all41
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Re: installed "TAILS" on USB - now can't clear it

Post by all41 »

djevanstn wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 6:26 pm - 64GB USB drive
- PC was unable to "see" (or report anything about the drive) the USB drive when inserted (didn't show up in "lsusb" either but the computer detected the USB insertion"
- this drive previously had "TAILS installed
- used gparted to delete TAILS partition
- total drive size is now being incorrectly reported
- went ahead and created a total drive partition of what is now being reported and formatted the drive "FAT32
- drive now shows up as 62GB drive and is "usable"

Not a big deal, but can anyone tell me how to recover the space "apparently reserved" somehow by the previous "tails" install? Just trying to learn...
Sticks used for hybrid iso files are sometimes stubborn to reformat correctly.

See this thread:
viewtopic.php?p=1853813#p1853813
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Re: installed "TAILS" on USB - now can't clear it

Post by Aztaroth »

Hello,
Try to make a 'fake' ISO with your key.
You've probably an LM ISO somewhere on your disk.
Create a live disk on your 64 Gb key (in order to wipe out everything that was on that key before)
When successfully done, reformat the key in ext4 or any supported fs.

Used the trick many times with recalcitrant keys, not with Tails, I agree, but I don't see why it wouldn't work in this specific case.

Another way to do this trick is to find a Windows computer whose 'normal' behaviour is to see an unformatted key. Let it perform an NTFS format, then come back to Linux and reformat it in the fs you wish. A rare case Microsoft's useful :D
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all41
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Re: installed "TAILS" on USB - now can't clear it

Post by all41 »

Aztaroth wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 11:47 pm Hello,
Try to make a 'fake' ISO with your key.
You've probably an LM ISO somewhere on your disk.
Create a live disk on your 64 Gb key (in order to wipe out everything that was on that key before)
When successfully done, reformat the key in ext4 or any supported fs.

Used the trick many times with recalcitrant keys, not with Tails, I agree, but I don't see why it wouldn't work in this specific case.

Another way to do this trick is to find a Windows computer whose 'normal' behaviour is to see an unformatted key. Let it perform an NTFS format, then come back to Linux and reformat it in the fs you wish. A rare case Microsoft's useful :D
Interesting approach.

It's the boot sectors written with hybrid .iso that outly normal reformat sectors.
This:

Code: Select all

sudo shred -s $((2048*512)) -vzn0 /dev/sdX
overwrites those sectors--simon says
This erases the entire partition table *.*
After which a new partition table is written, and new partition(s) are defined. Use gparted for this
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Re: installed "TAILS" on USB - now can't clear it

Post by t42 »

djevanstn wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 6:26 pm - 64GB USB drive
....
- went ahead and created a total drive partition of what is now being reported and formatted the drive "FAT32
- drive now shows up as 62GB drive and is "usable"
It depends how you got the size, in powers of 1024 or in powers of 1000
compare an output of these two commands (change sdc1 to actual value)

Code: Select all

df -h /dev/sdc1
df -H /dev/sdc1
Please note that according to manufactures the 64GB pendrive is 64 000 000 000 bytes. To convert it into GB the system divides those bytes by 1 073 741 824
64,000,000,000 / 1,073,741,824 = 59.6
So 64GB USB size is 59.6 GB.

...and please do not forget about FAT32 overhead which is about 16 MB for 2 GB partition and 512 block size.
-=t42=-
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Re: installed "TAILS" on USB - now can't clear it

Post by djevanstn »

first "t42"

Thank you for the reply and I fully understand.

I should have added that even in the GUI that particular drive always came used to appear as a 64gb drive.

I have formatted both EXT4 and FAT32 and the result is virtually the same in terms of free space. "I'm short a couple of GB's" Again, thank you for the reply/info

Now, "Aztaroth"

"EXCELLENT" idea, I didn't think to try that. I will first try creating one with "Etcher," that failing? I'll try again with USB writer. I'll get back to you both if you're interested . . . Thank you for the idea...
djevanstn
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Re: installed "TAILS" on USB - now can't clear it

Post by djevanstn »

Thank you all for the suggestions. I think I'm just going to have to try to live with the loss of 2GB's of storage. :roll:

- I tried all of the suggestions here
- I tried Windows formatting (nope)
- I tried the shred command (I really thought that had a chance (nope))
- I tried "cloning" another drive with etcher (nope, still couldn't get that 2 GB back)
- I tried installing an ISO with Etcher, Rufus, and USB image writer (nope again)

I'm going to marked this "solved" saying defective USB drive

I am still going to try to download "tails" ISO again and install that one again. I guess I could lose another 2 GB but it also might work...

Thank you all for taking the time to help me to fix this. Most helpful and I keep learning things for the future... Don . . .
djevanstn
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Re: installed "TAILS" on USB - now can't clear it

Post by djevanstn »

CtrlAltDel . . .

In progress now. I'll get back to you here...Tnx!
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Re: installed "TAILS" on USB - now can't clear it

Post by AndyMH »

gparted can struggle reformatting a stick that has had an iso burnt to it. As well as shred, you can use dd to wipe the start of the drive:

Code: Select all

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=1
Then use gparted or disks to create a new partition table and create new partitions.

Both shred and dd are dangerous - get the drive wrong and you could end up wiping your system drive (dd is also known as disk destroyer).

The safest way is to install mkusb:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb ... he%20hood.
You are less likely to pick the wrong drive and it has a 'restore to standard storage device' option which will do what shred and dd do, put a new partition table on the stick and format it fat32.
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djevanstn
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Re: installed "TAILS" on USB - now can't clear it

Post by djevanstn »

Nope, I'm done with this USB drive. (as far as the 2 GB loss)

I've reinstalled TAILS 4 times and removed it 3 times now. It works fine. I don't want this particular installation of tails to be persistent, so I'm done with it. Again thank "you all" so much for all the ideas to try. I must have 25, maybe 30 other USB drives of all sizes from 8GB to 256GB. It was never caring about losing that drive, but the education from "you all" was quite helpful even in failure.
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