I have an old Lexmark USB stick formatted as FAT32 that for some reason now only mounts as read only for either Linux or Windows. There is no readonly switch on the stick. I was able to copy data off but now can't even format whether under Linux or Windows, says read only. Tried GParted, hdparm -r0 and other methods, still read only. Tried from two different Linux laptops. Any suggestions?
# sudo umount /dev/sdb1
# sudo dosfsck -a /dev/sdb1
fsck.fat 3.0.28 (2015-05-16)
open: Read-only file system
fsck /dev/sdb1
fsck from util-linux 2.27.1
fsck.fat 3.0.28 (2015-05-16)
open: Read-only file system
hdparm -r0 says it turns off read only but still get read-only errors.
USB stick went to read-only
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USB stick went to read-only
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Re: USB stick went to read-only
Well, I've had the problem from Windows in the past. Although, I've heard there are some bad controller chips that can cause the problem. Could try this method from Windows:
https://datarecovery.wondershare.com/fl ... drive.html
https://datarecovery.wondershare.com/fl ... drive.html
Re: USB stick went to read-only
If you don't mind wiping the drive contents, there's a Gnomey solution...
o Use the Disks accessory to write zeros to the whole drive. Feel free to interrupt it any time after 1MiB has been written.
Disks can be a bit flakey, mine often crashes with a 'quark' error, and it's not a default KDE application at all, so I invented a Minty solution...
o Make a dummy distro...
oo Use Mint USB Writer to write the dummy.iso to the store.
ooo Use Mint USB Formatter to initialise the drive.
If neither of these work, but you can still read the drive, it's write-life-expired.
o Use the Disks accessory to write zeros to the whole drive. Feel free to interrupt it any time after 1MiB has been written.
Disks can be a bit flakey, mine often crashes with a 'quark' error, and it's not a default KDE application at all, so I invented a Minty solution...
o Make a dummy distro...
head -c 32M /dev/zero > dummy.iso
oo Use Mint USB Writer to write the dummy.iso to the store.
ooo Use Mint USB Formatter to initialise the drive.
If neither of these work, but you can still read the drive, it's write-life-expired.
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Re: USB stick went to read-only
Burning an image with USB Image Writer doesn't work, has an error with no explanation.
Tried USB Stick Formatter and it says that it formatted but when mounting it still has old data and still read-only.
Didn't realized USB sticks can expire for writes, I guess that is what happened.
Tried USB Stick Formatter and it says that it formatted but when mounting it still has old data and still read-only.
Didn't realized USB sticks can expire for writes, I guess that is what happened.