Can't see USB flash drive

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: Can't see USB flash drive
started by: tonymoloney

Posted by tonymoloney on Aug. 07 2007,06:57

I'm running DSL from the hard disk on an old IBM Aptiva and it's running fine, except...
When I boot the machine it sees the USB port and says it is being managed by hotplug.
However, when I plug in my flash drive (and it HAS got data on it), I can't find it anywhere. Even if I boot the system with the drive plugged in, I still can't find it.
I've used emelfm and looked into every directory and subdirectory without success.
This system dual-boots DSL and Win98SE and Windoze can't see the drive either, but that's no surprise as Win98 tends to need special drivers for any USB drive, but I thought DSL would be able to handle it.
I'm running DSL 3.4 and I have 128Mb RAM and the kernel reports as Linux 2.4.26
Tony

Posted by JohnnyH on Aug. 07 2007,09:03

I am writing this in DSL 3.4 on a hard drive partition, having booted up with a USB Flash drive (that has both FAT16 and ext2 partitions on it) connected, and the system has recognised them both and the mount tool can mount them. So I wonder - in what form is your flash drive formatted, by what system or was it one preformatted from new ? Does it appear in the mount table ?

Posted by lucky13 on Aug. 07 2007,11:48

Are you looking in /mnt in emelfm? It should show up as /mnt/sda1 if it's the first USB media hotplug assigns a mount. The next would be sdb1, and so on.

Posted by curaga on Aug. 07 2007,15:39

Did you mount it?

Posted by tonymoloney on Aug. 08 2007,00:44

Sorry for the delay in answering - I'm Down Under in Western Australia where it's 8:30am on Wednesday.
Your tips were just what I needed. I didn't mount it because when I looked thru the mount icon, I thought that sda1 referred to a scsi disc and didn't go any further with it. Duh!
I'd seen sda1 before on this system and thought that IBM had put a scsi disc into it, because at one stage IBM tried to go down the scsi route. Just proves that assumptions can lead you up the garden path.
Thanks again - Im a happy DSL user now
Tony

Posted by alexmoon on Aug. 26 2007,11:06

How do you mount? I assume that you press the red thing that lights up with "unmounted', but that gives me an error message - something like 'mount; relocation error'.

any ideas what next

i am very new to this, both dsl and linux.

--also my 'shift' key doesn't work, apologies for the typing--

Posted by tinker on Aug. 26 2007,12:24

Okay, since you are new at this I will mention that what you have done is not the best way to get an answer.

Be a bit more specific.

Mention what it is that you are trying to mount (is it USB or another drive).

Give the exact error message. Saying "something like" is not as effective as the actual error message and sometimes confuses the issue.

Extremely important for DSL is to mention what type of install you are working from. Live CD, Frugal, traditional hard drive install, usb, etc. There are times when the answers and the solution depend on which type of install. It never hurts to mention the version of DSL as there are differences and known "feature" problems.

Additional advice:
It is always best to use the search function of the forum before posting a question. Many times a question has been asked previously and the answer is already available. That could save you time waiting for an answer.

The DSL wiki has lots of good information available, including FAQ's and howto's.
< http://damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page >