Re-partition USB Flash Drive.....

Forum: USB booting
Topic: Re-partition USB Flash Drive.....
started by: timmoore46

Posted by timmoore46 on Feb. 07 2006,21:05

I suceeded in installing DSL on a 256Mb Pen Drive.

But the Bios on the PC wasn't that friendly and refused to boot.

Tried to use fdisk(linux-dsl version) which has always been my friend on other distros but I didn't get anywhere.

sda1 I've reformated to FAT32 on another younger PC, but sda2 has not yielded to anything I've tried so far.

Any tips on how to get fdisk to do it's good work?

Tim

Posted by roberts on Feb. 07 2006,23:47

If you have two partitions, then you must have used the usbzip version? If you rerun the install with usbhdd version then the script will make a single fat partition.

Posted by timmoore46 on Feb. 08 2006,20:37

Tried that but no luck.

When I was attempting the first install I used the HHD option but didn't work, but did for Zip version. Hence the 2 partiions.

So I tried it again after your post and it fell over just like the first time.

So still got a limited to 50Mb flash drive. *LOL*

Tim

Posted by MakodFilu on Feb. 09 2006,00:33

Quote (timmoore46 @ Feb. 07 2006,21:05)

Any tips on how to get fdisk to do it's good work?

As far as I understood you, you were looking for a way to sanitise that 256MB pendrive back into one partition, and Roberts told you how to do so.

Sure, you now have a 256MB USB-HDD partition with a (in your target system) non useful non bootable DSL. Now you can format it and you have your 256MB clean pendrive you had before.

Or you decide to put that pendrive into good use again and format it as an USB-ZIP that AFAIK requires that 2 partition scheme, but now you have a bootable pendrive.

I really don't understand that, but I suppose it should be done that way for a reason or it wouldn't be done that way. I'll even bet that if you manage to 'merge' both partitions, that pendrive would be unable to boot.

Posted by timmoore46 on Feb. 09 2006,01:07

The PC Bios does not support USB boot. Nor does my laptop. That was my mistake in not checking first.

So I created a 'good' bootable usd pen with DSL on it but plain old fashioned could not use it! <doh>

So I'd rather like my 256 Mb back by resetting the first partition from the current 50Mb to use the entire drive.

But the best method as recommended to me, isn't available because it doesn't work.

So any suggestions as to what i could do next are very welcome!

Tim

Posted by MakodFilu on Feb. 09 2006,02:33

Not sure if I understood you, but the USB-ZIP is only a nuisance in Windows. I have my 50/460MB USB-ZIP and I don't consideer those 460MB wasted because on GNU/Linux you can mount and use sda2. That obviously includes DSL.

Posted by cbagger01 on Feb. 09 2006,05:12

Well, you can always try the manual approach.

1) Boot DSL from the livecd.
2) Insert USB drive. For this example, I assume that it is located at /dev/sda
3) Open an xterminal window and type:

sudo su
cfdisk /dev/sda

Then use the menus to delete the old partitions and create a new one. Make the new TYPE by 06 = FAT16

Write your partition table and exit cfdisk.

mkdosfs /dev/sda1

And that's it.

If you would rather just blank out your drive and use MSWindows to do the formatting, type:

sudo su
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda

Posted by timmoore46 on Feb. 09 2006,09:07

Many thanks, thats exactly what I needed to know.

Tim

Posted by MakodFilu on Feb. 09 2006,15:43

Quote (cbagger01 @ Feb. 09 2006,05:12)

Well, you can always try the manual approach.

At first I answered some like this in one of these USB II: Attack of the Clone Threads, pushed "Add Reply", relaxed for a while and then all went wrong, claxons sounding aloud, panic in the neuronal crowds as I realized someone could just be formatting his/her whole SCSI HD if the hard drive happened to be sda and the pendrive sdb or whatever.

I got mad editing the post writing warning signs here and there, putting 'don't cross this line' strings, disclaimers,... but then I used the Search button and found the (maybe) more secure way to do things.

Yeah, it was lotsa fun

I feel glad about finding out I still have a lot to learn. Fortunately so.

Posted by timmoore46 on Feb. 09 2006,18:16

In the past I wiped my share of partitions, overwritten hard drives etc etc...

I just love de-mountable hard drives in caddies. No chance of wiping 5 years of work and documents! Also drive images carefully placed on usb2 external drives.

fdisk is a delight compared to the MS version which does so much less!

Tim

Posted by cbagger01 on Feb. 09 2006,18:41

There is a way to find out WHERE your USB drive is located (Device name).

It is explained in the WIKI:

< http://damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/USB_Booting >

Posted by timmoore46 on Feb. 10 2006,00:05

Aaahhh... I see what you are suggesting!

Thank you!

Tim