help on usb drive

Forum: USB booting
Topic: help on usb drive
started by: moparfan90

Posted by moparfan90 on Sep. 23 2006,15:07

i installed dsl on my 2gb usb drive and it was good. i would rather just install a distro so i want to get all the space on my usb drive back.
in windows i see the drive but its only 50mb
im not sure how to partition it or format it.... and i dont wunna install linux just to do this..any ideas

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Sep. 24 2006,04:38

The first partition is 50mb, with the rest being in another.
Afaik windows is limited to only see the first one. I think the solution was to hide it, or repartition/reinstall your drive to your liking.

Posted by moparfan90 on Sep. 24 2006,13:11

yeah i know that. i was asking how to. i tried by using dsl cd, but it did write the changes for soem reason. ill try again. any other ideas?

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Sep. 24 2006,18:44

You could try fdisk/cfdisk/parted .. I think most partitioning tools should be able to do what you want.
After you write, you'll most likely have to reboot to update the table.

Posted by tomdevries on Sep. 25 2006,07:53

Indeed, you can use fdisk to clean the partitions on your usb drive. Fdisk /dev/sda or whereever your drive is mounted.

Is it possible to make a partition that can also be accesed through windows? I've installed DSL on a usb drive, which now excists of a 50MB Fat16 partition for the dsl install, and a 150MB Linux partition, for the backup. Is there a way to make another partition (well, making a partition isn't the problem...) so that I can use that part to store files from a Windows machine?

(Sorry for the attempted topic-hijack ;))

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Sep. 25 2006,14:17

Well if you have some more space, you could make another partition or else you'll have to modify your existing setup.

Or you could try loading Linux fs utilities/drivers on Windows (I assume you're using ext2?)

Posted by tomdevries on Sep. 25 2006,14:28

Well, I want to use it on several pc's, without installing fs-drivers.

The problem is that Windows only sees the first partition. Which is a 50meg Fat16 partition on which DSL is installed. I've tried to make it a larger partition (100meg) and copy all the files of a fresh DSL install to the partition. I get an error while booting, but after pressing the Enter key, DSL does boot. Only problem, when I looked at the drive under Windows, it was 50megs again :S

Posted by humpty on Sep. 25 2006,15:31

if your usbdrive is less than 2gb, you can try swapping the two partitions;
< http://petepr.hopto.org/dsl/guides.html#Boot_Pen_Swap >

EDIT: I think maybe there isn't a 2GB limit, but the max.no of cylinders (1024).
You can adjust the geometry by using the standard guide: < http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki....endrive >

Posted by tomdevries on Sep. 25 2006,18:08

Ah, very nice. That seems to solve my problem. Think it's gonna work. Thanks alot