Haines Brown wrote:
When I try:$ lsusb -v -D /dev/sddCannot open /dev/sdd
That doesn't mean anything, I'm getting the same with my perfectly working usb stick.
When I plug in the usb-key, the kernel log sayw:Nov 8 16:41:21 teufel kernel: usb 1-2.2: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 34 Nov 8 16:41:21 teufel kernel: sd 30:0:0:0: Device not ready: <6>: Current: sense key: Not ReadyNov 8 16:41:21 teufel kernel: <<vendor>> ASC=0x80 ASCQ=0x0ASC=0x80 ASCQ=0x0Nov 8 16:41:21 teufel kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sdd, sector 109928 Nov 8 16:41:21 teufel kernel: printk: 113 messages suppressed. Nov 8 16:41:21 teufel kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sdd, logical block 13741...
That doesn't look good. Can you still run cfdisk or fdisk, or is there no device file at all?
If you can't access the stick anymore at all, I have to question whether I gave you a bad advice. I can't explain what's going on; well I know that in a mp3 player of mine, the player's own software is storing data on the fat partition on the flash as well (user settings I think), and hence it might not be a good idea to just overwrite the player's flash, I imaginge that could even prevent the firmware (if it's written in a bad way so that it can't deal with the missing filesystem) from booting and hence render the stick inaccessible. But for an usb flash stick with the only purpose of storing data on it, it would be strange if the firmware depended on data on the user-accessible flash memory. Someone more knowledgable would have to help you.
To check whether I should feel guilty giving that advice, I've checked my listed procedure with my own usb stick. It survived it without any problem and with the expected results: overwriting /dev/sda (in my case it's sda) and plugging the stick out and in again made the kernel tell me about "unknown partition table", and udev only created a /dev/sda device, no /dev/sda1 device; cfdisk let me create a new partition table, /dev/sda1 appeared, being empty, and I could format and mount and use it. (I can give you the logs of my procedure and kernel outputs if you want.)
That could mean your hardware is just broken, or it's of a kind that can't be dealt with in the 'usual' way.
Christian.