i'm working on a thumb drive to use it as install media. su -c 'parted --list /dev/sdb' (/dev/sdb is thumb drive} lists partitions from /dev/sda 9system drive) even when /dev/sdb doesn't exist! fdisk -l /dev/sdb properly reports it as missing, and gparted seems to be unconfused. so far google refuses to help. does anybody have any advise? thanx charles zeitler -- The Perfect Is The Enemy Of The Good Enough