"Write protected" error from H-P USB flash sticks

What works, and doesn't, for you. Be specific, and please include Puppy version.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Flash
Official Dog Handler
Posts: 13071
Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 16:04
Location: Arizona USA

"Write protected" error from H-P USB flash sticks

#1 Post by Flash »

Yesterday I attempted to delete some stuff I had put on a Hewlett-Packard USB flash memory, and ROX said it couldn't do it because the stuff was write-protected. This happened with most of the files and folders I tried to delete, I think ROX did delete the first thing I told it to, but then refused to do any of the rest. I poked around in the permissions and couldn't see any reason why ROX would say the memory was write protected.

Then it occurred to me to see what GParted had to say about the USB flash memory. Oddly, GParted found that it was flagged as bootable. I say oddly because I didn't do it, the thing was that way right out of the package. Since I didn't intend to boot from it, I had GParted remove the "bootable" flag. After I closed GParted, I tried again to delete the files and folders and ROX complied without any complaint!

This "write protected" problem crops up periodically in the forum. Perhaps the first question to ask is whether the flash drive is flagged as bootable.

amigo
Posts: 2629
Joined: Mon 02 Apr 2007, 06:52

#2 Post by amigo »

Hmm, that really shouldn't have any effect. Did you unmount and then remount the drive after using gparted?

That error nearly always means that the drive is not mounted read-write. The cause of that can be various things. At other times, you may get I/O errors when trying to remove items. These are usually caused by disk/flash errors which can be fixed with fsck -unless the filesystem is FAT or ntfs.

User avatar
Flash
Official Dog Handler
Posts: 13071
Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 16:04
Location: Arizona USA

#3 Post by Flash »

After mounting the FAT32 flash drive to try deleting the first time, I unmounted the flash drive in order to use GParted on it. Then I remounted it again to try deleting for the second time.

User avatar
rcrsn51
Posts: 13096
Joined: Tue 05 Sep 2006, 13:50
Location: Stratford, Ontario

#4 Post by rcrsn51 »

Recently, someone cleaned up a flash drive with "dosfsck /dev/sdbx".

Your other choice is to copy the files you want to keep to a temporary location, then reformat the drive.

Sylvander
Posts: 4416
Joined: Mon 15 Dec 2008, 11:06
Location: West Lothian, Scotland, UK

#5 Post by Sylvander »

1. Some weeks/months back...
I had a "Verbatim" 1GB Flash Drive that was being reported as "Read-only".
Turned out it had gone faulty, and the fix was to low-level re-format it using a special program.
Once that had been done it was back to normal functionality.

2. See "Success!" reported in THIS POST...
As a result of using "Super_Stick_Recovery_Tool_V1.0.2.19.rar" [don't know where you might get it now].

some1
Posts: 117
Joined: Thu 17 Jan 2013, 11:07

digressing a bit

#6 Post by some1 »

I guess @amigo was unto this:

Routinely - as a first check - when usbs -unexpectedly become "writeprotected":
Unmount the -"write-protected" - usb-stick
go to the mountpoint-directory /mnt/sdxy in ROX
The mountpoint-directory ought to be empty -
otherwise mount-confusion may arise.

Reason for weird stuff in the mountpoint-directory -
may be that NOTHING was mounted on the mountpoint-directory
when a script/user expected otherwise..
i.e like cp <somestuff> /mnt/sdxy
1) usb mounted on mnt/sdxy -> stuff goes onto the usb
2) nothing mounted on mnt/sdxy -> stuff goes into the mountpoint-directory
---
The "writeprotection" may be viewed as a filesystemprotection - in case
of a fucked-up mount.-binding.
---
As said - a first check .....
before calling on Gparted etc.



Cheers

Post Reply