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June 20, 2012
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Replies: 4

USB stick is read only?

Forums > Technology > Hardware
:iconmiontre:
`miontre Jun 20, 2012  Hobbyist Photographer
My USB stick has been behaving really weirdly lately.

I run Ubuntu 12.04 and one day after I used my USB on a Mac computer, it started acting read only on my computer. I can't do anything with it.

If I toggle the switch on it's side which normally changes the read only state, it doesn't help. I tried reformatting it in Nautilus, even in superuser mode, which failed.

I took it back to the Mac computer and I found that I could still write to it on that computer. I can also write to it on my laptop (also runs Ubuntu 12.04).

Then I tried formatting it in Disk Utility, which I managed to do successfully. But it's still read only.

I just rechecked it on my laptop and I could write files with no problem.

Does anybody know what the problem is, and could help me? Or if anybody else is having this same problem, leave a comment! :la:
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Devious Comments

:icon3wyl:
^3wyl Jun 20, 2012  Hobbyist Photographer
:lock: by OP request.
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:icongpax:
=GPaX Jun 20, 2012
wildrune11, for all those people who will find this thread based on your question:

How did you fix the problem!

If it was simple, then you could help hundreds ((or thousands) or hundreds of thousands)) with you sage advice.

Gracias!

:D
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:iconmiontre:
`miontre Jun 22, 2012  Hobbyist Photographer
Good point!

Alright - in Ubuntu, I fixed it by using Disk Utility. You can access that in your menu (mine was under Preferences). Alternatively, you can just type the command palimpsest.

The best thing to do first is to copy your files from the USB stick onto your computer, since we need to format it and that will erase the files. You can easily put them back on later.

Firstly select your device in the left hand column. It should be under Peripheral Devices. It's very important that you select the correct device, otherwise you may ruin something else - or accidentally wipe your entire system.

Now, in the right hand side, you should see two divisions: Drive and Volumes. Under Volumes, click Unmount Volume so that we can work on it. I don't know if you need to first use Safe Removal in the Drive division or not, I didn't do it however.

Once you've got it unmounted, click Format Drive under the Drive division. My USB was using the "Master Boot Record" scheme. I think that was the problem. Change your scheme to "Don't partition".

Now, under Volumes, click Format Volume. Choose the type as FAT. You can name the device too. Tick to take ownership of the drive also. Once you accept, the drive should be fixed, if you had the same problem as me.


I hope these instructions helped. They might not have depending on your problem. If not, keep searching! :eager:
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:iconmiontre:
`miontre Jun 20, 2012  Hobbyist Photographer
Please disregard this thread, I got the problem fixed. :)
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