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Questions tagged [usb-drive]

Any storage device with a USB interface (USB stick, USB hard disk, …).

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105 votes
11 answers
241k views

Eject USB drives / eject command

I know that the eject command can be used to eject almost any hardware component attached, but can it be used to eject USB drives? Is it possible to eject USB drives and external HDD's with the eject ...
Joe Barr's user avatar
  • 1,337
74 votes
3 answers
67k views

Why is my PC freezing while I'm copying a file to a pendrive?

I have a really strange situation here. My PC works fine, at least in most cases, but there's one thing that I can't deal with. When I try to copy a file from my pendrive, everything is ok -- I got 16-...
Mikhail Morfikov's user avatar
73 votes
3 answers
289k views

How to umount a USB drive?

I want to know how to umount my USB drive via command line. I am using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 32-bit.
Pranit Bauva's user avatar
70 votes
10 answers
120k views

How to reconnect a logically disconnected USB device?

It is possible for a USB storage device to become logically disconnected: the device is still plugged in, but is invisible from the operating system (e.g. it's not listed under /proc/bus/usb). Maybe ...
Gilles 'SO- stop being evil''s user avatar
61 votes
5 answers
88k views

smartctl on external hdd inside ide-to-usb enclosure

I have a very old 2.5" IDE drive inside a USB enclosure that gives some buffer I/O error. I tried to use smartctl to see what SMART says about it, but I can't manage to make it work. Being root, if I ...
Avio's user avatar
  • 919
38 votes
2 answers
262k views

How to create a bootable Debian USB drive using Windows

I am running Windows 10 and am starting to learn how to boot from USB devices. I have a 16GB USB (USB 3.0) drive and I want to do the following: Make the 16GB USB drive run Debian Linux. Keep ...
R C's user avatar
  • 483
35 votes
6 answers
109k views

How do I boot from a liveusb using qemu-kvm?

I am trying to get qemu-kvm to boot from my live usb stick. Is this possible?
mikewilliamson's user avatar
35 votes
3 answers
36k views

How to re-mount a USB stick after unmounting from Nautilus without disconnecting it?

I find that in order to re-mount a USB stick, I have to physically disconnect it, and then re-connect it. How can I do this without such tiring physical action?
tshepang's user avatar
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32 votes
1 answer
52k views

How to make an ext4 formatted usb drive with full RW permissions for any linux machine?

I want to format my USB stick to ext4 and just use as I would any other typical non-linux format drive (FAT32, exFAT, NTFS). That is to say, I want to be able to plug the usb stick into any of my ...
Alnitak's user avatar
  • 423
28 votes
3 answers
60k views

Mounting USB drive that is not recognized

Using Arch Linux / XFCE, I frequently have problems with USB drives that are not properly mounted. Sometimes they automatically show up in Thunar and I can mount them with one click. However, at other ...
user avatar
22 votes
5 answers
77k views

How to salvage an unreadable usb flash drive

I have a 16GB USB flash drive that somehow got corrupted to the point in which even fdisk -l can't find it (I get a one-line error message saying: "Unable to open /dev/sdc") However, it is being ...
ateiob's user avatar
  • 1,737
20 votes
5 answers
153k views

USB Disk Read-only, cannot format - Turn off write-protection

I have a USB disk which does not allow me to format/mount/unmount or created partitions on it. Using dmesg | tail gives me the following result: I found this post on AskUbuntu and tried using the ...
kRiZ's user avatar
  • 301
17 votes
4 answers
14k views

mount is not executed when called by udev

I tried to create some udev rules to mount and unmount my USB flash drives; the rules for the moment are very simple: ACTION=="add",KERNEL=="sd[b-z]",RUN+="/root/scripts/plug_flash_drive.sh %k" ...
magva's user avatar
  • 171
16 votes
10 answers
101k views

How to install CentOS 6 via USB mass storage device?

I want to install CentOS 6.2 on a laptop (Thinkpad R40) which comes without CD/DVD-drive but with USB 2.0 ports. It seems that CentOS does not provide ready-to-use dd-able USB images for installation....
maxschlepzig's user avatar
  • 58.1k
16 votes
3 answers
33k views

How do I automount usb drives in Linux (Debian)?

With every new release the way to automount USB drives in Linux seems to change (fortunately I'm using Debian, so I'm only losing a few days on this every 2 years). We used to have usbmount, udisks, ...
Circonflexe's user avatar
14 votes
1 answer
3k views

Why does Linux use SCSI drivers for non-SCSI devices? [duplicate]

Looking at what block device commands like lsblk or blkid return it seems that linux HDD support SCSI drivers regardless of the type of the devices, like a USB flash driver that is presented as ...
SRYZDN's user avatar
  • 1,109
14 votes
1 answer
1k views

Disks (in usb enclosure) keep waking up even when not mounted

Setup I have USB enclosure (Buffalo DriveStation Quad) containing four drives connected to my nas server (ubuntu server 14.04). The enclosure is configured to JBOD mode, so I'll see all the disks in ...
Toni's user avatar
  • 421
13 votes
2 answers
3k views

Timestamps of files copied to USB drive

I have a problem with the timestamps of files copied from my PC or laptop to USB drives: the last modification time of the original file and that of the copied file are different. Therefore, ...
K. Gabor's user avatar
  • 133
12 votes
3 answers
34k views

How to remove a USB drive without worrying if its been unmounted? [duplicate]

Sometimes I unplug my USB drive only to find out files were not written to it. I suppose the only way to ensure files are written to it is to right click on the USB drive on the desktop and then ...
slm's user avatar
  • 373k
12 votes
3 answers
30k views

Slow performance when copying files to and from USB devices

When I copy files to and from USB devices (camera, HDD, memory card) my system becomes very slow. For example if I want to close a window I move the mouse but it takes about 2 seconds or more before ...
John's user avatar
  • 223
11 votes
7 answers
90k views

Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: Device or resource busy

When re-partitioning a USB Flash drive on CentOS 6.x got following error. Disk /dev/sdb: 31.5 GB, 31466323968 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3825 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = ...
Chaminda Bandara's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
5k views

Find out if a specific device is an USB mass storage

Context I'm automating SD card imaging from an existing dd factory image. The SD card is always connected through an external USB card reader and thus appears in the system as a SCSI block device /...
syam's user avatar
  • 255
11 votes
2 answers
41k views

Unable to mount volume, an operation is already pending (with multiple users)

I'm running Linux Mint 14 - pretty much whatever the default install settings are. When I have multiple users logged in and I plug in a flash drive, or digital camera, or any other USB storage, rather ...
Wayne Werner's user avatar
  • 11.9k
11 votes
2 answers
16k views

USB drive permissions when automounting

On Debian there is the common problem, that you try to plug an ntfs formatted USB harddrive and then can't write to it as a regular user to it because the directory belongs to root. A little time ago ...
Kritzefitz's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
3k views

Can one use a keyfile as a password for sudo?

Context I like to work in public on my laptop, but I also like to use sudo without a password. Based on what I know now, I would use the NOPASSWD option in my sudoers file, but of course anyone ...
Gage Sorrell's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
63k views

Remove USB flash-drive write-protection

I have a sports-watch which has an integrated flash-memory. This flash-memory is used to store training information. When I connect the watch to my computer using the USB cable, it's detected as write-...
Martin's user avatar
  • 7,666
10 votes
1 answer
2k views

Why can't I copy all files in a directory to a USB storage device?

The sdc1 was mounted on /media/debian/Ventoy. debian@debian:~$ sudo blkid | grep Ventoy /dev/sdc1: LABEL="Ventoy" UUID="F82D-76BE" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="exfat" ...
showkey's user avatar
  • 461
10 votes
3 answers
18k views

How to disable creation of .Trash-1000 folder?

I have a 32 GB USB flash drive. When deleting files from the drive where the drive is plugged into a Ubuntu 16 laptop, it creates a folder called '.Trash-1000' This .Trash-1000 folder contains two ...
William Ross's user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
20k views

Debian + USB3 HDD + UAS: I/O errors

I'm running rsync to backup a remote machine to a USB hard drive on an ARM SBC and sometimes rsync just stops with "read error from input device (I/O error)". I believe the issue is related to UAS + ...
TCB13's user avatar
  • 741
10 votes
3 answers
16k views

How can I create a udev rule to mount a USB drive read only?

I'm trying to set a particular USB drive to always mount read only. If I plug it in, it is seen as sdb with a single partition, sdb1. Here are some relevant udevadm lines (not the entire output of ...
terdon's user avatar
  • 245k
10 votes
2 answers
2k views

Unable to copy large file onto ext2 usb stick [closed]

I have an 8G usb stick (I'm on linux Mint), and I'm trying to copy a 5.4G file into it, but getting No space left on device The filesize of the copied file before failing is always 3.6G An output ...
Ian's user avatar
  • 388
9 votes
5 answers
37k views

Slow USB 3 write speed

Writing to my USB 3 thumb drive (SanDisk Extreme SDCZ80-064G-FFP) is very slow on Linux: 1 GB takes longer than 200s. Using Windows (dual-boot on the same computer), the same 1 GB file can be copied ...
JPW's user avatar
  • 276
9 votes
3 answers
25k views

How to avoid powering down certain USB devices when a machine is suspended

I'd like to maintain power supply to a USB-powered drive when the system goes into suspend (AKA S3 or "suspend-to-RAM") mode. Normally the power is cut while the machine is suspended, which causes it ...
intuited's user avatar
  • 3,548
9 votes
3 answers
1k views

Why does "ls" sporadically output only "." in the root directory of an external drive?

In the root directory of my USB flash drive, sometimes when I run ls, the output is normal and it lists the files. At other times, the output is simply one line: $ ls . If I try ls -la at one of ...
leekaiinthesky's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
2k views

Can I make a USB port on my Linux computer look like a mass storage device?

I'm running Kubuntu 12.04 on my PC. I want to make one USB port on my computer appear as if it is a USB mass storage device to other devices. In other words, something connected to this USB port will ...
MountainX's user avatar
  • 18.3k
8 votes
4 answers
3k views

Windows 11 erases GRUB data making booting into Linux painful

It's not exactly a "dual boot" question, because I'm not installing Kali Linux on an internal drive. The situation is that I install Kali on an external/removable hard drive from a USB stick ...
Chadwicke's user avatar
  • 107
8 votes
1 answer
7k views

Wait to start Transmission daemon until after USB drive has mounted?

I'm running transmission-daemon as a systemd service on OSMC. When opening its remote control web interface after a reboot all transfers are almost always halted with the message "Error: No data found!...
Andreas's user avatar
  • 521
8 votes
5 answers
57k views

Installing Kali on a USB drive - NOT Live USB or Persistence partition

Greeting's, to clarify; my question is not creating a Live USB drive or a persistence partition but creating a USB with GRUB bootloader (or other) and Kali which can be used on any machine. This is ...
Parth Maniar's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
3k views

dd without sudo to image a partition

I need to create an image of a partition of a usb drive: dd if=/dev/sdb1 of=sdb1.img Is there a way to do it without sudo/su? Maybe by changing permissions on the usb drive? What would be the ...
Piero dS's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
21k views

What is the service that's responsible for automounting a USB drive in CentOS 6.4?

I know of the legacy Linux way of mounting a USB stick or drive: mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/ But in some CentOS 6.x installations I saw, you just insert the USB stick and CentOS automagically mounts it, ...
Very Objective's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
15k views

Mount an USB: dmesg shows nothing

I'm trying to mount a USB-drive. However, it seems that my Linux (Debian) doesn't recognise it at all (and any other usb-drive), though it powers it. The usb-hubs are OK, because I was able to boot ...
Daria's user avatar
  • 81
8 votes
2 answers
4k views

Exposing NFS mount via USB

I know enough linux to be dangerous - apologies if my terminology is incorrect. I have an electronic drumkit that has USB into which I can plug a flash drive with MP3s on it. The drumkit has no ...
me--'s user avatar
  • 167
8 votes
4 answers
7k views

Why is writing SLOW on raw device, and FAST on filesystem (USB key)?

I have a USB key (PQI U822V-Speedy 32G) that I am trying to benchmark quick'n'dirty on Linux. I'm testing write bandwith. dd on raw partition I created a partition starting at sector 2048, then did ...
Totor's user avatar
  • 20.4k
7 votes
2 answers
3k views

Why does it take so long to detect an usb stick?

I'm writing an initramfs-script and want to detect usb-sticks as fast as possible. When I insert an usb 2.0 stick, the detection of idVendor, idProduct and USB class happens within 100 ms. But the ...
Daniel Näslund's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
9k views

How to format 720k FAT (ie: MS-DOS) floppy on Linux using USB floppy drive

I have a USB 3.5" floppy drive connected to my Linux box. I've verified that it is /dev/sdh on my Linux box, and I can read Linux-formatted floppies from it. (I had an old ext2 floppy lying around.) ...
Laurence Gonsalves's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
14k views

NTFS formatting disabled while using Gparted in CentOS 7

I am using GParted for formatting my usb-device(a pendrive). And, I unmounted my device using the GUI program itself. The device doesn't show mounted anymore. When I try to format my usb-device(/dev/...
Am_I_Helpful's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
11k views

Why can I not see some files in my USB stick on Windows that I can see on Linux?

I'm having a little problem with my USB stick. There are files and folders on the USB stick I can see and manipulate on my Linux machine (Fedora 20) but some of those files and folders appear nowhere ...
Mario Diaz's user avatar
7 votes
3 answers
4k views

Removable USB stick listed as non-removable in /sys/block?

In my question Bash script to output path to USB flash memory stick I got stuck on a problem nobody else seems to be having. (The issue also impedes my desire to use this answer.) So I made that ...
MountainX's user avatar
  • 18.3k
7 votes
2 answers
13k views

gparted says driver descriptor and Linux disagree on physical block size of a pen drive; drive does not automount; how to resolve?

On opening GParted, it says: The driver descriptor says the physical block size is 2048 bytes, but Linux says it is 512 bytes. Also, it does not auto-mount when I plug it in. How should I resolve ...
KumarAnkit's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
3k views

how to create a bootable flash that can boot as both BIOS and UEFI?

I'm creating a bootable recovery flash and I was wondering how to create it so it can boot on both UEFI and BIOS systems? I'm experimenting with GRUB but I'm open to any other bootloader. ...
OneOfOne's user avatar
  • 1,414

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