[solved]USB Stick broken after using it as installation medium

kaoztik · 2012-04-18 15:10:36

Hi

I don't know really where to post this problem and this is my first post so i start in the newbie corner.

I'have recently installed Arch from an USB-Stick using this instruction.
So i used the dd command

# dd if=archlinux.iso of=/dev/sd[x]

and everything went fine and i could install arch without problems (running it since then and i am very satified with this linux distribution)

But now the USB stick i used seems kinda messed up and is not really usefull anymore, i hope someone can help me with this problem.
The Hardware still works without problems and it seems to me it is some kind of partition or datastructure problem.

My main problem is:
I can't get fully rid of the arch iso on the stick.
Whenever i plug the stick into a linux box i can only see the archlinux installation folders, no matter if there is more data or more partitions.
in fdisk or gparted the arch installtion part doesn't show, and i can't create new partitions.
I tried the storage device manager on a windows machine, there i can't see the arch-part of the stick,but i can create new partitions and the stick works fine on windows pcs (exept the ~180mb part of the arch installation files is missing).

If i use the stick with such a partition on a linux pc, only the arch part shows up...

So my question is, how can i get rid of the arch part of my usb stick and only have one partition on it ?

Last edited by kaoztik (2012-04-18 16:11:16)

DSpider · 2012-04-18 15:42:16

I tried the storage device manager on a windows machine, there i can't see the arch-part of the stick,but i can create new partitions and the stick works fine on windows pcs (exept the ~180mb part of the arch installation files is missing).

Because the Arch ISO is a hybrid ISO with a filesystem and MBR slapped onto it (meaning you can burn it to a CD and also "dd" it to a HDD or USB stick).

Windows doesn't read EXT4 or whatever filesystem is used (EXT2 probably), so you obviously can't see the files. Linux distributions can.

Install and use gparted to format the USB stick.

$ sudo pacman -S gparted
$ sudo gparted

Select /dev/sdb (if you have only one HDD in your system) and right click - Format as - FAT32.

Done.

Pres · 2012-04-18 15:44:55

Try Device->Create Partition Table in gparted first.

alphaniner · 2012-04-18 15:46:20

Have you tried wiping the partition map:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sd[x] bs=512 count=1

or

option 'o' in fdisk

DSpider · 2012-04-18 15:51:22

If you're going to use dd, be Extra very careful with the "of=" part (output file).

PS: Welcome to the forums.

Last edited by DSpider (2012-04-18 15:51:49)

kaoztik · 2012-04-18 16:10:46

I created a new partition table and then formated it to fat32 in gparted and now it is working again.

@DSpider I know Windows can't read Ext fileformats, but normally you can see them as unkown partitions in the storage drive administration programm of win. That wasn't the case here, but nevermind.

Thanks for the excellent and especially fast support.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-04-18 15:10:36

[solved]USB Stick broken after using it as installation medium

#2 2012-04-18 15:42:16

Re: [solved]USB Stick broken after using it as installation medium

#3 2012-04-18 15:44:55

Re: [solved]USB Stick broken after using it as installation medium

#4 2012-04-18 15:46:20

Re: [solved]USB Stick broken after using it as installation medium

#5 2012-04-18 15:51:22

Re: [solved]USB Stick broken after using it as installation medium

#6 2012-04-18 16:10:46

Re: [solved]USB Stick broken after using it as installation medium

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