cdrom drive on usb stick

mouse256 · 2006-12-23 11:12:28

Hey,

I received a gift from a company: an usb stick. The only problem about it: it's a 256mb usb stick, but it does contain an cd-rom partition of 4mb :-(
I can't find any way to remove that cd-rom drive. On linux not such a big deal (but still somewhat irritating), but on windows it contains an irritating autorun.
Does anybody knows if this is possible to remove that cdrom drive? here is a log from dmesg when I plug in.
I already cleared the partition table from /dev/sda, but that keept the cdrom drive intact...

[17181242.416000] usb 1-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 4
[17181242.560000] scsi2 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
[17181242.560000] usb-storage: device found at 4
[17181242.560000] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
[17181247.564000]   Vendor: CBM       Model: Flash Disk        Rev: 2.00
[17181247.564000]   Type:   CD-ROM                             ANSI SCSI revision: 02
[17181247.592000] sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 40x/40x writer cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
[17181247.592000] sr 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0
[17181247.592000] sr 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 5
[17181247.592000]   Vendor: CBM       Model: Flash Disk        Rev: 2.00
[17181247.592000]   Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02
[17181247.600000] SCSI device sda: 490751 512-byte hdwr sectors (251 MB)
[17181247.604000] sda: Write Protect is off
[17181247.604000] sda: Mode Sense: 0b 00 00 08
[17181247.604000] sda: assuming drive cache: write through
[17181247.612000] SCSI device sda: 490751 512-byte hdwr sectors (251 MB)
[17181247.616000] sda: Write Protect is off
[17181247.616000] sda: Mode Sense: 0b 00 00 08
[17181247.616000] sda: assuming drive cache: write through
[17181247.616000]  sda:
[17181247.624000] sd 2:0:0:1: Attached scsi removable disk sda
[17181247.624000] sd 2:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
[17181247.636000] usb-storage: device scan complete
[17181248.528000] sr 2:0:0:0: Device not ready.
[17181248.604000] sr 2:0:0:0: Device not ready.
[17181248.608000] sr 2:0:0:0: Device not ready.
[17181248.616000] sr 2:0:0:0: Device not ready.
[17181249.032000] UDF-fs: No VRS found
[17181249.116000] UDF-fs: No VRS found
[17181249.188000] ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
[17181249.192000] ISOFS: changing to secondary root
[17181250.528000] sr 2:0:0:0: Device not ready.
[17181250.564000] sr 2:0:0:0: Device not ready.
[17181252.548000] sr 2:0:0:0: Device not ready.

rayjgu3 · 2006-12-23 11:27:34

carful with this but

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=512 count=1

will splatter a bunch of zeros across the drive clearing all partitions
(change "X" to the correct location of usb pen)
then create a new patition & format it to desired file system

that should do it

mouse256 · 2006-12-23 11:44:28

it seems they did some protection...
your command doesn't remove the cdrom drive.
I also tried to dd another 256mb usb stick I have to the new one. It did copy, except for the last block, it gave a disk full error, thus keeping the cdrom drive intact.

this also won't work:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda
dd: writing to `/dev/sda': No space left on device
490752+0 records in
490751+0 records out
251264512 bytes (251 MB) copied, 253.857 seconds, 990 kB/s

T-Dawg · 2006-12-23 16:06:45

mouse256 wrote:

this also won't work:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda
dd: writing to `/dev/sda': No space left on device
490752+0 records in
490751+0 records out
251264512 bytes (251 MB) copied, 253.857 seconds, 990 kB/s

It did work. Its saying it zero'd the disk until 251 MB, total capacity of the drive. Now all you have to do is run fdisk /dev/sda and it will build a new DOS partition table. From there create your partitions and don't forget to write the changes to the disk.

fdisk /dev/sda
>n
>p
>1
>t
>b
>a
>1
>w
>q

then format:

mkfs.vfat /dev/sda1

mouse256 · 2006-12-23 17:27:58

Actually it's not. /dev/sda is fully clean, but the cdrom drive is hidden somewhere else. (the files on that cdrom drive are still working)
it's automounted by hal as /dev/scd0
Also if you print out the disk information from fdisk you can see he think /dev/sda is 4 megabytes smaller as when I print out that information from a normal 256mb usb stick I have.
So the cdrom drive is hidden somewhere in the flash memory, but it seems there has some hardware modification been done to prevent writing to that part of the memory.
But thanks for you tries anyway 8)

T-Dawg · 2006-12-23 17:36:33

thats weird as hell. Just curious, are you noticing any difference in the devices that populate in /dev before and after you plug it in to your machine? Like other than sda. scd0?? have you tried zeroing that?

Pick2 · 2006-12-25 03:14:46

That , My friend , is the infamous "U3" software !
Evil Stuff , but you can download a program to remove it , that needs to be run from Windows ( which is pure EVIL LOL )

If you have a Sandisk:
http://www.sandisk.com/Retail/Default.aspx?CatID=1415

or a generic flash disk:
http://www.u3.com/uninstall/

I've removed "U3" from half a dozen drives , most never recoup that 4 MB part tho ....

HTH
Pick2

Acid7711 · 2006-12-25 07:10:40

Fdisk? Just a thought...

vacant · 2006-12-25 10:53:27

Acid7711 wrote:

Fdisk? Just a thought...

or sfdisk, which gives extra options that may help such as overriding the detected geometry.

rayjgu3 · 2006-12-25 12:35:09

just a thought i know on scsi drives you can move one of the jumpers on it
for write protection, there may be some thing similar built into your pen but i doubt your gonna want to try to take it apart & figure out what if anything you can do to change that, if you can change it .

but more than likely its a software thing as Pick2 mentioned, id try his route 1st , if you have windows
or just learn to deal with it

mouse256 · 2006-12-26 13:36:43

First of all merry Christmas to everybody :-)
I'll answer your posts in order:
T-Dawg: ls from /dev:
before usb-stick:

ls -t /dev | head -n 15
total 0
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root      5,   2 2006-12-26 14:28 ptmx
prw-r----- 1 root adm            0 2006-12-26 14:26 xconsole
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root      5,   0 2006-12-26 14:09 tty
crw------- 1 root root      4,   1 2006-12-26 14:03 tty1
crw------- 1 root root      4,   2 2006-12-26 14:03 tty2
crw------- 1 root root      4,   3 2006-12-26 14:03 tty3
crw------- 1 root root      4,   4 2006-12-26 14:03 tty4
crw------- 1 root root      4,   5 2006-12-26 14:03 tty5
crw------- 1 root root      4,   6 2006-12-26 14:03 tty6
crw-rw---- 1 root root      7, 131 2006-12-26 14:03 vcsa3
crw-rw---- 1 root root      7,   3 2006-12-26 14:03 vcs3
crw-rw---- 1 root root      7, 134 2006-12-26 14:03 vcsa6
crw-rw---- 1 root root      7,   6 2006-12-26 14:03 vcs6
crw-rw---- 1 root root      7, 133 2006-12-26 14:03 vcsa5

after plug in:

ls -t /dev | head -n 15
total 0
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root      5,   2 2006-12-26 14:28 ptmx
brw-rw---- 1 root plugdev   8,   1 2006-12-26 14:27 sda1
brw-rw---- 1 root plugdev   8,   0 2006-12-26 14:27 sda
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root           4 2006-12-26 14:27 cdrom -> scd0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root           4 2006-12-26 14:27 cdrw -> scd0
brw-rw---- 1 root cdrom    11,   0 2006-12-26 14:27 scd0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root           4 2006-12-26 14:27 sr0 -> scd0
crw-rw---- 1 root root     21,   1 2006-12-26 14:27 sg1
crw-rw---- 1 root cdrom    21,   0 2006-12-26 14:27 sg0
prw-r----- 1 root adm            0 2006-12-26 14:26 xconsole
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root      5,   0 2006-12-26 14:09 tty
crw------- 1 root root      4,   1 2006-12-26 14:03 tty1
crw------- 1 root root      4,   2 2006-12-26 14:03 tty2
crw------- 1 root root      4,   3 2006-12-26 14:03 tty3

trying to clean sr0

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sr0
dd: opening `/dev/sr0': Read-only file system

Pick2: Tried both of your uninstallers, none of them could find any U3 software. Maybe it's something else, maybe I've already messed too much with it.

Acid7711: Fdisk was the first thing I tried. The problem is /dev/sda is smaller than it should be. If you clean whole /dev/sda, /dev/scd0 keeps intact.

Vacant: sfdisk: seems to offer some (Dangerous ) possibilities, I should first read the manual, will try it.

rayjgu3: yeah, you can't unscrew it, it's glued. And most likely I don't expect to find any jumpers inside...

mouse256 · 2007-01-15 10:31:28

a little late, but forgotten to post the answer:
There was a (windows) tool on the cd delivered with the flash disk with which you could remove the drive, so that solved my problem

Pick2 · 2007-03-04 20:03:51

And a lot later that you , mouse256.

So , was it the U3 software that was the problem ?

My Flash drive would come up as sda , 4 MB , read only on my linux boxes
It would come up as a 4 MB CD ROM And a 495 MB flash drive on My Macs with OSX , I could read and write to the Flash part , but it would still not come up on linux.
I had to run over to My Buddy's place to use his windows box to remove the U3 partition. after that , it's been working fine.
I haven't had Windows here since 1999 , the Y2K problem brought my business down for a week !

every time I try to measure how Evil Windows is , on a Scale of 1 to 10 , it comes up 666

Arch Linux

#1 2006-12-23 11:12:28

cdrom drive on usb stick

#2 2006-12-23 11:27:34

Re: cdrom drive on usb stick

#3 2006-12-23 11:44:28

Re: cdrom drive on usb stick

#4 2006-12-23 16:06:45

Re: cdrom drive on usb stick

#5 2006-12-23 17:27:58

Re: cdrom drive on usb stick

#6 2006-12-23 17:36:33

Re: cdrom drive on usb stick

#7 2006-12-25 03:14:46

Re: cdrom drive on usb stick

#8 2006-12-25 07:10:40

Re: cdrom drive on usb stick

#9 2006-12-25 10:53:27

Re: cdrom drive on usb stick

#10 2006-12-25 12:35:09

Re: cdrom drive on usb stick

#11 2006-12-26 13:36:43

Re: cdrom drive on usb stick

#12 2007-01-15 10:31:28

Re: cdrom drive on usb stick

#13 2007-03-04 20:03:51

Re: cdrom drive on usb stick

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