Arch Linux

jmak

Member

Registered: 2008-12-21

Posts: 453

mkdosfs: /dev/sdb1 contains a mounted file system[SOLVED]

Hello,

I have a problem formatting usbstick by gparted. This is the message I get:

GParted 0.9.1

Libparted 3.0
Delete /dev/sdb1 (fat32, 1.87 GiB) from /dev/sdb  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )
     	
calibrate /dev/sdb1  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )
     	
path: /dev/sdb1
start: 2048
end: 3919871
size: 3917824 (1.87 GiB)
delete partition  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )

========================================
Create Primary Partition #1 (fat32, 1.87 GiB) on /dev/sdb  00:00:02    ( ERROR )
     	
create empty partition  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )
     	
path: /dev/sdb1
start: 2048
end: 3919871
size: 3917824 (1.87 GiB)
set partition type on /dev/sdb1  00:00:02    ( SUCCESS )
     	
new partition type: fat32
create new fat32 file system  00:00:00    ( ERROR )
     	
mkdosfs -F32 -v -n "" /dev/sdb1
     	
mkdosfs 3.0.11 (24 Dec 2010)
mkdosfs: /dev/sdb1 contains a mounted file system.

Any idea, what's wrong?

Thanks,
jmak

Last edited by jmak (2011-10-04 04:09:57)

skodabenz

Banned

From: Tamilnadu, India

Registered: 2010-04-11

Posts: 382

Re: mkdosfs: /dev/sdb1 contains a mounted file system[SOLVED]

Try

sudo umount /dev/sdb*
sudo gparted /dev/sdb

That should bring up a device lock on /dev/sdb while gparted is partitioning the drive.

---

My new forum user/nick name is "the.ridikulus.rat" .

jmak

Member

Registered: 2008-12-21

Posts: 453

Re: mkdosfs: /dev/sdb1 contains a mounted file system[SOLVED]

Try

sudo umount /dev/sdb*
sudo gparted /dev/sdb

That should bring up a device lock on /dev/sdb while gparted is partitioning the drive.

Thanks, I tried that but I still get the same massage.

jakobm

Member

Registered: 2008-03-24

Posts: 132

Re: mkdosfs: /dev/sdb1 contains a mounted file system[SOLVED]

Do you have any automounting tools running? As the device previously contained a filesystem, it is possible that after gparted creates the partition (presumably with the same location) something mounts the partition.

Two suggestions: Try your routine with fdisk and mkdosfs. Else try overwriting your device with zero data (the first few megabytes are sufficient, you are wiping the partition table and the filesystem header) then proceed with your routine.

jmak

Member

Registered: 2008-12-21

Posts: 453

Re: mkdosfs: /dev/sdb1 contains a mounted file system[SOLVED]

Do you have any automounting tools running? As the device previously contained a filesystem, it is possible that after gparted creates the partition (presumably with the same location) something mounts the partition.

Two suggestions: Try your routine with fdisk and mkdosfs. Else try overwriting your device with zero data (the first few megabytes are sufficient, you are wiping the partition table and the filesystem header) then proceed with your routine.

Thanks for the reply.

Iam running “HAL”.

I did what you have suggested. By using the “dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx bs=1M” command, I managed to erase the usb stick; then, I got unallocated space. I started gparted and it formatted the unallocated space to “fat32” without a hitch. After formatting the device, I deleted again the file-system just to see what's happening. I tried reformatting using gparted and I got again the same error message.

So, it seems to me that before each reformatting, I will have to run the “dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx bs=1M” to be able to format the stick. It is a bit strange, because other distros don't require this additional step.

Mr.Elendig

#archlinux@freenode channel op

From: The intertubes

Registered: 2004-11-07

Posts: 4,094

Re: mkdosfs: /dev/sdb1 contains a mounted file system[SOLVED]

Iam running “HAL”.

Stop using hal, it has been deprecated for years.

---

Evil #archlinux@libera.chat channel op and general support dude.
. files on github, Screenshots, Random pics and the rest

jmak

Member

Registered: 2008-12-21

Posts: 453

Re: mkdosfs: /dev/sdb1 contains a mounted file system[SOLVED]

Iam running “HAL”.

Stop using hal, it has been deprecated for years.

Thanks for the reply.

I removed hal, but I'm still getting the same error message when using gparted.

jmak

Member

Registered: 2008-12-21

Posts: 453

Re: mkdosfs: /dev/sdb1 contains a mounted file system[SOLVED]

I solved the issue by removing pcmanfm, and installing thunar and thunar volman. This solved the problem immadietly.