usb memory stick showing old data

[nofxboy1234]

Hi everyone

I am using Fedora 17 x64.

I recently used the "dd" command to copy an Ubuntu disc image to my 2Gb Verbatime usb stick.
I have now formatted the usb stick with gparted to clear everything and gave it a new volume label name. Now, when I plug it in, Fedora pops up the dialog showing both the old name of the usb stick, and the new name.

When I click on the new name, it shows that the usb is blank which is what I want. When I click on the old name, it shows the old data that I thought was formatted.

How do I get only the new name to show up? Why is this strange behaviour happening? I'm thinking I need to delete the old device file or something, but not too sure.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks

[Skull One]

Looks like you have two partitions on the stick.
Could you post the output of (if the stick is /dev/sdb)

fdisk -l /dev/sdb

[nofxboy1234]

Hi Skull_One

Thanks for the quick reply!
Here is the output:

[root@oy dpalmboom]# fdisk -l /dev/sdg

Disk /dev/sdg: 2003 MB, 2003828736 bytes
158 heads, 42 sectors/track, 589 cylinders, total 3913728 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x5136a65c

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdg1 2048 3913727 1955840 b W95 FAT32

Thanks!

[Skull One]

Hum... only one partition... weird....
I have no clues...

Maybe you could try to get some info from udisks. Unplug the stick, open a terminal and type the command 'udisksctl monitor'.
Then insert the stick and look in the monitor if you can see something relevant.

[nofxboy1234]

Thank you, I will try that soon . Haven't had a chance yet, but really want to solve this. It's annoying haha!

[nofxboy1234]

I ran: udisks --monitor, as that was the closest command I could find. I'm guessing it's the right one . Here's
what it output:

[dpalmboom@oy ~]$ udisks --monitor
Monitoring activity from the disks daemon. Press Ctrl+C to cancel.
added: /org/freedesktop/UDisks/devices/sdg
added: /org/freedesktop/UDisks/devices/sdg1

In the Available Devices dialog that pops up, it shows:
Storage Volume
billy_bumbl
Verbatim STORE N GO

[Skull One]

I guess 'udisks --monitor' is equivalent to 'udisksctl monitor'.
Well, no clues...

If you do not have any data on the stick, you could try to erase the first sectors and reformat it.
It is overkilling, but must work.

[nofxboy1234]

How would I go about doing that please? I don't have data on it so I don't mind.
It is very weird haha!

[flyingfsck]

Howdy.

Note that gparted doesn't necessarily 'format' a partition. The Linux equivalent of the windows 'format' is 'mkfs'. You need to do mkfs on the new partition and even then the old data would not be overwritten, it will still be there.

If you really want to wipe a disk, then you got to use dd to write /dev/zero to the whole thing before you make a new partition and file system.

[Skull One]

Originally Posted by nofxboy1234

How would I go about doing that please? I don't have data on it so I don't mind.
It is very weird haha!

Here we go!
Beware! Beware! Beware!
The following command is irreversible!
So, check at least two times that you are using the correct device.
If your stick is /dev/sdg:

dd count=2050 if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdg

A count of 2050 must be enought for this.
The first sectors are now empty, without even a partition table.
Recreate a partition using fdisk or gparted, and format it.

Tested using the combo fdisk+mkfs without problem.

[zuser]

You might try this, always works for me.

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/restori...key-partition/

[nofxboy1234]

Thank you Skull_One, zuser, and flyingfsck for the help. Greatly appreciated! I ended up doing what Skull_One said, and all is working!