Working with flash drives

Table of Contents

USB Stick Writers and Formatters

  1. gnome-disk-utility - can be installed regardless of which distribution or desktop environment you are using. Works well.
  2. USB Image Writer - comes with certain distributions. Not on all of them though.
  3. USB Stick Formatter - comes with certain distributions. Not on all of them though.

Display the partition table.

List partitions.

  1. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Fdisk#List_partitions 
    sudo fdisk -l
  2. Output 
    [explorer436@explorer436-p50-20eqs27p03 ~]$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 238.47 GiB, 256060514304 bytes, 500118192 sectors
Disk model: TOSHIBA THNSFJ25
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x0e6fed51

Device     Boot Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *     2048 500103449 500101402 238.5G 83 Linux


Disk /dev/sdb: 465.76 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Disk model: WDC WD5000LPLX-0
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xb6c44142

Device     Boot Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1  *     2048 976768064 976766017 465.8G 83 Linux


Disk /dev/sdc: 14.84 GiB, 15938355200 bytes, 31129600 sectors
Disk model: Flash Disk
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xc4d63769
  3. Identify the pen drive letter. In this example, it is /dev/sdc

Formatting flash drives

Arch Linux

Unmount and format the drive

  1. Unmount 
    sudo umount /dev/sdc
  2. Format the partition to FAT32: 
    mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/partition
    If the letter of your pen drive is /dev/sdc, 
    sudo mkfs.fat -I -F 32 /dev/sdc

Other options that didn’t work

  1. shred -vn 1 /dev/sdX (I still saw the same error that I used to see)

Burning ISO images to flash drives

Arch Linux

  1. Use isoimagewriter 
    sudo pacman -S isoimagewriter

Windows

  1. Rufus for burning ISO images to flash drives easily

Missing file system on flash drives

When you insert a flash drive into a Windows computer and the computer doesn’t recognize the flash drive, it will show these errors when we try to format it or use it.

Windows error: "The volume does not contain a recognized file system"

or

Windoes was unable to complete the format.

What is the reason?

The flash drive doesn’t have a file system type.

How do we fix it?

We have to create a file system (preferably, FAT32 - because it works with both Linux and Windows) on the flash drive.

How?

See below.

Create a file system on the flash drive

TLDR: formatting should fix the issue.

  1. Look at the partition table to identify the name of your drive in the partition table.
  2. But the partition table doesn’t tell us anything about the file system types. How do we identify the file system types for each partition?
  3. Identify existing file systems

    1. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/File_systems#Create_a_file_system

    2. To identify existing file systems for the partitions, use lsblk:

      lsblk -f

    3. Sample outputs

      NAME   FSTYPE LABEL     UUID                                 MOUNTPOINT
sdb
└─sdb1 vfat   Transcend 4A3C-A9E9

    4. The output should look something like this:

      [explorer436@explorer436-p50-20eqs27p03 ~]$ lsblk -f
NAME   FSTYPE FSVER LABEL       UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
sda
└─sda1 ext4   1.0   endeavouros 557caa50-435e-496c-9474-3130b8425c43  133.2G    38% /
sdb
└─sdb1 ext4   1.0               06b15b56-3377-40a0-be0d-33add5c14853
sdc

      Here, we can see that sdc doesn’t have an associated file system type.

      Or

      [explorer436@explorer436-p50-20eqs27p03 programming-notes]$ lsblk -f
NAME   FSTYPE  FSVER            LABEL       UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
sda
└─sda1 ext4    1.0              endeavouros 557caa50-435e-496c-9474-3130b8425c43  124.5G    42% /
sdb
└─sdb1 ext4    1.0                          06b15b56-3377-40a0-be0d-33add5c14853
sdc    iso9660 Joliet Extension EOS_202502  2025-02-08-08-06-14-00
├─sdc1 iso9660 Joliet Extension EOS_202502  2025-02-08-08-06-14-00
└─sdc2 vfat    FAT32            ARCHISO_EFI 67A7-1076

      Here, we can see that sdc has iso9660 file system type.

  4. Unmount 
    sudo umount /dev/sdc
  5. Create a file system on the flash drive

    1. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/FAT

    2. Format the partition to FAT32:

      mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/partition
      1. Our example 
        sudo mkfs.fat -I -F 32 /dev/sdc

    3. After we create a file system, the output of lsblk -f should look something like this:

      [explorer436@explorer436-p50-20eqs27p03 ~]$ lsblk -f
NAME   FSTYPE FSVER LABEL       UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
sda
└─sda1 ext4   1.0   endeavouros 557caa50-435e-496c-9474-3130b8425c43  133.2G    38% /
sdb
└─sdb1 ext4   1.0               06b15b56-3377-40a0-be0d-33add5c14853
sdc    vfat   FAT32             A062-8CF5
  6. The flash drive will now work with Windows computers as well.

Partitioning tools

Arch Linux

  1. Partitioning tools
    1. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Partitioning#Partitioning_tools

If the live boot ISO cannot recognize the hard disc of the computer

If you inserted a live iso flash drive, but the Calamares installer cannot see the Hard disc of the computer, and if fdisk cannot see it either, what is the resolution?

This is the error that Calamares will show.

There is not enough drive space. At least 5.5 GB is required.
There are no partitions to install on.

Check your BIOS for Intel RST or RAID. If they are enabled, Gparted can’t see your drive. Change it to AHCI.

If the Network Manager in live boot ISO is not working?

If you cannot connect to a Wifi network when you insert a live ISO into a computer that was running Windows, what is the resolution?

Are you dual booting with Windows? If so make sure you boot into Windows and disable the Fast Startup feature in power management.

Disable Fast Startup

To disable the Fast Startup feature in Windows 10, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Control Panel and select ‘Power Options.’
  2. Click on ‘Choose what the power buttons do.’
  3. Click on ‘Change settings that are currently unavailable.’
  4. Under ‘Shutdown settings,’ uncheck the ‘Turn on fast startup’ box and save your changes.

Disabling Fast Startup can help resolve issues with dual-boot configurations or problems related to Windows updates, although it may result in slightly longer boot times on modern systems.

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