#1 2017-08-21 11:11:33

kitemmu

Member

Registered: 2016-06-11

Posts: 29

[SOLVED] USB read-only mode (64 GB DataTraveler G4)

Hello guys!
My friend has a 64 GB DataTraveler G4 (kingston) and (nobody knows how) now is setted in "read-only" mode.
I tried to format, change permissions, software for remove read-only (on Linux and Winzoz) but nothing works.

I had already created a backup, so dont need to be careful about data on the USB.
Please help

Last edited by kitemmu (2017-08-21 15:53:46)

Steve

Member

Registered: 2017-01-03

Posts: 642

Re: [SOLVED] USB read-only mode (64 GB DataTraveler G4)

Installing pmount may help, there is an option to force read write onto the drive.

sudo apt-get install pmount

sudo pmount -w /dev/xxx

Read the man page first though, man pmount.

kitemmu

Member

Registered: 2016-06-11

Posts: 29

Re: [SOLVED] USB read-only mode (64 GB DataTraveler G4)

Done, this is the command/output

sudo pmount -w /dev/sdb

NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sdb' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?

Here the USB in gparted
https://image.ibb.co/dvPzp5/usb.png

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2017-08-21 15:31:03)

unklar

Member

Registered: 2015-10-31

Posts: 914

Re: [SOLVED] USB read-only mode (64 GB DataTraveler G4)

^ of course, you have to mount sdb1   

pmount -w /dev/sdb1

kitemmu

Member

Registered: 2016-06-11

Posts: 29

Re: [SOLVED] USB read-only mode (64 GB DataTraveler G4)

If mounted I have the same output posted before.

If not mounted, same output but additional line at start:

Can only open '/dev/sdb' as read-only

NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sdb' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 8,759

Website

Re: [SOLVED] USB read-only mode (64 GB DataTraveler G4)

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic … 369#p43369

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kitemmu

Member

Registered: 2016-06-11

Posts: 29

Re: [SOLVED] USB read-only mode (64 GB DataTraveler G4)

Same:

sudo hdparm -r0 /dev/sdb

/dev/sdb:
 setting readonly to 0 (off)
 readonly      =  0 (off)

But still nothing

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 8,759

Website

Re: [SOLVED] USB read-only mode (64 GB DataTraveler G4)

OK, let's try opening a terminal window and running this command:

dmesg -w

Then plug the USB stick in and post any (extra) terminal output that appears afterwards, hopefully the kernel will spew out some informative error messages.

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kitemmu

Member

Registered: 2016-06-11

Posts: 29

Re: [SOLVED] USB read-only mode (64 GB DataTraveler G4)

Before:

Mod Note: code box removed, we don't need this one.
-HoaS

Then:

 415.137220] usb 4-1: new SuperSpeed USB device number 4 using xhci_hcd
[  415.235545] usb 4-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0951, idProduct=1666
[  415.235549] usb 4-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[  415.235552] usb 4-1: Product: DataTraveler 3.0
[  415.235554] usb 4-1: Manufacturer: Kingston
[  415.235556] usb 4-1: SerialNumber: 60A44C413A8CB040898700CB
[  415.236735] usb-storage 4-1:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[  415.237030] scsi host6: usb-storage 4-1:1.0
[  416.259930] scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Kingston DataTraveler 3.0 PMAP PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[  416.260768] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[  419.673790] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] 121264128 512-byte logical blocks: (62.1 GB/57.8 GiB)
[  419.674407] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[  419.674413] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
[  419.675088] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found
[  419.675098] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[  419.681099]  sdb: sdb1
[  419.685427] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk

If i tried to pmount /dev/sdb1 i have:

[  521.702203] UDF-fs: warning (device sdb1): udf_load_vrs: No VRS found
[  521.702206] UDF-fs: warning (device sdb1): udf_fill_super: No partition found (2)
[  521.705348] UDF-fs: warning (device sdb1): udf_load_vrs: No VRS found
[  521.705350] UDF-fs: warning (device sdb1): udf_fill_super: No partition found (2)
[  521.788805] ISOFS: Unable to identify CD-ROM format.
[  521.870661] ISOFS: Unable to identify CD-ROM format.
[  521.873709] FAT-fs (sdb1): bogus number of reserved sectors
[  521.873725] FAT-fs (sdb1): Can't find a valid FAT filesystem
[  521.876522] FAT-fs (sdb1): bogus number of reserved sectors
[  521.876526] FAT-fs (sdb1): Can't find a valid FAT filesystem
[  521.880769] hfsplus: unable to find HFS+ superblock
[  521.884405] hfsplus: unable to find HFS+ superblock
[  521.887873] hfs: can't find a HFS filesystem on dev sdb1
[  521.891194] hfs: can't find a HFS filesystem on dev sdb1
[  521.893845] EXT4-fs (sdb1): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem
[  521.896660] EXT4-fs (sdb1): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem
[  521.899101] EXT4-fs (sdb1): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem
[  521.901515] EXT4-fs (sdb1): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem
[  521.903874] EXT4-fs (sdb1): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem
[  521.906300] EXT4-fs (sdb1): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem
[  521.909908] REISERFS warning (device sdb1): sh-2021 reiserfs_fill_super: can not find reiserfs on sdb1
[  521.913751] REISERFS warning (device sdb1): sh-2021 reiserfs_fill_super: can not find reiserfs on sdb1
[  521.920635] XFS (sdb1): Invalid superblock magic number
[  521.923740] XFS (sdb1): Invalid superblock magic number
[  521.931468] omfs: Invalid superblock (0)
[  521.933584] omfs: Invalid superblock (0)

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2017-08-21 15:22:21)

Head_on_a_Stick

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From: London

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 8,759

Website

Re: [SOLVED] USB read-only mode (64 GB DataTraveler G4)

Right, can we see the output of:

sudo parted --list

(With the USB stick plugged in.)

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earlybird

ほやほや

Registered: 2015-12-16

Posts: 717

Website

Re: [SOLVED] USB read-only mode (64 GB DataTraveler G4)

There are a number of Kingston read-only posts on the web. Clear the partition table and recreate one primary partition, then format using NTFS under Windows (don't format NTFS from Linux).

kitemmu

Member

Registered: 2016-06-11

Posts: 29

Re: [SOLVED] USB read-only mode (64 GB DataTraveler G4)

Solved!

Probably

sudo hdparm -r0 /dev/sdb

had succesfully removed the block.

So then i used

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=512

At this point was all deleted.

Opened Gparted, created a new partion table (the default selected MSDOS), created the FileSystem and all work

Thanks for support guys!

EDIT: was solved, putted the USB in a WIN PC and BOOM, it's again locked.

EDIT2: working again O:

Last edited by kitemmu (2017-08-21 15:54:10)