Kiran, Thanks for the help. I should emphazie that my promblem is not mounting the usb-key drive, but only deleting the files on it. I can copy those files, but not delete or modify them. However, if I add a test file, I can readily delete it.
I suspect I damanged the file system by removing the usb-key from a laptop running Windows without first "stopping" it (I know nothing of Windows). You suggested first: # dd if=/dev/zero of=/sdd bs=512 count=1 1+0 records in 1+0 records out 512 bytes (512 B) copied, 0.00394563 seconds, 130 kB/s This didn't get rid of the files. You suggested second: # mkdosfs -I -v /dev/sdd mkdosfs 2.11 (12 Mar 2005) /dev/sdd has 16 heads and 62 sectors per track, logical sector size is 512, using 0xf8 media descriptor, with 1000944 sectors; file system has 2 16-bit FATs and 16 sectors per cluster. FAT size is 245 sectors, and provides 62526 clusters. Root directory contains 512 slots. Volume ID is 47326c96, no volume label. Files still there. Important relevant information: $ ls -la /media/usb-key drwxr-xr-x 2 brownh brownh 20480 Dec 31 1969 . drwxr-xr-x 8 root root 4096 Jul 17 15:16 .. -rwxr-xr-x 1 brownh brownh 1071529 Aug 14 14:35 <.PNG filename> ... $ df /media/mirror Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/sda1 964500 124352 791152 14% / I next tried to repair the file system; # dosfsck -av /dev/sdd dosfsck 2.11 (12 Mar 2005) dosfsck 2.11, 12 Mar 2005, FAT32, LFN Logical sector size is zero. Zero? I said that running mformat failed. What I meant is that I only get the usage help, but nothing happens: # mformat -v /dev/sdd Mtools version 3.9.10, dated March 2nd, 2005 Usage: ... I tried: # fdisk /dev/sdd and print partition table: Disk /dev/sdd: 512 MB, 512483328 bytes 16 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1009 cylinders Units = cylinders of 992 * 512 = 507904 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdd1 1 1009 500433 b W95 FAT32 This looks OK. -- Haines Brown, KB1GRM -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]