On Friday 09 October 2009, Stroller wrote: > On 8 Oct 2009, at 22:10, Paul Hartman wrote: > > ... > > With SD cards, often times there are no partitions. So if you create > > proper partitions sometimes it won't read in other devices/computers. > > (in linux terms that means you would format /dev/sda not /dev/sda1) > > Uh, unless SD cards are seriously goofy - a possibility I concede - > then they're just a bunch of blocks. Partitions are just something you > - either you the user, or the manufacturer if they come pre-formatted > - put on there. > > I'm pretty sure that my experience with at least one external hard- > drive (USB mass-storage device) was that formatting /dev/sda worked > just fine under Linux (and, I think OS X) but was not recognised by > Windows XP. IIRC mkfs.vfat gave a warning. When formatted by Windows > XP and remounted in Linux the drive was of the /dev/sda1 type of > partition layout. > > This seems to be the opposite of how you describe, unless I am > misreading.
Some USB sticks are formatted as floppy disks (?) and show up as /dev/sda
(instead of /dev/sda1). I have had no problems mounting these in Linux or
MSWindows, but wouldn't know how to format them in Linux. Their partitions
look all over the shop. dmesg shows:
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usb-storage: device scan complete
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] 1997312 512-byte hardware sectors: (1.02 GB/975 MiB)
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
sda:
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk
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and fdisk:
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# fdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 1022 MB, 1022623744 bytes
32 heads, 61 sectors/track, 1023 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1952 * 512 = 999424 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x69737369
This doesn't look like a partition table
Probably you selected the wrong device.
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 ? 957875 1044294 84344761 69 Unknown
Partition 1 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(68, 13, 10) logical=(957874, 21, 37)
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(288, 115, 43) logical=(1044293, 15, 36)
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 ? 871681 1829612 934940732+ 73 Unknown
Partition 2 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(371, 114, 37) logical=(871680, 1, 61)
Partition 2 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(366, 32, 33) logical=(1829611, 4, 30)
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 ? 2 2 0 74 Unknown
Partition 3 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(371, 114, 37) logical=(1, 10, 12)
Partition 3 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(372, 97, 50) logical=(1, 10, 11)
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda4 1 1759792 1717556736 0 Empty
Partition 4 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(0, 0, 0) logical=(0, 0, 1)
Partition 4 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(0, 0, 0) logical=(1759791, 23, 37)
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.
Partition table entries are not in disk order
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While parted again has no problem seeing it and identifying the partition
tablet as "loop" instead of MSDOS:
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# parted /dev/sda
Warning: GNU Parted has detected libreiserfs interface version mismatch.
Found 1-1, required 0. ReiserFS support will be disabled.
GNU Parted 1.8.8
Using /dev/sda
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) p
Model: Crucial Gizmo! overdrive (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1023MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: loop
Number Start End Size File system Flags
1 0.00B 1023MB 1023MB fat16
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--
Regards,
Mick
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