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dstuart

20th Jan, 2014, 06:30 AM
Hi,

So I used a USB drive to install an earlier Xbian package (I've since moved back to just using an SD card), but I've just grabbed it to reformat and use it with my Mac, and am unable to reformat it.

Terminal
root@xbian:~# sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt
mount: block device /dev/sdb1 is write-protected, mounting read-only
root@xbian:~# mount -o remount,rw /dev/sdb1
mount: cannot remount block device /dev/sdb1 read-write, is write-protected

Terminal
/dev/sdb1 on /mnt type btrfs (ro,relatime,space_cache)

Anyone got any ideas to make this drive usable again?

Thanks

IriDium

21st Jan, 2014, 05:42 AM
Why don't you just reformat in on the Mac or any other machine?

I'm also concerned why it's not automounting.

Can you provide the output of

dmesg - via pastebin
df -h
mount

dstuart

26th Jan, 2014, 11:31 PM
Hi IriDium, that would of course be the easy option!
Sorry, I didn't make it too clear. I'm unable to format it on a Mac, Windows, or any other machine. Everything I've tried just kicks out the same response; along the lines of "Read-only disk", "Disk is not readable", or "Write-protected".

Here's the output as requested. (Note: the drive seems to be showing up as sda1 now; the systems been updated since my first post).
Pastebin

koper89

26th Jan, 2014, 11:52 PM
Try gparted, just try to delete partitions and repartition it once again

dstuart

27th Jan, 2014, 02:54 AM
(26th Jan, 2014 11:52 PM)koper89 Wrote: [ -> ]Try gparted, just try to delete partitions and repartition it once again

Same story!
I'm about giving up to be honest. Waste of a good USB, but the effort spent really isn't worth it.

koper89

27th Jan, 2014, 02:59 AM
Quote: Optionally if gparted can't delete the partitions, you could use dd to clear the device.

Type sudo bash in the terminal of gparted.

Type in dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=4k conv=notrunc

And replace sda with whatever the gparted software shows it as being, sdb, sdf, sdz, etc.
Source: http://superuser.com/questions/612964/installed-ubuntu-on-usb-drive-now-its-read-only-and-cant-be-formatted

dstuart

27th Jan, 2014, 04:03 AM
Terminal
user@debian:~$ sudo bash
root@debian:/home/user# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=4k conv=notrunc
dd: failed to open '/dev/sdb': Read-only file system
root@debian:/home/user#

merike

8th Feb, 2014, 04:24 AM
I had the same problem, finally I found solution. I used phison format & restore v3.9.0.0 - use restore ntfs.

http://www.usbdev.ru/post-psrestore3900-m0704/

dstuart

10th Feb, 2014, 05:49 AM
(8th Feb, 2014 04:24 AM)merike Wrote: [ -> ]I had the same problem, finally I found solution. I used phison format & restore v3.9.0.0 - use restore ntfs.

http://www.usbdev.ru/post-psrestore3900-m0704/

@merike I LOVE you.
I'd spent more hours on this than I'd care to admit! I'd pretty much concluded it a lost cause. Thanks so much
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