2

I am trying to access a USB thumb drive.

The drive has been formatted using Windows 10's format utility. Nothing fancy: One (empty) FAT32 partition (named "VOLUME") taking up the drive's entire capacity (1GB). I verified that the thumb drive is working by running h2testw (under Windows) which reported no drive errors.

I am now trying to reformat the device to ext3 as I will only use it from the Raspbery Pi. I am following this guide.

However, fdisk is showing me really strange output for the device (see picture):

enter image description here

This looks like complete garbage to me.

What's going on there?
Can I simply ignore this issue, delete the partitions and start over?

2
  • 3
    You seem to access the partition , not the block device itself : /dev/sd1a vs /dev/sda
    – flakeshake
    Jan 3, 2016 at 20:48
  • 2
    @flakeshake That is correct if you want to write a quick answer.
    – goldilocks
    Jan 3, 2016 at 20:51

1 Answer 1

1

You are accessing the partition, not the block device itself : /dev/sda1 vs /dev/sda.

Try using
sudo fdisk /dev/sda

1
  • Thanks - that works! Just out of curiosity: What is the reason for the strange output observed in the screenshot? Is that the result of fdisk trying to interpret partition content as another partition table?
    – Matthias
    Jan 3, 2016 at 21:00

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.