[Scottish] USB memory sticks and SuSE 9.3

[Alan Rutherford]

Robert Barbour wrote:

>========================================
> Message Received: Jan 13 2006, 08:20 AM
> From: "Alan Rutherford" <alan at nonsite.co.uk>
> To: rlbarbour at castleventures.fsnet.co.uk, "SLUG-list" <scottish at mailman.lug.org.uk>
> Cc: 
> Subject: Re: [Scottish] USB memory sticks and SuSE 9.3
> 
> Robert Barbour wrote:
> 
> >I did this and sent a reply to scottish, but it didn't get into the system.
> >Could this be because it had a file attached?
> >Anyway, I think study of the log might confirm the suspicion that the format of the stick is the problem.
> >So how do I get round the format problem for file transfers - I have Linux, Apple and (reluctantly) MS?
> >Regards
> >Rob
> >
> >========================================
> >Message Received: Jan 09 2006, 03:16 PM
> >From: "Martin Habets" 
> >To: scottish at mailman.lug.org.uk
> >Cc: 
> >Subject: Re: [Scottish] USB memory sticks and SuSE 9.3
> >
> >It seems time to open up a terminal window (that's Konsole in Suse).
> >After you insert the stick, open the new 'floppy' icon, and get the
> >error message... after all that, type in these commands in the terminal
> >window and send the output here:
> >
> >mount
> >dmesg | tail -100
> >
> >That should give us a start to figure out what's going on.
> >If you're couragous you could look up a line for 'sda' in the mount
> >output and try to browse that directory.
> >
> >My guess is the floppy icon is used because the filesystem on the USB
> >stick is msdos.
> >
> >Martin
> >
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> >
> >  
> >
>  
>
>>I had the exact same problem with Suse. As soon as I re-formated the USB 
>>    
>>
> >memory stick, in FAT using Windoze, it worked!
>  
>
> >Alan
> 
>
>OK, what is FAT (File allocation Table?) and Windoze? Where do I get them (it)?
>
>I can't re-format the stick, as it doesn't belong to me, and the lender still has files (MSDOS) on it.
>
>But when I acquire my own usb mem stick, how do I format it to allow file interchange with linux, Apple and msdos?
>
>Regards
>Rob
> 
>
>
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>Scottish at mailman.lug.org.uk
>http://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/scottish
>
>  
>
Correct, FAT stands for File Allocation Table. Windoze  means Windows, 
as in the operating system. So what i was suggesting was to plug the mem 
stick into a Windows machine and re-format the drive.  If you format it, 
select FAT and this will allow it to be read across multiple Operating 
systems. MSDOS is an operating system by the way, not a File Sytem. The 
problem more than likely is the boot record, Suse can't read read it -   
Factory formatting sets it up specifically for windows.  I'm no expert 
on this, but maybe you should send the print outs to the guys who asked 
for them?  Also try googling around, I'm sure the answer will be out 
there. Another way to check your hard ware and perform data recovery, is 
to boot from a Knoppix Live CD  and you can then see if it detects the 
USB card, copy the files to the hard drive of your SUSE machine and then 
re-boot back into SUSE.
Check out Knoppix at http://www.knoppix.org/

Hasta La Vista.