Cant mount USB flash drive

Unmount the drive and then perform an fsck check on the drive using:-

sudo fsck /dev/path-of-drive -r

If you want the path of the drive, use:-

sudo fdisk -l

to obtain it.

Hi Pramod,
Thanks for that. It found errors and I selected the correct errors option but it still will not mount. In the drive properties under the drive tab and the volume tab what should the mount point be? and the mount options?

Regards
Peter

If you have fixed any errors try mounting the drive manually by doing the following:-
1) Create a folder in /media using:-

sudo mkdir /media/force

2) Mount the drive on the folder using:-

sudo mount -t vfat /dev/path-of-drive /media/force

Post any errors you get.

Hi Pramod,
I get no errors when I do
sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sda /media/force

If I do sudo nautilus and go to the force folder to delete files I get
Error while moving items to "/media/force/.Trash-root".
You do not have permissions to write to this folder.

This because the USB device has got set to read only.

If i try mounting it by just plugging it in I still get
Cannot mount volume.
Invalid mount option when attempting to mount the volume.

When I do
sudo fsck /dev/sda -r

I get
peter@peter-desktop:~$ sudo fsck /dev/sda -r
fsck 1.40-WIP (14-Nov-2006)
dosfsck 2.11, 12 Mar 2005, FAT32, LFN
There are differences between boot sector and its backup.
Differences: (offset:original/backup)
  3:2d/4d, 4:2b/53, 5:3f/44, 6:6f/4f, 7:7e/53, 8:49/35, 9:48/2e, 10:43/30
1) Copy original to backup
2) Copy backup to original
3) No action
? 2
FATs differ but appear to be intact. Use which FAT ?
1) Use first FAT
2) Use second FAT
? 1
/photos
  "." is missing. Can't fix this yet.
/photos
  ".." is missing. Can't fix this yet.
Reclaimed 848671 unused clusters (3476156416 bytes).
Free cluster summary wrong (14489 vs. really 862339)
1) Correct
2) Don't correct
? 1
Perform changes ? (y/n) y
/dev/sda: 292 files, 159613/1021952 clusters
peter@peter-desktop:~$

Any ideas?
Regards
Peter

I think there maybe nothing else to do than to format the USB drive.

Backup all the data.

Install Gparted using:-

sudo apt-get install gparted

Run Gparted which can be found in System>Administration>Partition Editor

Select the USB drive and then format it, then see if the problems are fixed.

Hi Pramod,

I still get
Cannot mount volume.
Invalid mount option when attempting to mount the volume.
The details are :-
mount_point cannot contain the following characters: newline, G_DIR_SEPARATOR (usually /)

Under Computer - File Browser , right clicking on flash drive then clicking on properties there are tabs for drive and volume. In there are places to enter: Mount Point, File System, and Mount Options.
I think I need to get those values correct first because Gparted cannot mount the flash drive.
 Gparted sees the flash drive and lets me select it to format it but when trying to give the "Cannot mount volume." data and the drive is not changed.

Any ideas?
Regards
Peter

Are you trying to mount the drive under GParted? That is not really necessary, what really matters is if you have formatted the USB drive and managed to properly mount it using the instructions given previously, have you done that?

Hi Pramod,
Here is the whole process again.

peter@peter-desktop:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Password:

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40060403712 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4870 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 1033 8297541 b W95 FAT32
/dev/hda2 1095 1823 5855692+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 1824 1969 1172745 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda4 1970 4870 23302282+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sda: 4194 MB, 4194304512 bytes
130 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1016 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8060 * 512 = 4126720 bytes

This doesn't look like a partition table
Probably you selected the wrong device.

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 ? 96543 238170 570754815+ 72 Unknown
Partition 1 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
     phys=(357, 116, 40) logical=(96542, 119, 11)
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(357, 32, 45) logical=(238169, 54, 51)
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 ? 20930 261132 968014120 65 Novell Netware 386
Partition 2 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
     phys=(288, 115, 43) logical=(20929, 28, 47)
Partition 2 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(367, 114, 50) logical=(261131, 30, 42)
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 ? 231996 472198 968014096 79 Unknown
Partition 3 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
     phys=(366, 32, 33) logical=(231995, 28, 30)
Partition 3 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(357, 32, 43) logical=(472197, 29, 39)
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda4 ? 358025 358032 27749+ d Unknown
Partition 4 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
     phys=(372, 97, 50) logical=(358024, 124, 25)
Partition 4 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(0, 10, 0) logical=(358031, 109, 33)
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.

Partition table entries are not in disk order
peter@peter-desktop:~$ sudo fsck /dev/sda -r
fsck 1.40-WIP (14-Nov-2006)
dosfsck 2.11, 12 Mar 2005, FAT32, LFN
There are differences between boot sector and its backup.
Differences: (offset:original/backup)
  3:2d/4d, 4:2b/53, 5:3f/44, 6:6f/4f, 7:7e/53, 8:49/35, 9:48/2e, 10:43/30
1) Copy original to backup
2) Copy backup to original
3) No action
? 1
FATs differ but appear to be intact. Use which FAT ?
1) Use first FAT
2) Use second FAT
? 1
/photos
  "." is missing. Can't fix this yet.
/photos
  ".." is missing. Can't fix this yet.
Reclaimed 848671 unused clusters (3476156416 bytes).
Free cluster summary wrong (14489 vs. really 862339)
1) Correct
2) Don't correct
? 1
Perform changes ? (y/n) y
/dev/sda: 292 files, 159613/1021952 clusters
peter@peter-desktop:~$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sda /media/force
peter@peter-desktop:~$ cd /media/force
peter@peter-desktop:/media/force$ dir
photos
peter@peter-desktop:/media/force$ rm -r photos
rm: descend into write-protected directory `photos'? y
rm: remove write-protected regular file `photos/\002\b\003.\003\b\003'? y
rm: cannot remove `photos/\002\b\003.\003\b\003': Permission denied
rm: remove write-protected regular file `photos/\t\b\003.\v\b\003'? y
rm: cannot remove `photos/\t\b\003.\v\b\003': Permission denied
rm: remove write-protected regular file `photos/\021\b\003.\023\b\003'?
peter@peter-desktop:/media/force$ sudo rm -r photos
rm: cannot remove `photos/\t\b\003.\v\b\003': Read-only file system
rm: cannot remove `photos/\021\b\003.\023\b\003': Read-only file system
rm: cannot remove `photos/\031\b\003.\033\b\003': Read-only file system
rm: cannot remove `photos/!\b\003.#\b\003': Read-only file system
rm: cannot remove `photos/)\b\003.+\b\003': Read-only file system
rm: cannot remove `photos/1\b\003.3\b\003': Read-only file system
rm: cannot remove `photos/9\b\003.;\b\003': Read-only file system
rm: cannot remove `photos/y\b\003.[\b\003': Read-only file system

"plus hundreds more of the same

After using gparted to delete the partition and format the disk gparted goes into an endless loop scanning all devices."

peter@peter-desktop:/media/force$ sudo umount /media/force
umount: /media/force: device is busy
umount: /media/force: device is busy
peter@peter-desktop:/media/force$ dir
photos
peter@peter-desktop:/media/force$

after stopping gparted and doing sudo umount /media/force again, I still get device is busy. Notice also that the photos folder still exists even after gparted said the format was successful.
Regards
Peter

this is utter nonsense,firstly usb drives doesnt crash they get burned,the chip it contains,secondly stop messing with commands.goto Windows xp box plug usb and say format>right click.there can be virus in it so first scan it.have you rebooted ubuntu
before you plugged the usbdrive?,i know ubuntu still has problem with hot plugging devices,by the way which ubuntu version u r using.

Hi Ajmal,

Thanks for your info. I am using Ubuntu 7.04. I have tried plugging in the USB drive before booting and after logon. It makes no difference. A few days ago I took the device to a neighbour who has XP to try a format. It would not format it. It said it is a read only disk (or no permission. I cant remember.). I will take it back and try a virus scan. Most likely the chip has has been burned although it used to work. I bought it 2nd hand.

Regards,
Peter

I have scanned the device and found no virus. I will solve the problem by buying a new flash drive.
Thanks for all your suggestions.
Peter

I bought a new flash drive months ago and it works perfectly so this thread should be deleted now.
Thanks
Peter