USB flash drive become read-only

[Mikkel L. Ellertson]

Simon Slater wrote:
> On Sun, 2007-11-11 at 19:26 -0600, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
>> Simon Slater wrote:
>>> G'day all,
>>> 	A quick question about a USB stick that is used between FC6, F7 and
>>> Win98 boxes. In the last week it has become read-only.  I can't change
>>> permissions as root.  Any file or directory on it that is selected also
>>> is tagged with a lock icon and is read-only.  How can it be changed to
>>> read-write?
>>>
>> Dumb question - is it read-only in Windows too? If so, does it have
>> a little switch hidden away somewhere that makes the drive
>> read-only? What does /var/log/messages how when you plug it in?
>>
>> Mikkel
> 
> Not so dumb.  It is read-write in Win98.  I looked at /var/log/messages
> and could not make sense of it.  Here it is:
> 
> Nov 12 12:44:50 Ipex hald: mounted /dev/sda on behalf of uid 500
> Nov 12 12:44:52 Ipex kernel: FAT: Filesystem panic (dev sda)
> Nov 12 12:44:52 Ipex kernel:     fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain
> (i_pos 0)
> Nov 12 12:44:52 Ipex kernel:     File system has been set read-only
> 
> Mean anything to you?
> 
It looks like you need to run dosfsck (Linux) or run a disk test
under Windows to fix a bad FAT. "at_get_cluster: invalid cluster
chain" is the part that indicates this. The file system is being set
to read-only because there are error in the file system. Linux does
not like to let you write to a file system that has problems. The
error was probably caused by unplugging the drive before everything
was written, or by a windows crash.

Mikkel
-- 

  Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!

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