unable to format usb stick ?strange things happening as well!!!

UNIX Solaris
1

Hi all,

I have a pendrive that is fat formatted...
It was being detected so far on solairs...but now during the re-installation of solaris ,i did not remove the drive and guess i screwed it up...
since then , i am unable to use it...guess its now not formatted or is corrupt...
but the irony is ,when i insert it into xp,it says "not formatted"...
when i insert into soaris through a usb hub its not detecting....
nothing in /media/
but if i connect it to the physical port then it works ,and i can look into its contents...
again here also i am unable to install many pkg that i have in it...
get an I/O error!!!

First of all, how can this be possible?
secondly i tried formatting this using the rmformat and this is what i got!!!

bash-3.2# rmformat -l
Looking for devices...
     1. Logical Node: /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0p0
        Physical Node: /pci@0,0/pci-ide@6/ide@0/sd@1,0
        Connected Device: TSSTcorp CD/DVDW SH-S182D SB03
        Device Type: DVD Reader/Writer
        Bus: IDE
        Size: 681.6 MB
        Label: <None>
        Access permissions: Medium is not write protected.
     2. Logical Node: /dev/rdsk/c4t0d0p0
        Physical Node: /pci@0,0/pci1043,8234@2/storage@4/disk@0,0
        Connected Device:          USB FLASH DRIVE  PMAP
        Device Type: Removable
        Bus: USB
        Size: 984.0 MB
        Label: <None>
        Access permissions: Medium is not write protected.
bash-3.2# rmformat -F long /dev/rdsk/c4t0d0p0
Formatting will erase all the data on disk.
Do you want to continue? (y/n)y

bash-3.2# mkfs -F pcfs /dev/rdsk/c4t0d0p0

Device /dev/rdsk/c4t0d0p0 was assumed to be a diskette.
A diskette specific operation failed on this device.
If the device is a hard disk, provide the name of the full physical disk,
and qualify that name with a logical drive specifier.

Hint: the device is usually something similar to

/dev/rdsk/c0d0p0 or /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0p0 (x86)
/dev/rdsk/c0t5d0s2 (sparc)

The drive specifier is appended to the device name. For example:

/dev/rdsk/c0t5d0s2:c or /dev/rdsk/c0d0p0:boot

bash-3.2#

What does this mean, and why am i not able to format the usb stick?

2

Hi Bro,
Let me post you back this question. Y r u trying to take the trouble to format it in unix while you can do it from your PC anyway? Just curious.:cool:

3

Hi wrapster,

deffinetly your pendrive format is NTFS/FAT32.here we r having ufs in solaris.
If u want format this pendrive,just u mount on any directory with ufs file system.remove all files in dat pendrive.

any how it is defficult to format in solaris.
just u try it.
best of luck

4

want to learn how to do it ....And am madly passionate about opensource :D.
So much so that i dont have xp installed at all...
stuff that dont work on solaris, i dont need them!!!!!

Secondly,
Pls read my first post carefully, i have tried formatting but i can only get upto the sec stage...there on i cant format it...
But the strange thing is when i load it up in xp it say unformatted and provides me an option to format ....
However in solaris i can see all my files ....
The strangest of all is that am able to use some of the files directly off it
but some installation apps give an I/O error when i try installing...
even if i cp it to my HD its the same issues?
So wanted to know how this is possible?