On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 9:08 AM, Dan MacDonald <[email protected]> wrote: > I suspected my USB memory stick was faulty today so I needed a Linux > app to test it for defects and couldn't find anything for this purpose > on Finnix.
Dan, What about using some of the native Linux command-line tools already in Finnix103 1st?? (relevant references below suggestions) 1. Since you suspected your USB memory stick was faulty, you should definitely first back-up any possible data+programs still existing on your USB memory stick to another medium A.S.A.P. using the 'cp' command. Finnix103 has Midnight Commander which you could also use for backup purposes. 2. You could then use 'badblocks -svvn [-p 1] <USB partition>' to perform a more complete read/write scan if your USB memory stick is to ever be used interchangeably with Windows. If you don't plan to use your USB memory stick with Windows, then you could effectively proceed with the below steps. 3. You could use 'cfdisk /dev/<USB whole-device>' to remove any and all pre-existing partitions on the USB memory stick. 4. You could use 'dd' (or even 'cat') to quickly zero-out the USB drive before re-creating the partition. dd is often used as 'dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/<USB whole-device> bs=1M' 5. You could re-use 'cfdisk /dev/<USB whole-device>' to create a new partition, using the standard Linux type-83 partition 6. You could use 'mke2fs -cv [-t ext4 -O ^has_journal] /dev/<USB partition>' to best format the USB drive. The ext4 options are just that; optional. 7. You could finally run 'e2fsck -pccfvv /dev/<USB partition>' to more thoroughly check and non-interactively fix USB device faults. This could help out here without the requisite need for f3. - itf Relevant References: --------------------------------- a) Finnix103 package list - http://www.finnix.org/Finnix_103_packages b) cp(1) and mc(1) Linux man pages - http://linux.die.net/man/1/cp - http://linux.die.net/man/1/mc c) badblocks(8) Linux man page - http://linux.die.net/man/8/badblocks d) Debian testing package 'util-linux (2.19.1-5)' confirming presence of cfdisk in Finnix103 - http://packages.debian.org/wheezy/util-linux - http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/main/u/util-linux/util-linux_2.19.1-5.dsc e) cfdisk man-type page - http://ss64.com/bash/cfdisk.html f) dd(1) Linux man page - http://linux.die.net/man/1/dd g) Clean Hard Drive (zero fill) - http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/answers/Hardware/Clean_Hard_Drive_zero_fill h) Comparisons of dd vs. cat - http://dave.frop.net/disk_overwrite_speed_cat_vs_dd_vs_shred - http://prstat.blogspot.com/2008/04/why-cat1-ran-faster-than-dd1m.html - http://prstat.blogspot.com/2008/04/that-dd1m-is-faster.html i) Debian testing package 'e2fsprogs' confirming presence of programs for creating, checking, and maintaining ext2/3/4-based file systems in Finnix103 - http://packages.debian.org/wheezy/e2fsprogs j) mke2fs(8) Linux man page - http://linux.die.net/man/8/mke2fs k) Comparisons of ext2 vs ext4 filesystems on flash-memory devices (USB memory sticks) - http://androidforums.com/ally-all-things-root/257824-ext2-vs-ext3-vs-ext4-what-better-why.html - http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2011/05/ext2-ext3-ext4/ l) ext4 without journaling - http://kernelnewbies.org/Ext4#h - http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=03901 m) e2fsck(8) Linux man page - http://linux.die.net/man/8/e2fsck --------------------------------- _______________________________________________ finnix mailing list [email protected] http://lists.colobox.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/finnix
