Installing Backtrack on usb disk

Soldato
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Hi,

I got a UDISK 2.0 32GB USB Flash disk.

I've got another 4GB flash drive. I used unetboot software to get that USB stick to run the LIVE version of backtrack - that worked fine.

I typed in startx and I get to click on install.sh then I see the backtrack installation.

Then I plug in my 32GB USB disk so that I can install backtrack to it.
But every time I install it keeps failing and saying can not creat ext3 on / on /dev/sdb1 (that's the device)

I tried manual partitioning using ext3 and I tried ext2 but it doesn't work


It's lead me to believe that my USB drive flash drive will not let ext3 or ext2 file systems to be written is that true can that happen?

 
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Can you partition the drive from another OS? Are you using fdisk? Is there any form of write protection on the drive? What's the exact error number/message? Your drive won't be able to determine what kind of filesystem is being used on it.
 
Soldato
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hi

I used partition manager in windows to partition the drive using ext3 file system
but when I use the guided bit on the installation it doesn't work.

I get this error:

unable to create ext3 file system on / then it says /dev/sdb1

how will I know if there is a write protection? I can't see anything on the drive itself

any ideas?
 
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do you not have to remove the u3 bit before you can repartition it?

You should be able to get the u3 remover tool from the supplier, if not - then look on the sandisk website for it. It's a windows only tool though.

EDIT: also - as it's a flash drive, ext2 will be better (as ext2 isn't a journalling file system)
 
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yeah, u3 usb drives have "special" (read annoying as hell) controllers which you have to disable to make them less annoying. Have you checked the manufacturer's site for a suitable tool?

Also - why not just use fat?
 
Soldato
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thing with fat16 it didn't let me select the mount points such as / or /boot or /tmp

yer these usb drives are so annoying I can't believe it is this hard to boot off of this thing
I got it especially for this

I can't find the manufacturers site
maybe i shoulda spent a bit more
 
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hold on the drive I got doesn't have any U3 on it mmmm im confused

Erm... ok... I was sure I read u3 somewhere... long day, I guess! :o

OK... when you're booted into the other usb pen... does the new pen get mounted at any point? are you trying to mkfs as root? what's the output of "dmesg | tail -n 20"?
 
Soldato
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yep the new pen comes up as

/dev/sdb

i get the option to select it during the installation
it def sees it there but it's just when i try to install into the 32gb stick it won't work


any chance you could help me with commands to mkfs as ext3

I've got a decent understanding of fdisk
i know how to make partitions etc but not so sure about the mkfs business
 
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Kill the partition table of the pen first with "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=512" then create a brand spanking new partition table using fdisk. Then do "mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb1".

If you can't create a file system, you may just have a duff drive.
 
Soldato
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ill give it a go
if not bloody hell 20 quid wasted on this drive

i thought it was good value for money 20 quid for 32 GB flash drive maybe not
 
Soldato
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ahh no luck I did notice something weird though

when it installs it does this

dev/sdb1 for the / partition
then
dev/sdb5 for the swap

as you can see it misses out sdb2, sdb3 and sdb4 could that be the problem??
damn thing stops at 5% always!
 
Soldato
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It most likely is 'skipping' those partition numbers due to using a primary partition, sdb1, for / and then switching to logical partitions and using sdb5 for swap.
 
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