While copying some large file I mistakenly taken out USB pen drive before the copy get completed. Later I again attached the USB pen drive in Ubuntu system but found that the USB pen drive showing read only filesystem message. I was not able to copy, create and delete any file. To solve this issue I followed some steps which I am sharing in this article.

Method Of Fixing Read Only USB Pen Drive In Ubuntu

In this section, we will follow the steps to fix the read only USB Pen Drive.

Disclaimer

  1. Some of you might be carrying the important data in USB / Pen Drive. In this method, we will format the USB drive. So due to this , the data will be erased and non recoverable.
  2. This solution works most of the time but in case there is Hardware issue in your USB/Pen drive then this solution won’t work. You should buy new USB/ Pen drive instead.

Find Out The Mounted Path Of USB Pen Drive

Step 1: Attach USB pen drive in system’s USB port. Automatically the Ubuntu will mount the USB pen drive and show icon on Desktop or Menu bar.

Open the terminal and become super user by running below given command

sudo su -

Step 2: First we have to find out in which directory the USB pen drive has been automatically mounted.For this run the df -Th command.
In given below output you can see,in my system the USB pen drive is mounted in /media/linux/C38C-099C ,partition is /dev/sdd1 and filesystem is vfat.

Note: When you run df -Th command in your system,the USB pen drive may mount in different directory and the partition might also be different.Hence the output value which you will get, use the same values in further steps.

root@tuxworld:~# df -Th
Filesystem     Type      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda5      ext4       28G   25G  1.3G  96% /
udev           devtmpfs  2.0G  4.0K  2.0G   1% /dev
tmpfs          tmpfs     796M  1.1M  795M   1% /run
none           tmpfs     5.0M  8.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
none           tmpfs     2.0G  528K  2.0G   1% /run/shm
none           tmpfs     100M  104K  100M   1% /run/user
cgroup         tmpfs     2.0G     0  2.0G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda7      ext4      9.2G  8.2G  539M  94% /partition7
/dev/sda8      ext3       46G   38G  6.2G  86% /partition8
/dev/sda9      ext3       74G   67G  3.1G  96% /partition9
/dev/sda21     ext4       14G  4.9G  8.3G  37% /partition10
/dev/sdd1      vfat       15G   12G  3.6G  77% /media/linux/C38C-099C

Unmount USB Pen Drive

Step 2: Now unmount the directory in which the USB pen drive is automatically mounted . (As you can see mounted directory path in above ‘Step 1’)

Note: Replace the/media/linux/C38C-099C with the mounted USB pen drive directory path which is showing output in your system after running df -Th command.

umount /media/linux/C38C-099C

Check And Repair

Step 3: As we know the USB pen drive got /dev/sdd1 partition
and filesystem is vfat(see in Step 1). Now we will run dosfsck command to check and repair the filesystem

Note: The dosfsck command check and repair MS-DOS filesystems.Because the filesystem of USB pen drive is vfat hence we are using this command

dosfsck -a /dev/sdd1

Re-Attach USB Pen Drive

Step 4: After the dosfsck command get completed.Remove the USB pen drive from system and then re-attach back to system.Now your USB pen drive should working and it should not have read only filesystem.

Note** After mounting the USB pen drive you may see a new file with extension .REC which was created because of dosfsck command.

Reboot The System

Step 5 Reboot the system after completing all the steps. (This step we have added after receiving lots of suggestion in comments section from our readers around the world. Thank you for providing feedback and sure it will help many people.)

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Sharad Chhetri is an experienced Linux, DevOps, Cloud Engineer & Freelancer. Working on various technologies since RHEL 4 era. He loves sharing the knowledge which he has earned from his experience.
You can contact him on email for freelance projects at admin@sharadchhetri.com.

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207 Comments

  1. I’m also having the same problem. I’m not able to fix read only usb problem despite going through the procedure mentioned above.

    Reply

    1. Hello Sushil,

      The solution works when there are some chances of possibility. If USB is completely malfunctioned on hardware level then it wont work in this way.

      Here, in this post logic is to first convert the USB filesystem into vfat. Then run the command dosfsck . Try once again and send the out put of df -Th if issue still persist.

      Regards
      Sharad

      Reply

  2. root@sujit:~# df -Th
    Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
    /dev/sda7 ext4 68G 3.8G 60G 6% /
    none tmpfs 4.0K 0 4.0K 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
    udev devtmpfs 1.9G 4.0K 1.9G 1% /dev
    tmpfs tmpfs 387M 1.1M 386M 1% /run
    none tmpfs 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock
    none tmpfs 1.9G 80K 1.9G 1% /run/shm
    none tmpfs 100M 44K 100M 1% /run/user
    /dev/sda3 fuseblk 146G 115G 31G 80% /media/sujit/study

    root@sujit:~# umount /media/sujit/study

    root@sujit:~# dosfsck -a /dev/sda3
    dosfsck 3.0.16, 01 Mar 2013, FAT32, LFN
    Currently, only 1 or 2 FATs are supported, not 0.

    Reply

          1. i just run both commands

            1.mkfs.vfat /dev/sdc1
            mkfs.fat 3.0.26 (2014-03-07)
            mkfs.vfat: unable to open /dev/sdc1: Read-only file system

            2.mkdosfs -F 32 -I /dev/sdc1
            mkfs.fat 3.0.26 (2014-03-07)
            mkdosfs: unable to open /dev/sdc1: Read-only file system

            Have you any other solution for this ?

            Thanks
            Sachin SIngh

          3. Dear Admin,

            Thanks to reply ,

            I can access my pendrive can play the videos that present in my pendrive and can open and see the docs. is it possible that after all this there may be any hardware issue bcoz i just try all possible solution in all solution my system is telling same thing that I have only read access. is there any solution to save my disk or its just a toy now?

  3. dosfsck command is not working for me, I got:
    dosfsck 3.0.12, 29 Oct 2011, FAT32, LFN
    FATs differ but appear to be intact. Using first FAT.
    /.Trash-1001/expunged/3019349019/chap 2- preliminary/Lab_works/Jan-03-2012/bram_b/ipcore_dir
    Contains a free cluster (1578960). Assuming EOF.
    /…/case3.png
    File size is 3927 bytes, cluster chain length is 0 bytes.
    Truncating file to 0 bytes.
    Unable to create unique name

    Reply

  5. not solved for me either. Fresh format of usb stick under ubuntu 12.04 with gparted. Did all the steps.
    root@xxxxxx# umount /media/greyone
    root@xxxxxx# dosfsck -a /dev/sdb1
    dosfsck 3.0.12, 29 Oct 2011, FAT32, LFN
    /dev/sdb1: 1 files, 1/950884 clusters
    root@xxxxxx#

    plugged back in and same problem.

    maybe the problem lies here?
    USB-Device is, or become suddenly read only without errors

    If you see “Write Protect is off” and no errors in your logfiles, than you should set filesystem type specific mount options (FS_MOUNTOPTIONS) in /etc/usbmount/usbmount.conf. Wrong gid causes mounting read only.

    Reply

  8. Hi i m tryed it but it still no work 🙁 tryed 3x and nothing if u can help me PM me to mail

    ” open: Súborový systém dovoľuje len čítanie ” ( Open : File Systems are for READ-ONLY )

    Reply

      1. Hello Sayky,

        Môžete tiež napísať Vašu otázku vo vašom jazyku danej krajiny.

        You can also write your question in your country language.

        Thanks and Regards
        Sharad

        Reply

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