How to fix read only USB pen drive in Ubuntu
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.
Table of Contents
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
- 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.
- 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.)
OMG thank you! The `dosfsck` command worked! But it needs to be run as sudo or root just to let you know. Gone through Google with no results that were useful until I gave your blog a shot.
You, sir/madam, are a lifesaver!
From one blogger to another, I give you a big WhoopWhoop from Texas!
You are welcome Alexa!
Regards
Sharad
Master ,
root@NLKSYS:~# umount /media/nandulal/Backup\ 1
root@NLKSYS:~# dosfsck -a /dev/sdb1
fsck.fat 3.0.26 (2014-03-07)
open: Read-only file system
root@NLKSYS:~#
what to do ??
I readed amost replies and so said my case isnt worked. Here is the outut
root@yaohui-XPS-M1330:~# df -Th
Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/ubuntu–vg-root ext4 455G 393G 39G 92% /
none tmpfs 4.0K 0 4.0K 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
udev devtmpfs 2.0G 4.0K 2.0G 1% /dev
tmpfs tmpfs 404M 908K 403M 1% /run
none tmpfs 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock
none tmpfs 2.0G 160K 2.0G 1% /run/shm
none tmpfs 100M 52K 100M 1% /run/user
/dev/sda1 ext2 228M 197M 20M 92% /boot
/home/yaohui/.Private ecryptfs 455G 393G 39G 92% /home/yaohui
/dev/sdb1 vfat 15G 2.7G 13G 18% /media/yaohui/C69C-06B9
root@yaohui-XPS-M1330:~# umount /media/yaohui/C69C-06B9
root@yaohui-XPS-M1330:~# sudo dosfsck -a /dev/sdb1
dosfsck 3.0.14, 23 Jan 2023, FAT32, LFN
open: Read-only file system
root@yaohui-XPS-M1330:~#
Hi Admin, any workable solution?
same case, any solution?
Thank you, Sir!
It worked for me as well.
It leaves me wondering what causes this, though. I stumbled across three different problems with my external drives in the past 6 months and I’m a bit afraid of Ubuntu’s handling not always being approbiate …
Cheers to you though and thx
Robin
As usual, Linux guys always find the hardest solution. It’s really much simpler than the above suggestions. Unmount the USB drive then re-mount it. It’s really that simple.
Thanks for the extremely helpful article.
I had to repeat the process 3-4 times before it worked.
my usb is formated as ntfs and not vfat. Would that be a reason why this solution isn’t working for me?
Hi,
The OS should support the filesystem type. Either it is NTFS,FAT32,VFAT whatever. Generally the USB has vfat which is supported in Linux and Windows both.
Here, dosfsck is repairing the MS-DOS filesystem. So basic understanding is here, we need to repair the filesystem of USB.
Hence, step should be .
1. Identify what type of filesystem in USB drive
2. Unmount usb drive
3. Use the repair command relevant to filesystem type.
4. Reboot the system once (not sure but our readers has experienced this too)
For NTFS repair get ntfsfix command from package called ntfs-3g
Regards
Sharad
Mine says, Type: iso9660, as it is a bootable Linux installer.
Anything for that?
Hi Jane,
If you are looking for solution then simply follow the steps. Hope your issue will be resolved too.
Regards
Sharad
Owwww GOD! I t Is Wooooooork Thank You.. so much Guys ..
You Really Save My Time; God Bless Your Skills.
.
.
I Bookmark Your Website …. and finally I will share this for my friends and other… Have a good day!
Welcome buddy! Rock on and be happy.
Regards
Sharad
Worked perfectly!!! Thank you!!!
Thanks for the tip. It worked for me in ubuntu 17.10 x64