Re: [LUG] USB stick does not display

[Neil <barnaby@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 01/04/2019 14:39, Grant Phillips-Sewell wrote:
> I apologise if any of the following is a case of teaching granny to suck 
> eggs...

No need to apologise. I am very happy to acknowledge that I can still 
learn lots about many things, including computers.
> Way back when floppy disks ruled, it was common to write the FILESYSTEM 
> directly to the disk with no partitions. This is not typically used with 
> "larger" storage devices, but it is still possible to do it.
>
> FAT/FAT32, EXT2/3/4, NTFS, HFS/HFS+ are examples of filesystems.
>
> If you are dealing with larger devices - and let's be honest here you're 
> unlikely to be dealing with floppy disks these days - then you are 
> almost certainly going to need some form of partitioning.
>
> Partitioning is simply a way to divide up the disk into smaller chunks 
> (partitions) that can be treated in some way as if they are separate 
> disks. When doing this there needs to be a way to keep track of where 
> each partition starts, ends, and the expected filesystems stored on them.

I did understand that. See below .....

> There are several ways to achieve this. Common ones you will find are 
> "MSDOS" and "GPT". The differences between then are not important at 
> this stage, but be aware that MSDOS is a partitioning scheme and that 
> the filesystems typically used by the Microsoft operating systems are 
> FAT, FAT32, and NTFS.
>
> What it sounds like you have done is to accidentally put an EXT4 
> filesystem on your USB stick without partitioning it... essentially 
> treating it like a giant floppy disk.

This is obviously where I have not understood what is happening. When I 
format a new USB stick to ext4, I have always assumed that it included 
any partitioning, as needed. Not so, it seems.
> This does work, but can cause problems. It is, however, not irrecoverable.
>
> I'm more than happy to talk you through it on the phone, or via 
> something like Skype, if you're interested. Maybe even setup a remote 
> desktop session so I can see what you see when discussing it.
>
> Drop me a line off-list if you fancy a call:
> grant@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:grant@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Grant. :)
Thanks for the kind offer, I have emailed you off list.

Neil

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