4GB Hitachi CF Microdrive - Cant mount/fdisk/mkfs

[Gaines]

I have a Hitachi 4GB CF Microdrive that I have been using in my iPAQ. When I received my 6k I realized it wasn't mounting when I inserted it. This seems to be because I had, at one time, reformatted this card as FAT32. Whenever I try to reformat this card to FAT16 in Windows XP, it always ends up as a FAT32 volume. When I use Flash Format on my iPAQ, it wont let me choose any option other than FAT32.

I tried formatting it using my 6k by typing "mkfs.ext2 -v /dev/hda1" and received the error "Not enough space to build proposed filesystem while setting up super block". I then tried "mkfs.vfat -F 16 /dev/hda1" and received "WARNING: Not enough clusters for a 16 big FAT! The filesystem will be misinterpreted as having 12 bit FAT without mount option fat=16" then "Attempting to create a too large file system".

Obviously there shouldn't be a problem with not having enough space as this is a 4GB drive, so I thought it must be a problem with the way it is partitioned.

I installed the FDISK package and tried "fdisk /dev/hda1" and received the error "Unable to read /dev/hda1". When I tried "fdisk -s /dev/hda1" I got "Unable to open /dev/hda1".

I'm running out of options. I scoured Google for a utility that could format it using my USB card reader from Windows XP, but I haven't found anything of the sort. I don't have a linux box to do this from. Does anyone else have any suggestions?

[tumnus]

FAT16 only supports partitions up to 2GB and if you want to change the filesystem to say ext2, you need to change the partition type with fdisk first.

With fdisk you use /dev/hda, not /dev/hda1 as hda1 is the first partition, while hda is the drive.

There shouldn't be any problem with your Zaurus mounting a 4GB microdrive with FAT32. I suggest formatting it as FAT32 on your Zaurus and ensure the partition type is also correct as Windows may not be doing it correctly.

[kopsis]

I installed the FDISK package and tried "fdisk /dev/hda1" and received the error "Unable to read /dev/hda1". When I tried "fdisk -s /dev/hda1" I got "Unable to open /dev/hda1".

/dev/hda1 is an individual partition - you want to run fdisk on the entire disk (/dev/hda). To use fdisk you need to first make sure the drive is unmounted:

Code: [Select]

umount /mnt/cf
Then:

Code: [Select]

fdisk /dev/hda
Note that you'll need to be root to do both.

There's a chance that your drive doesn't even have a partition table (hence the "Unable to open /dev/hda1"). You'll need to tell fdisk to zero out the partition table, then create a partition, set the "type" to what you want (83(?) for Linux ext2/3), and then write the new partition table to disk. After that you should be able to:

Code: [Select]

mkfs.ext2 -v /dev/hda1

[Gaines]

DUH! I should have figured that whole hda1 vs. hda thing out on my own.

Thanks for the pointers.

[sgtron]

Forgive the stupid question, but after I do all that, do I have to edit fstab & mtab?  Also what should I do about creating a /mnt link, file or directory?

Finally can I have my microdrive mount like a cf card?  Or what do I have to do to use it as storage?

UPDATE!!!
I was a bonehead.  After I fdisk'd and mkfs'd I created an entry in /fstab that said:
 "/dev/hda1 /mnt/cf ext2 rw,user,noauto 0 0"

I couldn't get it to mount, so I thought I screwed up.  I posted my question, then ejected my card and re-inserted it... Amazing... it now shows up as a 5G Seagate Microdrive... Woo-Hoo!

I couldn't download anything until I chmod'd /usr/mnt.rom/cf/Documents to make it writable, then I could not only see the drive, but write to it too.

Only problem is ejecting this card is tearing my thumb nail to pieces.  I need to find a way to eject it cleanly when I need to reboot it or something.