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I have a Lubuntu that I have downloaded from Wubi.exe, and I have a very simple problem.

Most of the time, whenever I plug in my pendrive, or USB drive, which has a memory capacity of 32GB and of the make Transcend, the File manager only recognizes it for a minute, and suddenly it says, "Not a valid block device". Sometimes, it also says that there IS no pen drive.

Even if I can't fix it, at least please tell me why such a thing happens.

I'm trying to transfer a 8.11GB folder to the pen drive. And sometimes it says it's not possible. Then If I try to delete anything it prevents me from doing so saying that the file is Read-only I have checked all the permissions regarding the file, and it is all set to Read and Write.

My kernel version is:

Linux ubuntu 3.2.0-23-generic #36-Ubuntu SMP Tue Apr 10 20:39:51 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
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    Did it work in windows?
    – leorize
    May 19, 2013 at 9:42
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    please give details of your kernel (uname -a). Also, does it make a difference if you plugin the memory stick into a USB2 or a USB3 port? Are there any kernel messages (dmesg) when the device disappears? As always - edit your question with any replies. Thanks.
    – fossfreedom
    May 19, 2013 at 9:48
  • @Ubuntu Yes, it did
    – Kitizl
    May 20, 2013 at 9:50
  • @fossfreedom "Linux ubuntu 3.2.0-23-generic #36-Ubuntu SMP Tue Apr 10 20:39:51 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux" The details of my kernel. And, no it does not make any differences when I switch ports. No kernel messages either...
    – Kitizl
    May 20, 2013 at 9:51
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    @Kitizl - does this occur on another USB memory stick? Possibly this 32GB is faulty?
    – fossfreedom
    May 20, 2013 at 15:54

1 Answer 1

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Your drive is faulty. If you recently purchased it, I suggest returning it to where you bought it if they will accept a return in such a case.

I've had this problem before with relatively cheap drives, though it usually happens after they have been used for some time (in heavy read/write operations or after being reformatted a number of times).

Another possible cause for this (which does not seem to be the case here) is udev, which occasionally encountered bugs with formatting USB drives in older versions of Ubuntu (and would cause this kind of error). The problem would manifest as a failed attempt to format the drive, after which it would appear that the drive was faulty. This bug has since been fixed.

*Unfortunately I don't have links to the related bug(s) at this time, but I ran into them back in 12.10 or 12.04.

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  • It's nearly a year since I bought the drive. What do you suggest that I must do? Also, Transcend is a very trusted brand in my country.
    – Kitizl
    May 26, 2013 at 10:17
  • It could still happen with a good brand, that the drive dies after a while. Most people don't know it, but Flash Drives have a certain limit to how many times they can be read/written, before they start to "go bad". I would suggest replacing your drive.
    – RolandiXor
    May 26, 2013 at 13:22
  • But if it works in WinXP perfectly, why should it stop working in Lubuntu?
    – Kitizl
    May 28, 2013 at 13:43
  • I have found that Windows doesn't always show up a faulty drive all that quickly. I'm not sure why, but that has been my experience. Sometimes Windows allows you to use your faulty drive indefinitely, while Ubuntu (Linux in general) finds the fault and throws an error.
    – RolandiXor
    May 28, 2013 at 15:24
  • But isn't that the problem here? Lubuntu does not throw an error!
    – Kitizl
    Jun 9, 2013 at 7:25

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