[plug] SanDisk USB drive

[Craig Foster]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: plug-bounces at plug.org.au [mailto:plug-bounces at plug.org.au] On
> Behalf Of Arie Hol
> Sent: Saturday, 16 February 2008 11:00 PM
> To: plug at plug.org.au
> Subject: Re: [plug] SanDisk USB drive
> 
> 
> 
> On 16 Feb 2008 at 17:17, Jim Householder wrote:
> 
> >
> >
> > ---- Original Message ----
> > From: garbuck at westnet.com.au
> > To: plug at plug.org.au
> > Subject: Re: [plug] SanDisk USB drive
> > Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2008 12:47:24 +0900
> >
> > >Can't you just ignore the small partition?
> > >
> > >If you are only using <100MB/~3990MB you aren't really going to
miss
> it
> > >are you?
> > >
> > >Or didn't I understand?
> >
> > Not quite.  The 5MB is trivial, I agree.  However what I would like
> > is a way to see it with a GNU/Linux tool.  qtparted and fdisk both
> > cannot see it, so it appears it is not a proper partition.  I want
to
> be
> > able to restore it later if it gets corrupted and I decide I want to
> use
> > it.
> >
> > It's the principle of the matter - it's hidden and I want to see it!
> > Openness and transparency and all that...
> >
> 
> One thing that you could try is to look at the /proc directory before
> you
> plug in your USB drive -
> 
> try this as root in a terminal:
> 
> cd /proc
> 
> ls -l
> 
> ls -l | grep root -c			(shows number of iles in /proc)
> 
> try it before you plug in your USB drive - then try it again after you
> plug in your USB drive - check the difference in the number of files -
> then investigate the extra files that appear after plugging in the USB
> drive.
> 
> On my system I get
> 
> [root at Boris proc]# ls -lR | grep root -c
> 169
> [root at Boris proc]# ls -lR | grep root -c
> 176
> 
> 169 files in /proc before plugging in my 2GB Laser Flash drive - then
I
> get 176 after plugging in my 2GB Laser Flash drive.
> 
> 
> Regards Arie
> ------------------------------------------------------------------

Why not go the extra step and make things definiative?

ls -RZ > ~/beforeusb.txt
{plug in drive}
ls -RZ > ~/afterusb.txt
diff beforeusb.txt afterusb.txt

oh, and surely dmesg says something informative?

Craig F.