switching USB sticks?

[sfeeley]

My computer can't tell the difference between two different USB sticks when I switch them.

Explanation:
My computer has one USB port. If I have been using one USB stick, and then unmount it. And insert and mount a second USB stick, I still only see the file directory for stick #1 (although none of those files will actually open).

Result: I can't actually read any data off of USB stick #2.

It probably doesn't help that the two USB sticks are the same make and model.

Is there any way to get puppy to "forget" stick #1?

(I am using puppy 2.16 frugal install on an old sony viao.)

thanks!

[Bruce B]

I had a similar problem two days ago when burning and checking CD
Discs.

Ultimately, I determined it had to do with software instructions
which opened and closed the CD/DVD tray. And the state the
software would leave the device in.

So far my comments are not directly related to a USB device,
except this was the first time I encountered the problem and by
chance also the first time I had a USB storage attached to the
computer at the same time.

My first thought is you are getting buffered results and not
actual results.

I would try variations of the 'sync' command
before and/or after mounting the device.

If this didn't work, then I'd try fdisk -l to
force Linux to 'look again'

If neither of the above worked, I'd have learned two things that
don't work for the problem.

Then I'd look at exactly how I am mounting and remounting the
device.

And if that didn't work, I'd post again about all the things Bruce said
to try and didn't work.

~

[Bruce B]

Also . . .

There are other ways to mount which would tell Linux in a sense "this
is a different device, even though the specs are otherwise the same"

I am referring to mounting these two sticks by LABEL or UUID

If for example; you mount the device as LABEL specific instructions,
Linux won't mount it unless the LABEL corresponds between the
command and the actual device.

~

[sfeeley]

@Bruce.
I'm mounting the USB stick using the Pmount Puppy Drive Mounter.

As for the other suggestions, I'd need a few more specific instructions. I'm a bit of newbie, so bear with me. Thanks

[RetroTechGuy]

@Bruce.
I'm mounting the USB stick using the Pmount Puppy Drive Mounter.

As for the other suggestions, I'd need a few more specific instructions. I'm a bit of newbie, so bear with me. Thanks

Try assigning an actual name/label to each USB drive (i.e. "Flash1", "Flash2"). Sometimes that is all it takes for *nix to understand that they are physically different devices (err...how to give them names under linux? Uhhh...I had named my when I plugged them into the windows system).

update:

Try one of these methods (be careful!):

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... es-594875/

[Bruce B]

Yes RetroTechGuy, it's not going to be as simple if it's a messy
dos file system or something worse.

If we consider the variables in which Linux will see these removable
storage devices, such as if they were installed on boot, swapped
and etc., and etc. . . .

One thing I did in the past with some success with the messy dos
USB sticks was:

install an identifier file, called by a unique name per device, such as;
\STICK1

a script which looks for the existence of the file STICK1 and if not
found does and XYZ and if found does ABC

something such as if true STICK1; then remount at /mnt/stick1

there are easy ways to do this stuff, the problem is: it doesn't
seem so easy for the newbie, quite to the contrary.

in candor, problems for me are; (1) making a good mental
facsimile of just what the user has; then (2) articulating adequately
what to do; (3) and often it involves a simple script, simple to me,
but hard to explain, because it is more than a matter of posting the
script itself for someone who has no experience at that end and I
likely need to get more on #1 before I consider the script usable.

[RetroTechGuy]

Yes RetroTechGuy, it's not going to be as simple if it's a messy dos file system or something worse.

Quick and dirty, if he has access to a Windows computer.

Put the flash drive in.
Open "My Computer"
Right click on the flash drive icon, and choose "properties"
In the slot next to the drive icon. enter a name.
Unmount flash drive, and repeat with the other drive.