4GB Kingston CF card -------------------- says: copyright 2014 23-Jun-2014 ----------- Out of the box: [root@toad-sl61 ~]# fdisk /dev/sdb WARNING: DOS-compatible mode is deprecated. It's strongly recommended to switch off the mode (command 'c') and change display units to sectors (command 'u'). Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sdb: 3997 MB, 3997163520 bytes 128 heads, 63 sectors/track, 968 cylinders Units = cylinders of 8064 * 512 = 4128768 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 * 2 969 3899416 c W95 FAT32 (LBA) Partition 1 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?): phys=(0, 128, 1) logical=(1, 1, 2) Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings: phys=(967, 127, 63) logical=(968, 15, 63) Command (m for help): q [root@toad-sl61 ~]# dosfsck -v /dev/sdb1 dosfsck 3.0.9 (31 Jan 2010) dosfsck 3.0.9, 31 Jan 2010, FAT32, LFN Checking we can access the last sector of the filesystem Boot sector contents: System ID "MSDOS5.0" Media byte 0xf8 (hard disk) 512 bytes per logical sector 32768 bytes per cluster 6288 reserved sectors First FAT starts at byte 3219456 (sector 6288) 2 FATs, 32 bit entries 487424 bytes per FAT (= 952 sectors) Root directory start at cluster 2 (arbitrary size) Data area starts at byte 4194304 (sector 8192) 121728 data clusters (3988783104 bytes) 63 sectors/track, 16 heads 8128 hidden sectors 7798832 sectors total Checking for unused clusters. Checking free cluster summary. /dev/sdb1: 1 files, 1/121728 clusters Note the head/sect/cyl arrangement is different from the record for the previous card of the same type (but that was not recorded right out of the box). Create new partition table [root@toad-sl61 ~]# fdisk /dev/sdb WARNING: DOS-compatible mode is deprecated. It's strongly recommended to switch off the mode (command 'c') and change display units to sectors (command 'u'). Command (m for help): d Selected partition 1 Command (m for help): n Command action e extended p primary partition (1-4) p Partition number (1-4): 1 First cylinder (1-968, default 1): 1 Last cylinder, +cylinders or +size{K,M,G} (1-968, default 968): +128MB Command (m for help): t Selected partition 1 Hex code (type L to list codes): 6 Changed system type of partition 1 to 6 (FAT16) Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sdb: 3997 MB, 3997163520 bytes 128 heads, 63 sectors/track, 968 cylinders Units = cylinders of 8064 * 512 = 4128768 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 1 32 128992+ 6 FAT16 Command (m for help): w The partition table has been altered! Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table. WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: Device or resource busy. The kernel still uses the old table. The new table will be used at the next reboot or after you run partprobe(8) or kpartx(8) WARNING: If you have created or modified any DOS 6.x partitions, please see the fdisk manual page for additional information. Syncing disks. Format partition [root@toad-sl61 ~]# /sbin/mkdosfs -f 2 -F 16 -r 512 -s 8 -S 512 -R 1 -n "CMX_CF05" -v /dev/sdb1 mkdosfs 3.0.9 (31 Jan 2010) /dev/sdb1 has 128 heads and 63 sectors per track, logical sector size is 512, using 0xf8 media descriptor, with 257984 sectors; file system has 2 16-bit FATs and 8 sectors per cluster. FAT size is 128 sectors, and provides 32211 clusters. There are 8 reserved sectors. Root directory contains 512 slots and uses 32 sectors. Volume ID is c35b6631, volume label CMX_CF05 . What!!! 8 reserved sectors??? Try again an noticed order of argument with previous card [root@toad-sl61 ~]# mkdosfs -f 2 -F 16 -R 1 -S 512 -s 16 -r 512 -v -n "CMX_CF05" /dev/sdb1 mkfs.fat 3.0.26 (2014-03-07) /dev/sdb1 has 128 heads and 63 sectors per track, hidden sectors 0x003f; logical sector size is 512, using 0xf8 media descriptor, with 257985 sectors; drive number 0x80; filesystem has 2 16-bit FATs and 16 sectors per cluster. FAT size is 64 sectors, and provides 16114 clusters. There is 1 reserved sector. Root directory contains 512 slots and uses 32 sectors. Volume ID is d7203e53, volume label CMX_CF05 . Ok, so now there is indeed the 1 reserved sector. This argument must be position-dependent. I wonder if that was part of, or in addition to the first problems that drove looking for and installing a new version of dosfstools [root@toad-sl61 ~]# dosfsck -v /dev/sdb1 dosfsck 3.0.9 (31 Jan 2010) dosfsck 3.0.9, 31 Jan 2010, FAT32, LFN Checking we can access the last sector of the filesystem Boot sector contents: System ID "mkfs.fat" Media byte 0xf8 (hard disk) 512 bytes per logical sector 8192 bytes per cluster 1 reserved sector First FAT starts at byte 512 (sector 1) 2 FATs, 16 bit entries 32768 bytes per FAT (= 64 sectors) Root directory starts at byte 66048 (sector 129) 512 root directory entries Data area starts at byte 82432 (sector 161) 16114 data clusters (132005888 bytes) 63 sectors/track, 128 heads 63 hidden sectors 257985 sectors total Checking for unused clusters. /dev/sdb1: 1 files, 0/16114 clusters from Windows copy ACE config files 132,005,888 bytes (125 MB) capacity 36,970,496 bytes (35.2 MB) used