USB key falls into read-only file system

[GreyGeek]

If the blade or metal chassis of your Swiss Army Knife cannot pick up a thumb tack or paper clip then it is not magnetized enough to bother your USB sticks.

I always carry three USB drives in my watch pocket, along with two sets of keys. Never had a problem with any of them booting or running as expected.

[NickStone]

Follow the instructions as in here.

[dibl]

If I run gparted, the only thing it will allow me to do with the bad key is to unmount it. Then, while looking for partitions on the key, gparted crashes.

That's a concerning report. If you can't examine the key with gparted, something is way wrong, and possibly with more than just the USB key.

Question: Are you able to use one of these problematic keys on more than one computer? Can you get access to another linux system and work with the same key, and determine whether you can (a) partition, (b) format, and (c) reliably save, retrieve, and delete files on it?

If one of your suspect keys works (repeatedly) correctly on computer A, but can be shown repeatedly to fail on computer B, then the problem is not the key, it's the computer in which the key fails.

[oshunluvr]

Funny thing happened this week sort of related to this: My new cell phone (less than two weeks old) has an internal magnet to facilitate attaching an external 360 degree camera. I went out a couple nights ago with my mag-strip hotel key in my back pocket with my phone. Well, obviously I suppose, I could not get back into my hotel room! The magnet in the phone wiped the key. Thank goodness I haven't been carrying my work-related thumb drives along with my phone!

I suspect all phones generate at least some magnetic fields and I often carry my phone in my front pocket - where I might also put a thumb drive. Something to be aware of at least.

I agree with dibl on this topic. As I've never had this happen in more than a decade of using a thumb drives, something is very wrong somewhere.

[joneall]

I suspect all phones generate at least some magnetic fields and I often carry my phone in my front pocket - where I might also put a thumb drive. Something to be aware of at least.

Yeah, I never wear my telephone in the pocket over my Pacemaker. (Indicator of age...) Serious!

[GreyGeek]

Yeah, I never wear my telephone in the pocket over my Pacemaker. (Indicator of age...) Serious!

I always carried my flip phone in a belt holster. In December of 2014 I purchased an iPhone 6+ and began carrying in my left front shirt pocket. On Sept 16, 2016 I had my first episode of AFib + Tachycardia. It went away within a week. A year later, on Sept 15, 2017 I had my second episode of AFib + tachycardia. It popped in and out for 8 weeks before becoming persistent AFib, for which I now take Metropolol and warfarin. Do I suspect my phone as being the cause? I think being an over weight 76 year old with a sedentary life style is a better explanation. At least my fingers are well exercised on this keyboard! (Besides, life has a 100% mortality rate, so enjoy what you have!)