User Feedback :: USB flash drive won't mount - wrong fs?

How many partitions and what types does an fdisk -l /dev/sda report.?

fdisk -l /dev/sda returns nothing, blank line response, but with /dev/hda the HD partitions are listed. (Also, /etc/fstab shows the sda's if the flash drive is present at boot and the drive's read/write LED flashes during the detection phase of boot.)

Went back to Windows 98, fdisk showed no partition on the drive. Created single partition, confirmed it showing in Windows fdisk, then reformatted drive. Went back to DSL, no change - DSL fdisk for sda shows nothing.

Looks like it was the previous Windows formatting that screwed up the flash drive. I found someone with the same symptoms and his solution at http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/history/164682. I tried fdisking and mkfsing the drive using Red Hat 9, then tried the drive with DSL - it's working great! Dunno why DSL's (and Knoppix 3.2's) fdisk couldn't get to the drive, but it worked with RH.

original here.