External USB Storage drive can not delete file .Trash-root

[Diana Townsend]

I am trying to use a USB drive that stopped working for backup of data. I am very new to Linux and have no clue. Normally I take the file and move it to the Trash bin. Then go to the Trash bin and delete it from there. When I try to empty the Trash bin I get an error /media/disk.Trash-root/file name can not be deleted because it is on a read-only disk. There were many other files on this disk, but I rebooted the linux system and was able to delete some files.Do I need to re-format this disk? If so, how do I do that. Or is there a way to remove the read only files? Any help would be much appreciated.

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

Have you tried to delete those files while logged in as root? Which Linux distro are you using?

[daark.child]

If the you can write to the disk, then login as root and delete the read only files. It could be an issue with permissions. If you can't write to the disk, then you probably need to remount the disk with the read write option. What type of filesystem is on the disk? Is this an external usb drive or a usb stick?

[Diana Townsend]

Yes I am logged in as root. and I've tried rm -r .Trash-root/home021508 but it just comes back with cannot remove file. Read-only file system. I believe my distro is Susse?

[daark.child]

Try mounting the filesystem read/write e.g. as root do

mount -o remount,rw /dev/sdX

Change /dev/sdX to the device name of your usb drive.

[Diana Townsend]

I tried mount -o remount,rw /media/disk and I am getting a response of block device /dev/sda1 is write protected, mounting read-only

[daark.child]

What type of disk is it and what filesystem is on the disk?

[Manchunian]

It's possible that the USB stick is damaged. Have you tried in Windows? What did you put on it?
I use these things intensively for my work, and I have found that big video files can damage them. When that happens, I get the same error. After that, no attempt at formatting them will work. It has happened on a number of USB sticks, which is why I now use a portable hard-disk.

[Diana Townsend]

it is a usb 2.0 combo usb2.0 to sata & ide hard drive. there is an old backed up file on the disk now that I am trying to delete. I hooked it up to my usb port on my windows xp pc and it sees the drive. It doesn't even show up anymore on the linux backup pc.

[devils casper]

Plug-in USB drive and execute fdisk -l command. Post output here.