[sf-lug] how to use fdisk to repartition a 1TB USB hard drive? (jim) [sf-lug Digest, Vol 41, Issue 8]

[Rick Moen]

Quoting jim (jim at well.com):

>    the  dd  command failed: /dev/sdb wasn't 
> valid or wasn't there or some such. 

Um, whoa there.  Huh?  What does "some such" mean?   

I certainly wasn't guaranteeing that, at any given time, the device
would be addressable as /dev/sdb.  That part's up to you, e.g., through
checking "dmeg | more" to find out what device name the kernel assigned
to the mass storage device.  Then, once you have the correct device
name, and are the root user, "dd" _will_ be able to write to it, if it
can be physically written to at all.