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I am having a strange issue on Ubuntu 22.04, and can't find any helpful information on it.

I have a 16GB USB flash drive. I want to use it with OPL on my Playstation 2 and this requires the partition table to be MBR. The Disks app in Ubuntu tells me that it is currently GPT. According to various posts and websites you can "convert" between the two using gdisk and fdisk, so what I have done is, use gdisk to zap the GPT and then used fdisk to create a new DOS partition table. As I understand it the DOS partition table is the same as MBR.

And indeed, after doing this, gdisk tells me that the partition on the flash drive is MBR only. However, the Disks app in Ubuntu still says it GPT. (GUID partition table to be precise.) It also is not read by my Playstation 2.

I have tried messing around in gdisk and fdisk trying pretty much everything and nothing changes the outcome. Am I missing something? Why does gdisk tell me one thing and the Disks app another?

I am still a Linux noob, so detailed step-by-step instructions would be appreciated.

Here's what the Disks app and gdisk look like:

Here's what the Disks app and gdisk looks like

user68186
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Jonathan Fews
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  • Gdisk is saying it did not fully or correctly convert to MBR. Typically gdisk or sgdisk do conversions correctly. You may only need to write from gdisk to correctly update it. gdisk to convert from gpt to MBR http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/mbr2gpt.html#gpt2mbr – oldfred Feb 07 '25 at 18:12
  • Did you umount it first? gparted is a better tool for this. – waltinator Feb 07 '25 at 18:26
  • This question is similar to: How to change GPT to MBR?. If you believe it’s different, please [edit] the question, make it clear how it’s different and/or how the answers on that question are not helpful for your problem. – Uri Herrera Feb 07 '25 at 19:46
  • Are you sure some of your queries aren't working from cached data? ie. have you flushed buffers via command, or unmounted & remounted the disks so accurate details of what is actually there (and not just cached in buffers/RAM) is what you're seeing. You don't mention the steps I'd ensure I did between steps (this is generic IT/tech detail; OS only dictates the commands used; ie. same procedures as you'd use with BSD, MacOS, Windows, etc apply here) – guiverc Feb 07 '25 at 21:49
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    Please do not put SOLVED in the question title or the body in this Q&A site. The green check mark ✅ is sufficient. – user68186 Feb 07 '25 at 23:31
  • You should have used sudo gdisk /dev/sdb (referencing the whole disk), not sudo gdisk /dev/sdb1 (which references a partition and therefore does not make much sense — you would be editing a nested partition table inside another partition, which is not really supported). – Sergey Vlasov Feb 08 '25 at 09:31

2 Answers2

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Use the Disks App

  1. Insert the USB drive in your computer.
  2. Open the Disks app.
  3. Select the USB Drive from the left panel. Warning: All the data in the selected disk will be erased permanently. If you select the wrong disk, you may lose important data or everything in your computer.
  4. From the three dot menu ⫶ select Format Disk...
  5. Under the Partitioning drop down menu, select: Compatible with all systems and devices (MBR/DOS).enter image description here
  6. Proceed with formatting. Select the partition format compatible with your device.

Hope this helps

user68186
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0

To clean drives, or convert to MBR or GPT, I like to use the Windows installer command prompt. Plug in a bootable Windows 10 USB, then make your way to this screen.

partition screen

Press Shift + f10
Then type in the following commands:

diskpart
list disk
select disk & REM and then enter whichever listed disk you want to select
convert MBR
exit
karel
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davian18900
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