The Problem occurs in the HardDrive, I've also tried to use Ubuntu Karmic in a virual machine, it also fails. I'm trying from the commandline with parted: linus@dell_laptop:~$ sudo parted GNU Parted 1.8.8 Verwende /dev/sda Willkommen zu GNU Parted! Geben Sie 'help' ein, um eine Liste der verfügbaren Kommados zu erhalten. (parted) print all Modell: ATA WDC WD3200BEVT-7 (scsi) Festplatte /dev/sda: 320GB Sektorgröße (logisch/physisch): 512B/512B Partitionstabelle: msdos Anzahl Beginn Ende Größe Typ Dateisystem Flags 1 32,3kB 309GB 309GB primary ext3 boot 2 309GB 320GB 10,9GB extended 5 309GB 320GB 10,9GB logical linux-swap *** stack smashing detected ***: terminated ======= Backtrace: ========= /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6(__fortify_fail+0x48)[0xb7e18da8] /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6(__fortify_fail+0x0)[0xb7e18d60] /lib/libparted-1.8.so.10[0xb7f38854] /lib/libparted-1.8.so.10[0xb7f079fd] [0x0] ======= Memory map: ======== 08048000-0805b000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 1146887 /sbin/parted 0805b000-0805c000 r--p 00012000 08:01 1146887 /sbin/parted 0805c000-0805d000 rw-p 00013000 08:01 1146887 /sbin/parted 09312000-09351000 rw-p 09312000 00:00 0 [heap] b7ba1000-b7bb4000 r--p 00000000 08:01 2688688 /usr/share/locale-langpack/de/LC_MESSAGES/parted.mo b7bb4000-b7bf3000 r--p 00000000 08:01 13631489 /usr/lib/locale/de_DE.utf8/LC_CTYPE b7bf3000-b7cde000 r--p 00000000 08:01 2441501 /usr/lib/locale/de_DE.utf8/LC_COLLATE b7cde000-b7cdf000 rw-p b7cde000 00:00 0 b7cdf000-b7cf7000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 12689516 /lib/libselinux.so.1 b7cf7000-b7cf8000 r--p 00017000 08:01 12689516 /lib/libselinux.so.1 b7cf8000-b7cf9000 rw-p 00018000 08:01 12689516 /lib/libselinux.so.1 b7cf9000-b7cfa000 rw-p b7cf9000 00:00 0 b7cfa000-b7cfd000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 12689515 /lib/libuuid.so.1.2 b7cfd000-b7cfe000 r--p 00002000 08:01 12689515 /lib/libuuid.so.1.2 b7cfe000-b7cff000 rw-p 00003000 08:01 12689515 /lib/libuuid.so.1.2 b7cff000-b7d14000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 12689440 /lib/libdevmapper.so.1.02.1 b7d14000-b7d15000 r--p 00014000 08:01 12689440 /lib/libdevmapper.so.1.02.1 b7d15000-b7d17000 rw-p 00015000 08:01 12689440 /lib/libdevmapper.so.1.02.1 b7d17000-b7d19000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 12706167 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libdl-2.9.so b7d19000-b7d1a000 r--p 00001000 08:01 12706167 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libdl-2.9.so b7d1a000-b7d1b000 rw-p 00002000 08:01 12706167 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libdl-2.9.so b7d1b000-b7e77000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 12706161 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc-2.9.so b7e77000-b7e78000 ---p 0015c000 08:01 12706161 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc-2.9.so b7e78000-b7e7a000 r--p 0015c000 08:01 12706161 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc-2.9.so b7e7a000-b7e7b000 rw-p 0015e000 08:01 12706161 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc-2.9.so b7e7b000-b7e7e000 rw-p b7e7b000 00:00 0 b7e7e000-b7ead000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 12689490 /lib/libncurses.so.5.7 b7ead000-b7eaf000 r--p 0002e000 08:01 12689490 /lib/libncurses.so.5.7 b7eaf000-b7eb0000 rw-p 00030000 08:01 12689490 /lib/libncurses.so.5.7 b7eb0000-b7eb1000 rw-p b7eb0000 00:00 0 b7eb1000-b7edd000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 12689544 /lib/libreadline.so.5.2 b7edd000-b7ede000 ---p 0002c000 08:01 12689544 /lib/libreadline.so.5.2 b7ede000-b7edf000 r--p 0002c000 08:01 12689544 /lib/libreadline.so.5.2 b7edf000-b7ee2000 rw-p 0002d000 08:01 12689544 /lib/libreadline.so.5.2 b7ee2000-b7ee3000 rw-p b7ee2000 00:00 0 b7ee3000-b7f43000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 12689411 /lib/libparted-1.8.so.10.0.0 b7f43000-b7f44000 ---p 00060000 08:01 12689411 /lib/libparted-1.8.so.10.0.0 b7f44000-b7f45000 r--p 00060000 08:01 12689411 /lib/libparted-1.8.so.10.0.0 b7f45000-b7f46000 rw-p 00061000 08:01 12689411 /lib/libparted-1.8.so.10.0.0 b7f46000-b7f47000 rw-p b7f46000 00:00 0 b7f4f000-b7f5c000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 12689431 /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 b7f5c000-b7f5d000 r--p 0000c000 08:01 12689431 /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 b7f5d000-b7f5e000 rw-p 0000d000 08:01 12689431 /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 b7f5e000-b7f5f000 rw-p b7f5e000 00:00 0 b7f5f000-b7f60000 r--p 00000000 08:01 2441459 /usr/lib/locale/de_DE.utf8/LC_NUMERIC b7f60000-b7f61000 r--p 00000000 08:01 2441495 /usr/lib/locale/de_DE.utf8/LC_TIME b7f61000-b7f62000 r--p 00000000 08:01 2441502 /usr/lib/locale/de_DE.utf8/LC_MONETARY b7f62000-b7f63000 r--p 00000000 08:01 2441385 /usr/lib/locale/de_DE.utf8/LC_MESSAGES/SYS_LC_MESSAGES b7f63000-b7f64000 r--p 00000000 08:01 2441434 /usr/lib/locale/de_DE.utf8/LC_PAPER b7f64000-b7f65000 r--p 00000000 08:01 2441504 /usr/lib/locale/de_DE.utf8/LC_NAME b7f65000-b7f66000 r--p 00000000 08:01 2441505 /usr/lib/locale/de_DE.utf8/LC_ADDRESS b7f66000-b7f67000 r--p 00000000 08:01 2441506 /usr/lib/locale/de_DE.utf8/LC_TELEPHONE b7f67000-b7f68000 r--p 00000000 08:01 2441430 /usr/lib/locale/de_DE.utf8/LC_MEASUREMENT b7f68000-b7f6f000 r--s 00000000 08:01 2400376 /usr/lib/gconv/gconv-modules.cache b7f6f000-b7f70000 r--p 00000000 08:01 2441652 /usr/lib/locale/de_DE.utf8/LC_IDENTIFICATION b7f70000-b7f72000 rw-p b7f70000 00:00 0 b7f72000-b7f73000 r-xp b7f72000 00:00 0 [vdso] b7f73000-b7f8f000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 12689517 /lib/ld-2.9.so b7f8f000-b7f90000 r--p 0001b000 08:01 12689517 /lib/ld-2.9.so b7f90000-b7f91000 rw-p 0001c000 08:01 12689517 /lib/ld-2.9.so bf87c000-bf891000 rw-p bffeb000 00:00 0 [stack] Aborted (core dumped) If I remove my USB-Stick, "print all" works fine: linus@dell_laptop:~$ sudo parted GNU Parted 1.8.8 Verwende /dev/sda Willkommen zu GNU Parted! Geben Sie 'help' ein, um eine Liste der verfügbaren Kommados zu erhalten. (parted) print all Modell: ATA WDC WD3200BEVT-7 (scsi) Festplatte /dev/sda: 320GB Sektorgröße (logisch/physisch): 512B/512B Partitionstabelle: msdos Anzahl Beginn Ende Größe Typ Dateisystem Flags 1 32,3kB 309GB 309GB primary ext3 boot 2 309GB 320GB 10,9GB extended 5 309GB 320GB 10,9GB logical linux-swap I hope this will help to fix my problem. I've posted the bug a few month ago, see duplicate bug. Windows isn't able to format my USB-Stick and under Linux no program is able to show the partition table (see Bug #405013!)