Having trouble installing Arch Linux to USB key

Question

Hello,
I have read the wiki article, but it doesn't answer my question. I am having trouble installing Arch to a USB key (8GB Sandisk Cruzer). I installled GRUB correctly, it booted, but the flash drive was write-protected. In the fstab file, I have the defaults and noatime flags in there. I have never experienced an error like this, and I don't know how to fix it. I have tried to reboot into the Arch CD and mounted the USB, but it just stalls and displays no output. Obviously, if I boot into my USB (you can still boot into it), and do "nano /etc/fstab", it says that I cannot write. In case you were wondering, I am using the root user. Thank you for all your help!
EDIT: I have Syslinux, the kernel parameters is RW. If I run mount -o remount,rw /dev/sda1, it tells me something like:
ata3.00: status: {DRDY ERR}
ata3.00: error: {IDNF}
end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 21
Buffer I/o error on device sda1, logical block 0
EXT4-fs error (device sda1): ext4_remount:4665: Abort forced by user
I did NOT hit CTRL+C.
Last edited by aqua123 (2013-09-07 02:01:30)

Answer 1

I'm a nub, and I think I'll piggy back of aqua's post.  Perhaps we have the same problem
I have an Asus UX31A with Xubuntu (with grub) currently installed.  I created the bootable USB as per the Arch Wiki UEFI bootable usb page.  I can boot into the main prompt where you can choose "Arch Linux Iso", "shell v1", "shell v2" and "Default prompt."
Choosing the first option (to get to the the command prompt and begin installing) makes the screen flash once, then just hangs black.  Before the flash I think I see three text lines in the upper left corner, but they flash so fast I can't read them.
Choosing either of the shell options presents the error:
"Error loading \EFI\shellx64_v1.efi: Unsupported"  (replace "v1" with "v2" for the other option)
Any thoughts?