flambot

That makes sense. First boot stopped after reading all the HDD's (like it was waiting for something). Then it continued without hitch. 2nd boot didn't stop at that point, so not sure why it happened. Hope to get another drive tomorrow - supposedly a better quality one. Let's hope it boots Thanks

Success!! Can't believe it! The new USB drive booted. First...I did the format on my old Win 7. The USB booted first time. Then, I decided to reformat and do the whole thing again on my usual Win 10 machine. And...thankfully, it also booted. The downside is, that this appears to be the slowest USB drive I've ever had. It took twice as long to write unraid to it, and first boot was incredibly slow. However, 2nd boot seemed faster. Reviews seems to support the fact this is a slow drive. Should that matter?? I have decided to purchase one more brand - which appears to have a better name and a long warranty. I uncertain if it is the exactly the same model as posted on these forums, but time will tell. It should arrive tomorrow, so we will see. Until then...

Yes. Tried every USB port on my computer. Then I fired up an old Win 7 puter this morning and configured the USB drives again. Still no boot! I have had another drive arrive this morning. Don't hold much hope though!

Yes. One of the first things I tried. Still no joy!! 😭 It's most disturbing. I'd be really interested to know why USB's are so temperamental. I see in your sig you use a Blade. I got some today, but they are obviously newer models or something, as they don't work.

Thanks for the link. I followed the commands to the letter. Unfortunately, none of the USB's booted (same as before). However...I did find this in the event log. Device USB\VID_0781&PID_55A5\4C5300******************** was not migrated due to partial or ambiguous match. Last Device Instance Id: USB\VID_04DA&PID_2481\0000A2B351EE Class Guid: {36fc9e60-c465-11cf-8056-444553540000} Location Path: PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1400)#USBROOT(0)#USB(3) Migration Rank: 0xF000FFFF00000020 Present: false Status: 0xC0000719 The stars represent my GUID so I have removed the actual number. While this is interesting, and virtually all my USB's give this event, one of the USB's with this issue still boots into Unraid without problem. I have two licences on matching USB's (the original ones). One has this issue. The other doesn't. Both USB's still boot without a problem! I have researched this but while there are many posts about it, there seems to be no fix that I could find. And...I'm not sure this is the issue. So it's back to the drawing board!

Yes to both those questions. I used windows 10 to format the USB stick originally (I used win 10 to prepare my old lexar which works). Both USB Creator and RUFUS see the new USB's as viable. USB creator starts okay...says something like "syncing filesystem" then just stops. When USB creator works correctly, it should extract the zip file to the drive after the SYNC part. One strange thing...after the USB creator finishes the sybc part, the USB has lost 7.15Gb of space - yet there are no files on the disk even with "show hidden and operating system files" turned on. It's like it creates a hidden partition or something -> yet you can't see it afterwards.

No I haven't. I have planned too, but I wait to get the next model on order before I buy the next one. I still am awaiting an order of a different model. I do see the Kingston here (They are quite expensive, which is why they weren't me first choice) and the model number is "DTSE9H" which makes me think it is NOT the same as the "DTSE9" model. If my next one fails, then that will be my last port of call. Thanks

Yes. The USB Creator tool fails on every new USB drive I have. I have had to manually install unraid onto each new USB, make it bootable, then try it. They have all failed to boot. The USB Creator tool did work on my old lexar though. And...it works regardless of how I do the install -> both using the USB C-tool and manual install -> so I know I am doing it correctly. The question I keep coming back to is...why don't the new USB's boot? What is so wrong with them that they don't work...even though they fulfill the exact requirements of unraid??? Looks like I'll have to buy every brand of USB in our country to find one that will perhaps work...although I'm not holding my breath!

Yes I did. Still did NOT boot. Tried it with two different USB's.

They are NOT formatted NTFS. They are formatted FAT32. I am trying to boot these USB's on a working unraid system. I have verified I'm am manually setting these up correctly as a very old Lexar drive I have boots without issue. My system sees the USB at boot, but WILL NOT boot into the OS. I put my current USB back in and it boots as usual. RUFUS does not do any better (assuming I'm using it correctly). The selection of choices is limited and it won't install a zip. So I"m not further along. I'm at a loss as to where to go from here. If my current USB dies, then my unraid server is down. A minuscule selection of USB drives was the norm when I built my server 14 years ago. So it seems this aspect of unraid has not changed. In fact, it has got worse. There are numerous threads about people buying USB's that don't boot. How does unraid even make sales if this is the case? Guess I have no choice but the keep buying drives until I find one that works (that's if I even do!)!!!!!!

Thanks for chiming in. I'll give it a go.

Got my next USB drives in the post today...and guess what...they also fail to boot. Why don't they boot??? All of the posts about what USB's to use are old (apart from mine) - > I think the latest was Sept 2020. Of the USB's reported to work, all of them have been discontinued - so there is no stock anywhere! I managed to order some Sandisk Cruzer Blades (obviously a later model than some of the posts here), and they don't boot. I'm already out over $100, and still NO bootable device! And...where is the recommendation page gone. The links are dead? What USB is Limetech using? This is a deplorable situation!!!!!!!!

Some of the USB brands available here in NZ... Strontium Pollex 16GB USB Drive 16GB ADATA C906 Classic USB 2.0 Verbatim Store n Go 16GB USB 2.0 (this seems to have slow read / write speeds) Apacer AH335 16GB Swivel cap Design USB2.0 The common brand here is Sandisk.

Okay...got my old 4Gb Lexar USB drive out and set it up as a clean install of 6.8.3. I copied my config folder across and made it bootable. The damn thing booted first try! So my don't the Sandisk Cruzer Snap USB drives work! They fit exactly the criteria for unraid -> are a brand name product, with a unique GUID, formatted correctly and made bootable. I have checked these and there are NO hidden files or anything on the drive (shouldn't be after a format). Perhaps they just don't like unraid. I'm like some others here - the extremely small range of USB drives that seem to work with unraid are pathetic - > especially for the length of time unraid has been around.

Update: I rebuilt the USB with a clean install of 6.8.3 and copied my config folder across. Then I made the USB bootable using the included file. It still did not boot! I vaguely remember something we had to do with "syslinux" (or is this part done by the "make_bootable" file)? It's time to wait for some advice. Thanks

Got back to the USB drive upgrade today and unfortunately they both failed to boot to the BLUE unraid menu. The USB drive was recognized during the initial boot process. I have made the new USB bootable (a cmd window popped up...did the business...and said okay). So...where do I go from here? What are my options? Should I perhaps try and set up the latest version of unraid (I'm using 6.8.3)? If so, how to I get my config over to the new USB drive? Do I just copy the config folder? (My USB drive was installed 2007. It contains the old crap from that era "probably" and it would be nice to start fresh with a new install and NO extra files.

Ahhh.that makes sense. No VM (or anything else on my end) -> just a basic media server. So I'll leave everything as it is. Been concerned about replacing the USB (don't like changing things) -> and the fact the old one is blacklisted at the time is also a concern. Be nice if it could be blacklisted say 24 hours later so we could confirm things are working okay. Currently running a parity check, so have to wait to see if the new one will boot. Thanks

Greetings, Been trying to upgrade my USB drive. I've brought a new Sandisk Cruzer Snap (very similar to the Sandisk Cruzer Mirco that is the original). I have found it doesn't work with the "Unraid.USB.Creator.Win32-1.6" software. It can see the USB drive , but when it writes the local zip file backup to it, I get a 7.15gb file on the USB, but nothing can be seen on the drive?? (even with hidden files checked). I tired an old Lexar I have and it worked fine. Why it makes 7.15Gb disappear from the disk is anyone's guess - especially when the backup is only 200 odd MB in size! Anyway...I moved on the the manual method. Copied the files to the new USB and made bootable. ALL good. (I still haven;t verified this USB will boot in the server yet. What I need to know, is do I need the "make UEFI boot option"? Not sure what is does? My old USB has a "EFI-" folder, but it has the dash after the name - which made me think it isn't needed. My server is old - like me Anything else I should know. I've read the replacing USB page several times. Just thought I'd ask though, as the brain doesn't work like it used to 🙄 Many thanks

Thanks again. I always search before posting, but I never found the correct page! Perhaps to terms I used were flawed? Like is said, I thought I had that page saved as a bookmark, but seems I was mistaken. I'll give this a go once I have some time.

And that is just what I spent ages looking for. Typical! I had seen it in the past - thought I had bookmarked it - and the only link I had was the one now empty. Been using local storage on my media player lately, so haven't had my unraid server on. Never thought of the links there - rarely look at the GUI 😳. Have you done this before? Always worry about stuffing things up. Thanks.

Need a new USB stick. Went to find the instructions on what I need to do and found that the link "here" gives NO info. So has the process changed? What is needed? My worry is that the registration process for the new USB stick will blacklist my current old one and I won't be able to get my server back should the operation fail. Thanks in advance.

@Frank1940 - Just changed ISP (which is what started all this) and I have the old router ready to go. Should make it relatively easy, although Murphy and his damn law seems to take a dislike to me more often than NOT!! 😏

@Frank1940 - thanks for the link. I had a read. Most of that is far beyond my understanding - and probably always will be. A lot of unraid users seem to use their severs for a myriad of different things. My server is only for my video media. I have all the discs should anything problematic happen - but as I said, I have a lot of effort invested in my media. My important data is NOT on a network share. Taking my media system off the network on to it's own one sounds like the best solution to me - ease of management. I am the only one with write access. There is no need to have unraid connected to the net - even updates don't really warrant it IMO. I have a second device that would act as my management computer, so a separate network could not be compromised. I don't run WiFI either, so an air-gap seems the best line of defense. Getting too old to play with such things anymore 🙄. I prefer now to be watching my media instead of playing with it or computers 😉

@Frank1940 - it was all about following the prompts, help popups on the unraid and what I read. I also thought it would make it more difficult should our network be breached if one could not just access another computer on the network...but I don't really know a lot about this. The HTPC has only Read Only access to the server. As for my Movies-TVSHows - I have them modded and tweaked to my satisfaction and a lot of work have gone into them to get them they way I want. It would be frustrating to have them compromised. Ultimately, the plan is to take the network offline - meaning remove the possibility of connection to the internet (unless it is needed). Then I won't have any security (probably). Initially, I was worried about not having that password. Now...after a few days have passed, I'm less concerned. Eventually, I'd like to upgrade my HTPC to something more modern (and faster), so perhaps it'll wait until then. If it fails in the meantime, I guess I can delete the current password files and reset from scratch. Thanks for your insight.

Hey Frank. Thanks for the comments. Not sure I understand this. My shares are "Private." Are you saying they DON'T need a password when set to Private?? As for xbmc, still investigating that part. Lots of info to wade through. At this point, I think that if the shares are password protected, then xbmc will automatically bring up a login box, but as of yet that is NOT completely clear. The easiest way to find out is delete the 3x password files on the unraid USB and setup them up again. I worry a lot about being locked out though. Passwords are a bane in any system IMO.