I am not a smart man. This was one of those "user error" thing's I've heard so much about.
I had 3 USB drives that were all the same, but I swore I only had 2. One was empty, and the other one that gave me error above is what I used to flash the HBA in my server to IT mode. The 3rd drive that I should have been using was in an anti-static bag. The drives are those Kingston Data Traveler drives that are silver, matching perfectly with an anti-static bag. The first 7 times I looked at the bag, I thought it was empty. My wife even went through that box and thought the bag was empty. 9th time is the charm I guess.
Moral of the story: you're not using the right drive. Check all the anti-static bags, even the ones you think are empty. And make a backup before you move cross country. It's not a good idea to not have a backup.
