Trying to Upgrade my USB drive. Need some help.


Recommended Posts

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

 

Link to comment
23 minutes ago, flambot said:

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 :)

General rule is that if it boots fine then you don't need to worry about it.

 

But, when you get into VM's and passing through certain video cards, then booting via EFI (ie: renaming the folder to efi and selecting the UEFI boot in the bios) then you might have better success.

Link to comment
2 hours ago, Squid said:

General rule is that if it boots fine then you don't need to worry about it.

 

But, when you get into VM's and passing through certain video cards, then booting via EFI (ie: renaming the folder to efi and selecting the UEFI boot in the bios) then you might have better success.

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

Link to comment

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.

 

 

 

Link to comment

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

Link to comment

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.

 

Link to comment

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.

Link to comment

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!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

Link to comment

It might very well be that they are formatted NTFS... I've run into this myself when trying to boot UEFI using a thumb drive and a large external USB drive... Didn't recognize the problem myself so I thought I had a bad drive. Went out and spent a fortune of a 1tb external SSD... Came back to find the same problem... Then figured out I was running an unsupported format. 

 

Reformatted the original drive fat32 and it worked fine.

 

As a side note I now use the 1tb SSD as a Ventoy disk that - among other things - runs Acronis, to back up servers and such for conversion to VM. Ran into a problem that I couldn't get it to boot on my laptop for testing... After trying every possible option I figured out that it wouldn't boot from the USB-C / Thunderbolt port. But worked flawlessly from one of the standard USB ports.

 

Arbadacarba

Link to comment

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!)!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
1 hour ago, flambot said:

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.

Did you complete the format with RUFUS? I know it doesn't have the capability to complete the install, that's why I said to use it for the format and label, then complete the rest of the manual install by copying the contents of the zip file and executing the make bootable script.

Link to comment
5 minutes ago, jonathanm said:

Did you complete the format with RUFUS? I know it doesn't have the capability to complete the install, that's why I said to use it for the format and label, then complete the rest of the manual install by copying the contents of the zip file and executing the make bootable script.

Yes I did.

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

Link to comment
1 minute ago, jonathanm said:

How many different OS's have you tried doing the USB prep? Have you tried the USB creator tool after doing the RUFUS format?

 

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!

 

 

Link to comment
6 minutes ago, jonathanm said:

Have you tried a Kingston SE9 USB 2.0? Those are my go to for long term reliability.

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

Link to comment
23 minutes ago, jonathanm said:

How many different OS's have you tried doing the USB prep? Have you tried the USB creator tool after doing the RUFUS format?

I'll ask the questions slightly differently in hopes of getting them answered.

 

Which OS are you using to prepare the USB sticks?

 

Does the USB creator tool show the USB stick as a valid installation target AFTER you did a full format with RUFUS?

 

You didn't answer either of those questions even though you quoted them.

Link to comment
30 minutes ago, jonathanm said:

I'll ask the questions slightly differently in hopes of getting them answered.

 

Which OS are you using to prepare the USB sticks?

 

Does the USB creator tool show the USB stick as a valid installation target AFTER you did a full format with RUFUS?

 

You didn't answer either of those questions even though you quoted them.

 

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.

Edited by flambot
Link to comment
1 hour ago, trurl said:

 

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!

Link to comment

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.

 

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.