Noob here. HP Pavilion 550-153na not detecting my Unraid 6.9.2 boot drive

[FrodoTheMagicUnraid]

I have unraid installed on a 2.0 SanDisk 4gb USB stick and have connected it to my PC via a 2.0usb port. However, when the flash drive via usb 2.0 to my PC, which is an old HP Pavilion 550-153na, the drive does not appear in the boot menu. All I see are two PCI slots (I tried them to see what happens and nothing).
 
I do note that the new SSD I intend to use as cache is also not appearing in the boot menu, could that be related?

 

This is the site for my PC specs, everything is standard except the Hard drive which I threw away due to data issues and replaced with an SSD. https://support.hp.com/gb-en/document/c04835128

[trurl]

Maybe something in BIOS that controls which devices appear in the bootable list. 

[FrodoTheMagicUnraid]

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Maybe something in BIOS that controls which devices appear in the bootable list. 

When you say the BIOS. what should I be looking for? I did enter the BIOS to see the bootable order of my drives, but what I was looking for was not there. Is that what you mean?

[trurl]

Just now, FrodoTheMagicUnraid said:

the bootable order of my drives

What appears in that list might be determined elsewhere in the BIOS.

 

[trurl]

Can you get any other flash drive to appear in the boot list? What about if you use a different USB port?

[FrodoTheMagicUnraid]

I tried the flash drive in another PC when it was turned on and it did appear as having unraid installed. I have tried the other ports on my HP and no joy. Would I need to install another OS on a flash drive to see if it appeared on the boot menu in my HP? I have ordered another 2.0 32gb usb stick from amazon in case that was the issue (I only have 3.0 USBs and they dont let me install unraid on them). Many thanks for all the help! Its really frustrating to fumble so early in this journey!

[trurl]

If your Unraid flash drive will boot on another computer then that flash drive is prepared correctly and should work if you can get your server to boot from it.

 

See if another flash will appear in the boot order. BIOS won't try to boot from it unless you tell it to so won't matter if it is bootable or not.

[FrodoTheMagicUnraid]

When I say I tried on another PC, I mean I put the drive in while the machine was on and saw in My PC the drive appeared.

 

I did try looking around the BIOS of my HP and it did see the Cruzer USB Stick, but for some reason its not appearing in the boot List.

[trurl]

6 hours ago, FrodoTheMagicUnraid said:

the BIOS of my HP and it did see the Cruzer USB Stick

Can you post a picture of that?

[FrodoTheMagicUnraid]

  

19 hours ago, trurl said:

Can you post a picture of that?

Sure. Here are pics from my boot list and what drives are appearing

 

Thanks again!

[JorgeB]

Did you enable UEFI boot on the flash drive? If not rename EFI- to EFI, or enable legacy boot in the BIOS.

[FrodoTheMagicUnraid]

16 minutes ago, JorgeB said:

Did you enable UEFI boot on the flash drive?

Hey there! I dont recall even having that option when I was installing unraid on my usb stick 😓. I am pretty sure it wasnt even an option...

 

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If not rename EFI- to EFI,

How do I do that? You mean install the drive in another PC and rename the folder name EFI- to EFI?
 

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or enable legacy boot in the BIOS.

I tried this, but it told me I needed to disable Secure Boot, but when I select "Legacy Support - Enable" it tells me "Secure Boot option may only be enabled if Legacy Support option is disabled". The "Secure Boot" option is already showing as enabled....

 

Thank you!

[JorgeB]

3 minutes ago, FrodoTheMagicUnraid said:

I dont recall even having that option when I was installing unraid on my usb stick

You need to click on "Customize".

 

4 minutes ago, FrodoTheMagicUnraid said:

How do I do that? You mean install the drive in another PC and rename the folder name EFI- to EFI?

Yep.

 

[JorgeB]

4 minutes ago, FrodoTheMagicUnraid said:

The "Secure Boot" option is already showing as enabled....

Ohh, and you also need to disable this as Unraid doesn't support secure boot.

[FrodoTheMagicUnraid]

Quote

Ohh, and you also need to disable this as Unraid doesn't support secure boot.

Ah ha! It worked! It is asking me for "Tower login:", and I believe at this stage I control server via another PC? Or should I enter something here?

 

Can I confirm, I have one ethernet cable going directly from one machine to another (I am not using a router or a port switch), is this okay? At the moment I have left my unraid machine at "Tower login:".

When I type http://tower/ into my other PC in a firefox brower I get an error message "The requested URL could not be retrieved"... Thank you both for your help, this is more progress than I have made in the last few weeks!

[JorgeB]

2 minutes ago, FrodoTheMagicUnraid said:

and I believe at this stage I control server via another PC?

Correct.

 

3 minutes ago, FrodoTheMagicUnraid said:

I have one ethernet cable going directly from one machine to another (I am not using a router or a port switch), is this okay?

It is OK but you must configure static IPs for both, since that way there's no DHCP server.

[FrodoTheMagicUnraid]

8 minutes ago, JorgeB said:

It is OK but you must configure static IPs for both, since that way there's no DHCP server.

Not exactly sure how to do that, for the non server PC I am using Ubunutu. The only mention I could see of "DHCP" in my settings was the below, do I check "Automatic, DHCP only". 

 

 

 

You also mention I convert both machines to static IPs, how would I do that to my machine with unraid?

 

Sorry for all the noob questions, I have literally been trying to set up unraid for weeks! Thanks again!

[JorgeB]

You need to set manual IPv4 addresses for both, on the Ubuntu machine set to manual then input for example 192.168.200.1 , subnet mask use 255.255.255.0 or /24 depending on the available option, for the Unraid server the easiest way it to boot using the GUI option, you can then access the GUI using the local browser, set the IP to for example 192.168.200.2/24

[FrodoTheMagicUnraid]

3 hours ago, JorgeB said:

then input for example 192.168.200.1 , subnet mask use 255.255.255.0 or /24

Thank you for this! Does it matter what numbers I use here? Sorry if that is another stupid question.

[trurl]

1 hour ago, FrodoTheMagicUnraid said:

Does it matter what numbers I use here?

yes

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_network

[JorgeB]

Forgot to mention that you'll then have to access the server by the IP address, not the name, e.g. http://192.168.200.1

[FrodoTheMagicUnraid]

5 hours ago, JorgeB said:

Forgot to mention that you'll then have to access the server by the IP address, not the name, e.g. http://192.168.200.1

So, to be honest, I am getting a little lost at this stage. I was looking at some tutorials and noticed that there is the option to set static IP when installing unraid onto a USB to use as a boot drive (under the "Customize" option). Would re-installing unraid on a USB make my like easier at this stage to set the unraid static IP? Then (I think) all I would need to do is on ubunutu select the manual option for ip4. If that is accurate, how do I determine which values to use as an IP here and when setting a static IP on my boot drive!

 

Sorry for such school boy questions, I am a just a graphic designer trying to understand this complex unraid world!

[FrodoTheMagicUnraid]

6 hours ago, JorgeB said:

Forgot to mention that you'll then have to access the server by the IP address, not the name, e.g. http://192.168.200.1

Could I also tack on to my earlier question, if I purchased a Gigabit Ethernet Network Switch, would this eliminate the need for any static IP configurations? And would the set-up be Unraid Machine > Ethernet cable > Ethernet Network Switch > Ethernet Cable > PC? Or would I require a router?

 

I do actually have a router tucked away in a box somewhere, but I am just trying to save desk real estate. If using one is necessary/makes set-up easier, then it might be worthwhile me dusting off.

[JorgeB]

19 hours ago, FrodoTheMagicUnraid said:

Would re-installing unraid on a USB make my like easier at this stage to set the unraid static IP?

Yes, if you can't boot using GUI mode.

 

19 hours ago, FrodoTheMagicUnraid said:

If that is accurate, how do I determine which values to use as an IP here and when setting a static IP on my boot drive!

If you don't know use the ones from the example I gave.

 

19 hours ago, FrodoTheMagicUnraid said:

Sorry for such school boy questions, I am a just a graphic designer trying to understand this complex unraid world!

It's more complex than normal because you're using a direct network connection, it's much easier when using a router, since it will assign the IP addresses.

 

17 hours ago, FrodoTheMagicUnraid said:

Could I also tack on to my earlier question, if I purchased a Gigabit Ethernet Network Switch, would this eliminate the need for any static IP configurations? And would the set-up be Unraid Machine > Ethernet cable > Ethernet Network Switch > Ethernet Cable > PC? Or would I require a router?

You need a router to assign IP, don't you have one for Internet access?