I originally started my unRaid journey about 5 months ago, but had issues with it repeatedly being usaccessible for some reason, so i just it sit, powered off until i had more time to work on it. Recently i had the time, tried to get back into my unraid system, but it couldnt start outside safe mode bc there was a file that failed the checksum. At first i thought unRaid just got corrupted somehow, and tried to reinstall it on the same drive, but the installer would get stuck at 74% specifically. I even tried restarting the process to see if i could get it to work, but nothing i could do would get it past 74%. So i figured the drive itself i was using got damaged or corrupted somehow, making it unusable. So i got a new flash drive, instal went perfectly, but now i need to transfer my license key to the new drive, which is impossible bc i didnt think about flash backups, and i cant get the installation to complete on the old drive to properly trasnfer it. So is there a way to either get the installation to complete, or transfer the key to my new flash drive? Im not planning on using the old drive past this for unraid, so i dont mind the blacklist, but i wasnt able to find anything online about a transfer without the old drive usable. Any help is appreciated, and please let me know if i am missing any information.

Solution to the original problem is in the second reply, the solution to the second problem solve in this topic is marked.

Edited March 23Mar 23 by VALOR
Clarification for users who might need both solutions offered by this post.

Left the installer running for a while, after about 30mins or so, this popped up:

But the same installer was able to complete the process just fine with the other one.

Apparently, you didn't even need access to the original flash drive, you can just go to your account, Manage Purchases, copy the key file url, install it into the new installation, then itll give you an option to replace the key and blacklist your previous drive, which was nowhere in the docs for switching out your flash drive. If someone who can add it, could, thatd be wonderful for new people who arent as "what does this button do?" as me, cause i just started doing random things.

3 hours ago, VALOR said:

I originally started my unRaid journey about 5 months ago

The fact that your Unraid USB drive has lasted only 5 months is very concerning and speaks volumes about the drive quality. Hope you haven't chosen a similar drive as a replacement.

I did use it quite a decent amount for things like my bios and os installations before i used it for unraid, so total time was probably about a year of semi constant use. While my server was powered off for like 4 of the 5 months i was using it for unraid, i think either it just used a lot of the overwrites i had on it, or it got a random power surge, but given nothing else seems to be damaged in the process, i doubt that was the case. But regardless, it had lost access to one of the bz files it needs to boot properly, and given that it also wouldnt let me reinstall a new version, i think a sector got corrupted or smth, but idk how to check that manually. And i think i got a decent replacement, definitely going to be only using this new drive for unraid tho, with lots of backups.

Glad you sorted the licence transfer — and that's actually a really useful find that should definitely be in the docs somewhere.

On the replacement drive though — "decent" is making me a little nervous!

The tricky thing with Unraid boot drives is that newer and shinier isn't actually better for this job. A drive that looks great for general use can be a poor choice for something that's plugged in and powered 24/7 for years on end.

There's a guide right here on the forum that goes into exactly why that is — [link].

The conclusion might surprise you — an old USB 2.0 drive from around 2008-2013 from a decent brand is very likely a better choice than anything you'd pick up at a store today.

The reasons are explained in the guide but it comes down to how the older drives were built vs what goes into cheap modern ones.

What did you end up getting as the replacement?

If you let me know I can give you a quick honest take on whether it's a good fit for always-on server duty before you get too settled with it.

I'm going to take a gander and say the one I got isn't great, because I cant find much info on it, besides it being a Team Group 3.2 Gen 1 32gb drive with up to 75mb/s transfer speeds and a rating of C186, unsure what that actually means tho. There does seem to be a model number, but that's just a repeat of the info I've already said. Its also 10 bucks on newegg, and i was just going for anything that'd work to get the server up and running, cause I knew I'd still have server problems to address before I could properly use it, and wanted to get a jump on it. Before buying this one, i do try to do some research of my own and came across at least a similar thread to the one you posted, but i wasnt able to find anything thatd looked actually worth the effort.

8 hours ago, VALOR said:

I'm going to take a gander and say the one I got isn't great

Your instinct is right — that drive isn't great for this job unfortunately.

$10 USB 3.2 drives are built around the cheapest NAND available which generates more heat at idle than you'd expect for something doing almost no work. For a drive that's powered on 24/7 for years that matters more than the transfer speed which Unraid barely uses anyway.

The good news is you don't need to spend much to do significantly better.

Before buying anything else — do you have any old USB drives lying around from maybe 2008-2013? Anything from a recognisable brand like Kingston, PNY, Verbatim, even an old SanDisk from that era?

If so it's genuinely worth checking what's inside before spending money on something new. The guide explains how to do that with a free tool called chipgenius.

If you don't have anything suitable in a drawer there are verified options on eBay in the $10-20 range that are actually purpose-built for exactly this kind of always-on low-write application. Happy to point you to a specific one if that's easier than digging through old drives.

I don't have any drives that old, unfortunately. Ill try to look around on Ebay, but if you wouldn't mind pointing out at least specific things i should search for, that'd be wonderful, I truly appreciate your help here.

1 hour ago, VALOR said:

I don't have any drives that old, unfortunately. Ill try to look around on Ebay, but if you wouldn't mind pointing out at least specific things i should search for, that'd be wonderful, I truly appreciate your help here.

Absolutely happy to help with that!

The short version of what to look for on eBay — search for USB flash drives from brands like Kingston, PNY, Verbatim, or SanDisk with a copyright or manufacture date of 2007-2010 on the packaging.

The older the better within that window. Capacity of 4GB or 8GB is plenty for Unraid and actually works in your favor — drives that small from that era almost certainly contain the good stuff inside.

The free tool to verify what you've got when it arrives is called chipgenius — it reads the controller and NAND details directly from the drive.

(SanDisk is a notable exception- very difficult to verify its components).

The USB guide (Unraid Boot Device Guide in the Boot Devices category) on this forum explains exactly what to look for in the output.

To save you the search time — there's currently a specific verified listing on eBay worth looking at:

a 4GB PNY Attache Optima Pro from 2007-08 (made in Taiwan), confirmed with a Phison controller and 56nm Toshiba MLC NAND in its Chinese iteration, which is about as good as it gets for an Unraid boot drive at any price point.

It's only been listed a few days, already down to around $15 with an offer option active so you could probably get it for $13-14.

Item number is 267599196989

Drives from this era do surface on eBay occasionally but finding one with confirmed 56nm NAND in the exact same model, at this price is genuinely uncommon — worth grabbing if you're inclined.

Edited March 22Mar 22 by Lolight

Thank you so much for your help, found it and made an offer, honestly was expecting it to be more pricey, but i wont say no to this. Again, thank you so much, and while I'm sure it wont be much of a noticeable difference, I'm sure it'll be wonderful in the long run.

Really glad you found it and got the offer in — that's a great result.

You're right that day to day it'll feel identical to any other USB drive — that's actually the point.

The difference shows up over years of always-on server duty rather than in any immediate way.

You've essentially removed a failure mode that most people only discover the hard way.

Run chipgenius on it when it arrives just to confirm what's inside — the primer guide in the USB section explains exactly what to look for.

And if you can, please post the results in the MLC drives thread (also in the same USB section).

If it matches the verified specs it's about as good a boot drive as you can get at any price right now.

Good luck with the rest of the server setup.

Edited March 14Mar 14 by Lolight

I run a linux os for my main pc, is there an equivalent service i can run, or no? i do have access to a windows pc i can use, but if i dont need to, id rather not honestly.

Probably not, let me search.

Since you're on Linux chipgenius won't run directly — the closest native alternative is lsusb.

It won't give you the full Flash ID that chipgenius extracts but it will confirm the controller which is the most important piece.

When the drive arrives plug it in and run:

lsusb -v

Look for the PNY entry in the output.

The key things to match against the verified unit are the controller string — should show Phison PS2231 or similar — and the VID/PID values.

For the verified China-manufactured unit those are:

VID: 0930

PID: 6545

If the Taiwan unit matches those values it's confirmed to be the same controller and almost certainly the same internal specification.

The full Toshiba 56nm Flash ID confirmation that chipgenius would give you isn't directly accessible from Linux tools — but a matching VID/PID on a Phison PS2231 controller from a 2007 PNY Attache is strong enough evidence that you can be confident in what you've got.

There's a verified chipgenius output for this exact drive posted in the USB Flash section (MLC-based drives) of this forum if you want to cross-reference the full spec sheet once you have your lsusb output.

On 3/14/2026 at 8:30 AM, Lolight said:

Look for the PNY entry in the output.

The key things to match against the verified unit are the controller string — should show Phison PS2231 or similar — and the VID/PID values.

For the verified China-manufactured unit those are:

VID: 0930

PID: 6545

I cant see the pny output, theres a bunch of other information that it might be buried under. Is there an argument to add thatll look at just the usb device?
Also, when i try to use the usb creator with a flash backup from my server onto the new drive, it fails, and says "Error Formatting (through udisks2)" Do you know why its doing that?

For filtering lsusb to just the PNY drive try:

lsusb -v -d 0930:6545

That targets exactly the VID:PID of the verified unit.

If it returns nothing the drive may have different identifiers — let me know what lsusb shows for the PNY entry and we can work from there.

On the udisks2 formatting error — this is a Linux-specific issue unrelated to the drive itself.

Most likely cause is the drive being mounted or having existing partition signatures.

Try this sequence:

udisksctl unmount -b /dev/sdX
udisksctl power-off -b /dev/sdX

Unplug the drive physically, replug it, then retry the USB Creator.

If it still fails run:

sudo wipefs -a /dev/sdX

To clear all existing filesystem signatures before attempting again.

Replace sdX with your actual device identifier from lsblk.

Let me know what the lsusb output shows and whether the formatting error persists after these steps.

Edited March 22Mar 22 by Lolight

22 hours ago, Lolight said:

That targets exactly the VID:PID of the verified unit.

If it returns nothing the drive may have different identifiers — let me know what lsusb shows for the PNY entry and we can work from there.

On the udisks2 formatting error — this is a Linux-specific issue unrelated to the drive itself.

Most likely cause is the drive being mounted or having existing partition signatures.

Try this sequence:

That did give me the data, the name says Kingston DataTraveler 102/2.0 / HEMA Flash Drive 2 GB / PNY Attache 4GB Stick under idProduct, in my file system.

The usb creator still failed to write to the drive, same error the whole time. I even tried using my own partition for it, to see if that was the issue, but no such luck. The commands were exectucted succesfully, i either got an return line or its mounting state changed visibly in my file manager.

49 minutes ago, VALOR said:

That did give me the data

The idProduct string showing multiple OEM names is noted — but to confirm this matches the verified unit we need the VID and PID values from the lsusb output.

Can you share the full lsusb line for the PNY entry — it should show something like:

Bus 00X Device 00X: ID xxxx:xxxx Kingston...

The four digit values after "ID" are the VID and PID.

For the verified unit those should be VID 0930 and PID 6545.

If they match we can confirm the controller.

If they differ it's worth knowing before proceeding further.

On the formatting error — since the commands executed successfully but the USB Creator still fails the issue is almost certainly a permissions conflict between the USB Creator's process and udisks2.

Try this sequence:

First confirm your device identifier — run:

lsblk

Identify the PNY drive's device identifier in the output before proceeding.

Verify carefully — the next commands are destructive and writing to the wrong device causes irreversible data loss.

Then with the correct identifier confirmed completely close the USB Creator application and run:

sudo umount /dev/sdX
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=4M count=10 status=progress
sudo partprobe /dev/sdX

Replace sdX with your actual device identifier from the lsblk output.

Then reopen the USB Creator immediately and attempt the write before the system automounts the drive again.

If that still fails try running the USB Creator with elevated permissions:

sudo unraid-usb-creator

Or whatever the specific executable name is for your distribution.

The underlying issue is the USB Creator and udisks2 competing for device control — running the Creator with sudo gives it priority over the daemon.

If neither works let me know your Linux distribution and desktop environment — some distributions have specific udisks2 permission configurations that require an additional step.

10 hours ago, Lolight said:

The idProduct string showing multiple OEM names is noted — but to confirm this matches the verified unit we need the VID and PID values from the lsusb output.

Can you share the full lsusb line for the PNY entry — it should show something like:

Bus 001 Device 008: ID 0930:6545 Toshiba Corp. Kingston DataTraveler 102/2.0 / HEMA Flash Drive 2 GB / PNY Attache 4GB Stick is what my terminal is telling me when i use he command lsusb -v -d 0930:6545

10 hours ago, Lolight said:

If neither works let me know your Linux distribution and desktop environment — some distributions have specific udisks2 permission configurations that require an additional step.

But neither set of sommands worked, running it as sudo put its logs into the terminal, where it got stuck trying to mount the drive. Specifically, this Error mounting: "Error mounting system-managed device /dev/sdX: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdX, missing codepage or helper program, or other error" appeared 10 or so times before the usb creator gave up on it. However, when I go into my partition manager, 3MiB are set as unknown, or part of no partition, with the rest being part of the UnRaid partition, which i can manually mount, and access, but if i try to mount the drive as a whole, it fails. This sounds to me like theres bad sections of the drive that it cant access, but is still trying to partition and mount.

And I'm using Garuda Linux x86_64 with the KDE Plasma i believe.

Also, if i try to extended the UnRaid partition to encompass the excess space, it fails as well, but sadly doesn't tell me anything beyond "Operation Failed"

1 hour ago, VALOR said:

But neither set of sommands worked

Good news — the VID/PID confirms this is exactly the right drive.

Your drive's ID 0930:6545 matches the verified PNY Attache Optima Pro with Phison PS2231 controller and very likely to contain the exact same, hard to find 56nm Toshiba NAND (see the MLC-based consumer USB Flash Drives thread for specs).

The mounting errors and partition manager findings point to a different problem than permissions — the drive has an existing partial Unraid partition structure from a previous write attempt that's confusing the system.

The 3MiB unallocated region is the Unraid boot partition's reserved space and the filesystem the system is trying to mount isn't a standard Linux filesystem -- which explains every error you're seeing.

The fix is to completely wipe the existing partition table before trying the USB Creator again.

Run these commands in sequence -- replace sdX with your confirmed device identifier from lsblk first:

lsblk

Confirm the PNY drive's identifier, then:

sudo wipefs -a /dev/sdX
sudo sgdisk --zap-all /dev/sdX
sudo partprobe /dev/sdX

The wipefs command removes all filesystem signatures.

The sgdisk command destroys both MBR and GPT partition tables completely.

Together they return the drive to a blank state that the USB Creator can write to cleanly.

Unplug and replug the drive after running these commands, then attempt the USB Creator again before the system automounts anything.

Garuda Linux uses KDE's device notifier aggressively — if it tries to automount between the wipe and the USB Creator attempt run:

sudo systemctl stop udisks2

Then run the USB Creator, then restart udisks2 afterward with:

sudo systemctl start udisks2

Let me know what the USB Creator produces after the full wipe.

45 minutes ago, Lolight said:

The wipefs command removes all filesystem signatures.

The sgdisk command destroys both MBR and GPT partition tables completely.

Together they return the drive to a blank state that the USB Creator can write to cleanly.

When I first tried these commands, the wipefs worked, but I didn't have the sgdiskd, so i installed that program, which when then used gave an error about Partition(s) 1 - 64 have been written, but were unable to inform the kernel of the change. Then advice me to reboot before making any changes. So i used the power off cmd from before, unplugged the drive, plugged it back in, tried again, same error. So i restarted my pc with the usb attached, and it gave me the same error again. After which, i looked into the Partition Manager, where i realized that the sdX i was using was for the partition, the drive itself had a separate one, so i used that one, but then that said the secondary partition overlaps the last partition by 33 blocks. So i deleted the second partition, retried, and it gave no error. Tried the usb creator again, same error. Stopped udisks2, same error. Tried to run it in sudo, same error. Tried running the wipefs/sgdisk command pair, then running it in sudo, same error again.

From what i can see, the usb creator is trying to mount the drive to write the files into the partition, but cant mount for whatever reason. So i looked at the partition manager again, and when i give the unused 3Mib a fat32 partition, there's 512 mb used. looked at it, and saw that it was somehow my other drives that i had mounted. Which then brought me to look at the mount points of both partitions, and while the path is the same for both, which should just create their own "directories" attached to the end of that file path, they were somehow wedging themselves in front of the other drives, which were given the same mount point. While none of the other drives unmounted or anything. So i used unmounted the other drives, deleted the folders in the usb stick, and was finally able to get the usb creator to actually finish.

NGL, I might be missing some things that I did during the process, but I'm writing most of this after the fact, not during. I truly appreciated your help with this, and I doubt I could've gotten to this solution without you. I hope you have a wonderful day, and cheers!

8 hours ago, VALOR said:

So i used unmounted the other drives, deleted the folders in the usb stick, and was finally able to get the usb creator to actually finish.

Excellent persistence working through that — the mount point collision was genuinely non-obvious and not something the standard troubleshooting sequence would have surfaced directly.

That's a Garuda Linux specific behaviour where the automounter assigns mount points in a way that can create path conflicts between multiple devices.

The VID/PID confirmed the drive is exactly what it should be -- correct for Unraid boot duty.

Everything that followed was Linux filesystem management rather than anything wrong with the drive itself.

Glad it's working.

Enjoy the new Unraid setup!