Encino Stan Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 Just for the heck of it if you have a Mac available or know somebody with one, try formatting the flash on the Mac. Somewhere in my search early on I found something in a PC forum that Macs did a better job of formatting Fat/Fat32 than the PCs. Strange but it is worth a shot. Motherboard is SuperMicro X10SL7-F, BIOS R 3.0. I tried the 32GB flash in the onboard USB 3 Type-A header (on motherboard), a USB 3 case port (via MB header), a USB 2 case port (via MB header), and the USB 2 ports on the backpanel of the MB. Tried all these ports with the SanDisk Ultra Fit 32GB formatted as FAT32 on a Mac Airbook, also tried formatting FAT32 with Ubuntu LTS 14.04. All with same results. /dev/disk search by label failing Unable to access Unraid GUI Then copied the files from the 32GB drive to a 16GB SanDisk Ultra Fit. OS boots and runs. It maybe specific to the SuperMicro X10SL7-F running BIOS R 3.0, but there is something definitely wrong with the SanDisk Ultra Fit 32GB. (Not going to buy a 64GB and try it, just going to ebay the 32GB.) Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 It'd be interesting to see if the 32GB works okay if you (a) formatted it on a PC, and then (b) ran the MakeBootable script on a PC as well. This may simply be an issue with doing the prep on a Mac vs. a PC. Quote Link to comment
Encino Stan Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 It'd be interesting to see if the 32GB works okay if you (a) formatted it on a PC, and then (b) ran the MakeBootable script on a PC as well. This may simply be an issue with doing the prep on a Mac vs. a PC. That is the way I did it the first time, before someone else suggested formatting on Mac and I wandered down the rabbit hole of every combination I could think of. I also considered trying different versions of UnRAID and different versions of syslinux.exe. Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 Did you do EXACTLY this: (a) Reformat the flash - choosing FAT32 - and label it "UNRAID" (note caps) (b) Copy the UnRAID v6.1.3 distributions files to the flash drive © Right-click on MakeBootable.bat and select "Run as Administrator" (d) Safely remove the flash drive [using the Safe Remove icon in the tray] (e) Try it in your UnRAID server. Quote Link to comment
Encino Stan Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 Did you do EXACTLY this: (a) Reformat the flash - choosing FAT32 - and label it "UNRAID" (note caps) (b) Copy the UnRAID v6.1.3 distributions files to the flash drive © Right-click on MakeBootable.bat and select "Run as Administrator" (d) Safely remove the flash drive [using the Safe Remove icon in the tray] (e) Try it in your UnRAID server. Yep! Exactly that (just tried again to be sure). Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 I think you must have a defective 32GB Ultra Fit. Quote Link to comment
Encino Stan Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 I think you must have a defective 32GB Ultra Fit. That maybe true, but if it is then ... (a) there are several defective ones out there, the OP and others that have posted the exact same symptoms with this chip, and (b) the only problem I had was with UnRAID. Used the same drive for DOS booting and loading firmware and BIOS with no issues. Ran several diagnostics against it and all say good. Main point is OP's statement of "Avoid using San Disk Ultra Fit USBs with UNRAID !!!" appears to only apply to the 32GB (and up?) drives and may be dependent on MB and BIOS used. Quote Link to comment
Russ Uno Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 The title of this thread probably should be changed to "Avoid using 32GB San Disk Ultra Fit USBs with UNRAID !!!" so people don't get confused. Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 ... appears to only apply to the 32GB (and up?) drives and may be dependent on MB and BIOS used. I had the same thought initially, but WeeboTech's experience with the 64GB versions shows that they work fine, just as all of the 16GB versions I've used. Apparently there's something about the 32GB versions that causes issues. Strange. But I'd agree it's best to simply buy the 16GB versions. Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 ... Just for grins, I confirmed that the 64GB version works fine -- just loaded one with UnRAID and confirmed it boots okay. Unfortunately I don't have a 32GB one to test => I have a few 16GB, a couple 64GB, and a couple 128GB units, but none of the 32's. Quote Link to comment
TheTechnoPilot Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 I'm going to jump in here even though it is a little bit of an old topic because it still applies. I also have been racking my brain trying to get UnRaid to boot on a 32gb SanDisk Ultra Fit and having the same exact issue, all configured on a Mac. I too bought it on the recommendation from Limetech and because the 32gb was only a couple bucks more... Quote Link to comment
harperhendee Posted February 27, 2017 Share Posted February 27, 2017 I hate to necropost, but I think I got to the bottom of this issue. The problem with the SanDisk Ultra Fit is that it won't re-enumerate during Unraid boot. This seems to happen only with certain USB host-device pairs. For instance, I can't boot correctly when connected directly to the PCH or via a Renesas USB hub chip. But when using a Inateck USB PCIE card, it has no problems. Also, I was able to work around the issue by unplugging and re-inserting the Ultra Fit during the boot process while it was timing out. --Harper Quote Link to comment
hypyke Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 I am really up the creek now with this issue. I have a z390 asrock board and a Sandisk Ultra FLAIR (not fit) and it's giving me the same kind of issues. Some sort of corruption after reboots and then the /boot is empty issue. Unplugging and replugging seems to have no effect. Once it's messed up a reinstall is the only thing I can do. The drive TESTS fine in windows and I've reformatted and reinstalled using the correct procedure which only fixes it for a while. I plug my old Sandisk usb 2.0 drive in and it works fine it seems. Of course I've done a key replacement already so the old one is black listed on the next upgrade. I have no idea what to do. I have 2 pro keys, one is now on this drive that won't work. The other is on an old drive that's only 256 megs. I could upgrade that one but I am unsure if it will be stable. Quote Link to comment
rippedwarrior Posted May 16, 2020 Share Posted May 16, 2020 I hate to necropost this thread again, but I feel like it's important to let people know that this usb stick may not be a good choice for Unraid. Mine just died after using it for a year of seemingly no problems. There was no warning, I just couldn't access the unraid web portal and when I shutdown my system it wouldn't boot again. I plugged the usb into another machine and it can't be read. Totally toast. While diagnosing the problem I found more than a few people with similar experiences with the Ultra Fit model: https://www.reddit.com/r/unRAID/comments/9j2kyi/back_up_your_flash_drive_folks/ https://www.reddit.com/r/unRAID/comments/9eccie/just_got_usb_flash_drive_failure_what_to_do/ Fortunately, I do monthly backups of the usb drive so I was quickly back up and running with a new stick, but just wanted to let people know the issues I've found and experienced with this drive. Quote Link to comment
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