USB Creator tool not working


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I come to the conclusion that the whole process is not bulletproof.

 

I took the latest flash backup, did format the flash and copied the whole contents of the flash backup ZIP onto the flash.

 

Right click on make_bootable.bat with Administrator Rights --> H:\syslinux\syslinux.exe missing.

 

The ZIP of the flash does not contain the syslinux folder. A manual restore (without the non-functional USB creator tool) is not possible.

 

So I need the flash backup ZIP AND the corresponding ZIP of the matching unRAID release to combine a USB manually.

 

My feature request:

 

1.) Allow the restore with USB creator tool without the outbound connection. A user simply wants to put a flash backup ZIP on the flash. He does not want to fetch the latest release from the website.

 

2.) Put all required files for a restore in the flash backup ZIP.

 

Just my 0.02 cents.

 

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1 hour ago, hawihoney said:

I come to the conclusion that the whole process is not bulletproof.

 

I took the latest flash backup, did format the flash and copied the whole contents of the flash backup ZIP onto the flash.

 

Right click on make_bootable.bat with Administrator Rights --> H:\syslinux\syslinux.exe missing.

 

The ZIP of the flash does not contain the syslinux folder. A manual restore (without the non-functional USB creator tool) is not possible.

 

So I need the flash backup ZIP AND the corresponding ZIP of the matching unRAID release to combine a USB manually.

 

My feature request:

 

1.) Allow the restore with USB creator tool without the outbound connection. A user simply wants to put a flash backup ZIP on the flash. He does not want to fetch the latest release from the website.

 

2.) Put all required files for a restore in the flash backup ZIP.

 

Just my 0.02 cents.

 

You can always download the ZIP file of the release from the Limetech site and follow the manual process to get files onto the USB stick.   Going this route does not need the USB Creator tool at all.   Make sure you have a backup of your current USB stick (or at least the config folder which contains your key and settings).   If you have a backup you can then copy your config folder on top of the files extracted from the zip to keep all your settings intact.

Edited by itimpi
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Combining different folders of two different ZIP files is not what I call a user friendly restore process.

 

There's a backup button for unRAID OS, that will include all user settings, on the details page of the flash device. Would be better on the Tools page but this is a different story. So far so good.

 

There's a USB creator tool to restore a backup of the unRAID OS including all user settings on a flash device. So far so good.

 

Now this USB creator tool needs 1.) an internet connection and 2.) access to the latest unRAID files (on AWS). There's no chance to restore a locally existing backup archive without 1.) an internet connection and 2.) without access to that AWS cloud service. I do have the backup archive but I can't install it because the files on AWS are not there.

 

So, while USB creator tool is broken and refuses to restore my existing backup files, I need to prepare the flash manually. I do have the locally existing backup but I can't create the flash without 1.) an internet connection or 2.) without access to that cloud service and the unRAID OS base files.

 

And on top of that I need to decide what unRAID OS version is running, download the corresponding unRAID base files and combine parts of two ZIP files to create my flash.

 

Here in Germany we call this "frickeln" - in english "fiddle/tinker" (c) Google.

 

 

All this would not be neccessary if:

 

1.) Flash backup would include the syslinux folder in the backup archive (for manual restore)

2.) USB creator tool would allow restore of an existing backup without an internet connection and access to files that I don't need for a restore.

 

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10 hours ago, hawihoney said:

Seems that I do have bad luck today with unRAID.

 

My flash was corrupt after the update to 6.5. After that I tried to put a backup on that flash but the USB Creator tool gives an error (please see screenshot attached).

 

What can I do?

 

USBCreator.jpg

 

This issue should be fixed now.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Whenever I try to work with the USB creator tool, it does not do what I expect. What's wrong with my approach?

 

~10 years ago I bought two LimeTech server from the website. From these days I own five Pro license and USB devices. Today I tried to bring them all to the latest content. Not one single device worked after preparation with the USB creator tool. What I did:

 

- Stop both unRAID server

- On each server click on the Flash device on the Main page of the unRAID GUI

- On each server click backup and wait for completion

- Copy the backup files of both server to a safe place

- Shutdown both server

- Insert the USB devices in a Windows PC

- In Windows Explorer format USB devices to FAT32 (label UNRAID)

- Start USB creator tool (yes to Windows Admin request) for all USB devices

- In USB creator tool click on local ZIP file

- Start creation and wait for successful completion

- Double check that the five license files do exist in the config directory (Pro1.key, Pro2.key, ...)

- Unmount USB devices from Windows PC

- Remove USB devices from Windows PC and insert into matching unRAID server (two server, two different flash contents)

- Start unRAID server

 

SYSLINUX 6.03 EDD 2014-10-06 Copyright (C) 1994-2014 H. Peter Anvin et al

WARNING: No configuration file found

boot:

 

This happens for all USB devices I did create with USB creator tool today. Comparing both devices (the original one and the one created today) with Total Commander look identical. Shutdown server, remove newly created USB devices and put old USB device back into server works as expected.

 

What is this? Why doesn't it work for me?

 

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You need to do this in two steps because the backup zip does not contain all files.

 

1. Prepare the USB device as a new installation. This will create the base structure, including syslinux.

2. Run the tool a second time and choose the ZIP file to restore everything to the 'backup' state

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 years later...

so i got my very 1st server grade hardware today waiting to get the power button fixed (long story ) anyway so i figured id @ least make the usb stick as i had bought the licence a long while back b4 getting the server( 202 0ish i think) anyway so i put my scan disk 32gb flash drive in and all i get is a grey box were your supost to select the version the box nxt to is is also greyed out and have no clue as to why bc im here typing this msg and streaming chicago pd on peacock so i know its not my net connection so i really have no idea as to why this is doing this bc i remember when i was playing around with it b4 i had NO PROB (2020) making the flash drive just a side note i did a test run on my old server windows 10 ryzen 3400g and 32gb ram comodo popped up asked if wanted to allow i said yes and the box ungreyed its self but seeing i will be retireing that rig (hds are going in the unraid server as i move the data over it would be nice to fix this prob so if i needed to use it i could

Discord_mohxnjcUWY.png

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