I have been using a very long USB stick. I placed it outside my computer which lead to a high risk of breaking the USB stick.

 

I planned to replace the USB stick. It worked fine thanks to you great instructions [1], until I tried to first reboot my system after obtaining the new key.

 

Since then my new USB stick Verbatim Nano USB-Stick 32 GB [2] is either not recognized by the main board Asus Z87 [3] or it times out on waiting for "/dev/disk/by-label/UNRAID"

 

I already followed the instructions on the "BIOS and Booting Up" page [4].

 

I am quite sure it is a problem between my main board and the new USB stick, because when I connect the old I can boot without troubles.

 

[1] https://lime-technology.com/replace-key
[2] https://www.verbatim.de/de/prod/32gb-nano-usb-drive-with-micro-usb-otg-adapter-49822/
[3] https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z87PRO/

[4] https://wiki.unraid.net/UnRAID_6/Getting_Started#BIOS_and_Booting_Up

Have you tried a different USB port, preferably USB2?

Yes, I tried all the ports I got in my system.

 

I also tried to connect the USB stick behind a USB hub. I also tried to disconnect all other USB devices.

 

Nothing helped so far.

 

I also checked that my main bord has got the latest BIOS version.

How exactly did you prepare the USB stick, manually or with USB Creator? Are you sure the USB stick doesn't have multiple partitions on it?

USB2 ports have black plastic inserts.  USB3 ports have blue plastic inserts.  (Apparently, there are a few MB today that don't have any USB2 ports on the back panel. There seem to be a few MB/BIOS comb's that can't pass off their USB3 ports successfully to the Unraid OS as they boot up.) 

Edited November 12, 20187 yr by Frank1940
Added red text

4 minutes ago, Frank1940 said:

USB2 ports have black plastic inserts.  USB3 ports have blue plastic inserts.  (Apparently, there are a few MB today that don't have any USB2 ports. There seem to be a few MB/BIOS comb's that can't pass off their USB3 ports successfully to the Unraid OS as they boot up.) 

From the ASUS page referenced, it does look like only USB3 ports are accessible from the back panel. The specs say

Quote

USB Ports

Intel® Z87 chipset : 
4 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 port(s) (2 at back panel, blue, 2 at mid-board)
Intel® Z87 chipset : 
8 x USB 2.0/1.1 port(s) (8 at mid-board)
ASMedia® USB 3.0 controller : 
4 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 port(s) (4 at back panel, blue)

so you would probably have to connect to a header on the motherboard to get USB2

See here for one from Amazon.  This type allows to put the boot drive inside of your computer.  (There are several types of these USB header-to-UBS plug configurations to allow you to put the ports anywhere you want.)  

 

https://www.amazon.com/QNINE-Motherboard-Converter-Internal-Splitter/dp/B06X92PDKY/ref=sr_1_27?ie=UTF8&qid=1541980992&sr=8-27&keywords=usb+2+headers

 

You can also get them from E-bay...

6 hours ago, trurl said:

How exactly did you prepare the USB stick, manually or with USB Creator? Are you sure the USB stick doesn't have multiple partitions on it?

I prepared it the old way: Formatting the whole drive on Windows 10, copied the files to the stick and then made it bootable using the batch script.

 

I also tried the USB creator, which did not help against the boot problems (stick was not recognized as boot device either).

 

It looks like it has got only one partition on it:

 

Thanks for your help so far.

 

I just ordered a new USB 2.0 stick as a replacement for the USB 3.0 which makes trouble. I also ordered an adapter to mount the USB stick to the onboard 2.0 USB ports.

 

I will send an update!

I bought and installed a slot bracket with 2x USB 2.0 ports on it connected to the internal USB 2.0 9pin connector on the mainboard [1]

 

After a few BIOS setting changes it booted from the USB 3.0 stick without problems. I had to use legacy boot instead of UEFI. Some CSM settings led to blinking cursors instead of the unRAID boot menu.

 

Now it works and I am happy again with my computer driven by unRAID. Thank you for your help.

 

Once more I had to learn it the hard way: Never touch a running system 🙂

 

[1] https://www.delock.com/produkte/G_71000/merkmale.html