Unable to boot to USB

[AK2K19]

I have a Gigabyte GA-965-GM-S2 Motherboard with a Core2 Duo E6320 processor. It has an option to boot from USB-HDD, USB-FDD, USB-ZIP, Hard Disk, CDD in the BIOS. I had tried installing FreeNAS and was able to boot using the USB Stick (32GB Kingston). 

However, in case of UnRaid, it just freezes at OS boot point that I know is after which typically the OS screen pops up. 

 

I tried the disk creator option as well as the manual option. 

 

In the trouble shooting, I did disable USB 2.0 as well as have set SATA AHCI enabled. There are no other drives connected to the PC except a 250 GB Sata that I plugged in just in case it was looking for a drive. However, none of the options seem to work. Any help in this regard is appreciated.

 

Here's the link to the motherboard: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-965GM-S2-rev-10

Edited April 30, 2019 by AK2K19

[trurl]

27 minutes ago, AK2K19 said:

I did disable USB 2.0

Disabling USB2 is definitely the wrong approach. If anything, you want to be sure to use a USB2 port.

[Juanzilla]

Did you try to boot the USB en legacy mode? I do not know that MOBO in details but, usually you can choose to but in UEFI mode or in Legacy. In my particular case, UEFI do not work properly and I have to boot it in Legacy.

[AK2K19]

Yeah, i did legacy mode. Not sure if the MB supports or even knows uefi. Maybe i have to switch to a stick instead of a card reader?

[JonathanM]

1 hour ago, AK2K19 said:

Maybe i have to switch to a stick instead of a card reader?

Very few card readers have the unique GUID necessary to license unraid. A stick is a much easier option to get right. The format is rather critical, many USB sticks need a basic format applied to work. If the unraid USB creator tool doesn't seem to work, I suggest using RUFUS to format with FAT32 and set the label to UNRAID. Unfortunately unraid doesn't publish an iso to use, so you need to use the advanced options to simply apply the format and the label with RUFUS, then the USB creator provided by unraid should work without issue.

[Juanzilla]

1 hour ago, AK2K19 said:

Yeah, i did legacy mode. Not sure if the MB supports or even knows uefi. Maybe i have to switch to a stick instead of a card reader?

Yes, absolutly. As Jonathanm says, you need a devices with a GUID for the license.
And if you can, buy a first party usb, like sandisk or similar. 8 gigs should be more then enough.

Edited April 30, 2019 by Juanzilla

[itimpi]

5 hours ago, Juanzilla said:

Yes, absolutly. As Jonathanm says, you need a devices with a GUID for the license.
And if you can, buy a first party usb, like sandisk or similar. 8 gigs should be more then enough.

It is also worth pointing out that the USB stick must be 32GB or less, and that USB2 is more likely to be reliable than USB3 (you do not need the performance of USB3 as after initial load Unraid runs from RAM).

[AK2K19]

well, this MOBO  does not have eufi I think, so I chose legacy anyway. all MOBOs typically support legacy. Is there a way to just have the USB Stick for its GUID while boot from a CD Rom? Since UnRaid resides entirely in the memory from what I have read so far, doing so might meet the needs to bypass the limitation my configuration presents.

[AK2K19]

On 4/30/2019 at 6:09 PM, jonathanm said:

Very few card readers have the unique GUID necessary to license unraid. A stick is a much easier option to get right. The format is rather critical, many USB sticks need a basic format applied to work. If the unraid USB creator tool doesn't seem to work, I suggest using RUFUS to format with FAT32 and set the label to UNRAID. Unfortunately unraid doesn't publish an iso to use, so you need to use the advanced options to simply apply the format and the label with RUFUS, then the USB creator provided by unraid should work without issue.

Well, the media creator worked fine and applied the correct label. You are right, I used a stick instead of a reader. That hasn't helped either. I was just thinking aloud that since UnRaid wants the GUID of a USB Stick, I might use the option of "boot from CDROM" by copying the stick contents to a CD and still have a stick in the USB slot, so UnRaid can read that and use the GUID. not sure if there is any config changes in the boot process that needs to be done. 

[AK2K19]

On 4/30/2019 at 11:32 PM, itimpi said:

It is also worth pointing out that the USB stick must be 32GB or less, and that USB2 is more likely to be reliable than USB3 (you do not need the performance of USB3 as after initial load Unraid runs from RAM).

yes it is a 32 GB stick. My last resort probably is to use an old 8GB Sandisk stick that has been reliable for a few years now and I believe is USB 1.1/2.0 compatible. I do not have USB 3.0 on this board (it predates USB 3.0). Other question is I made the stick on a laptop that has a 32bit Windows OS. I believe the media creator doesn't care about the platform when creating the USB Media. would that be a correct assumption?

[AK2K19]

On 4/30/2019 at 12:46 PM, trurl said:

Disabling USB2 is definitely the wrong approach. If anything, you want to be sure to use a USB2 port.

I concur.. messed me up royally. I had to remove the battery to reset the BIOS as my keyboard or mouse were not detected. I did not have a PS/2 keyboard and my current keyboard with a PS/2 adapter did not work either. 

[trurl]

1 hour ago, AK2K19 said:

I concur.. messed me up royally. I had to remove the battery to reset the BIOS

So is it working now?

[AK2K19]

2 minutes ago, trurl said:

So is it working now?

Well, it recognizes usb 2.o devices. Nonluck booting unraid yet. Maybe will run the makeboot on the stick and then try again.