[SOLVED] "USB drive is not read-write"

[rmp5s]

I'm getting the "USB drive failed.  Drive is not read-write" error message and I followed the directions found in other posts...shut down, take the drive out, shove it in a Windoze machine and run chkdsk on it.  

I did this and the error remains.

 

How can I fix it, if possible, and if not, how can I migrate to a new USB?  I know the license is tied to the USB drive and all that so that might complicate things...

Also, how do I back it up in the meantime?  

Thank you, all!!

[Frank1940]

      https://wiki.unraid.net/UnRAID_6/Changing_The_Flash_Device

and

      https://unraid.net/download

 

You can backup your Flash Drive by going to   Main   >>>   Boot Device  and click on "Flash" under the 'DEVICE' column.  Now click on the  "FLASH BACKUP" button under the  Flash Device Settings  section/tab.

[rmp5s]

3 minutes ago, Frank1940 said:

      https://wiki.unraid.net/UnRAID_6/Changing_The_Flash_Device

and

      https://unraid.net/download

 

You can backup your Flash Drive by going to   Main   >>>   Boot Device  and click on "Flash" under the 'DEVICE' column.  Now click on the  "FLASH BACKUP" button under the  Flash Device Settings  section/tab.

Beautiful.  Thanks!!

[CyBuzz]

doing this solved it for me also.  New USB drive (ultrafit) replaced the other ultrafit that was in there. 

 

Should i plan on doing this periodically?

[rmp5s]

2 minutes ago, CyBuzz said:

doing this solved it for me also.  New USB drive (ultrafit) replaced the other ultrafit that was in there. 

 

Should i plan on doing this periodically?

Yup. I replaced it and all is well yet again.

 

I even bought an extra thumb drive to leave on top of the server in the expectation that I'm going to have to do this again. lol

[JonathanM]

I would avoid those tiny drives, for the reasons you are figuring out. They are so small, they don't shed heat very well. A little larger drive with a metal case is going to be much more reliable.

https://www.kingston.com/us/usb-flash-drives/datatraveler-se9-usb-flash-drive

[rmp5s]

55 minutes ago, jonathanm said:

I would avoid those tiny drives, for the reasons you are figuring out. They are so small, they don't shed heat very well. A little larger drive with a metal case is going to be much more reliable.

https://www.kingston.com/us/usb-flash-drives/datatraveler-se9-usb-flash-drive

The replacement(s) is actually made of metal. Now that it's in a datacenter, I'm not worried about it, anyway. I freeze my balls off in there. It will too.

[bombz]

Reaching out for a strange one, I have done this USB replacement many times in the past with USB 2.0 disk

My current Kingston USB 2.0 drive is showing corruption, so I only have Kingston USB 3.0 USB on hand. 
I used the USB Flash creator, created the flash disk
Copied over my backup after the flash was created 
ran make_bootable.bat

From there tried to boot to this USB flash with my NAS and another laptop to attempt to test, and there has been no luck, says non-bootable medium. I attempted with the 'Allow UEFI Boot' checked and attempted many enable and disable legacy boot etc. 

My last USB 2.0 drive has the EFI folder on it, so I always used that.

Im scratching my head at this one. 

 

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

[Frank1940]

Size of USB3 flash drive?

 

[bombz]

5 minutes ago, Frank1940 said:

Size of USB3 flash drive?

 

Hello, 

It is a Kingston DataTraveler G4 32GB USB 3.0 drive
I got this USB drive to boot on my laptop successfully for a test.

Took it to the NAS (Asus Mobo) and it wouldn't boot.
Attempted to try all the USB ports in the I/O and always get the error that device is not bootable

My previous Kingston USB 2.0 disk, that is corrupted , I put it in my Windows system, it repaired the disk.
I then put this same USB 2.0 flash back into the NAS and it booted without issue.

I am starting to wonder if this Asus Mobo is old (thought it has USB 3.0 ports on it) that it won't boot the Unraid Kingston USB 3.0 flash for whatever reason. 

It's hard to find USB 2.0 drives online currently. I did find a few sandisk, but based on the Unraid wiki PSA there may be counterfeit ones out there too. 

Thoughts?

[bombz]

6 minutes ago, bombz said:

I am going to attempt to boot one of my Windows Server 2021 / Windows 10 USB boot flash drives on that motherboard to see if it recognizes it for the sake of testing.

The system booted another Kingston USB 3.0 G4 @ 32GB with Windows OS without issue
seems the concern revolves around when I create a Unraid USB with the USB creator , it wont boot on the NAS (Asus board)
Boots fine on a Dell laptop without issue.

I am very puzzled by this right now.

 

[bombz]

I suppose the next question is maybe revolving around my backup USB 2.0 drive.
What files and folders should be copied back to the new flash drive, and what should be left untouched when creating a new USB boot device?

[Frank1940]

Copy back the   /config    directory. This will restore all of your settings. 

 

About making a boot drive.  Follow these instructions rather than using the tool:

 

   https://wiki.unraid.net/Articles/Getting_Started#Manual_Install_Method

 

Remember that name must be  UNRAID   and run the make-bootable file as Administrator.  You already know the EFI directory naming arrangement. 

[bombz]

10 minutes ago, Frank1940 said:

Copy back the   /config    directory. This will restore all of your settings. 

 

About making a boot drive.  Follow these instructions rather than using the tool:

 

   https://wiki.unraid.net/Articles/Getting_Started#Manual_Install_Method

 

Remember that name must be  UNRAID   and run the make-bootable file as Administrator.  You already know the EFI directory naming arrangement. 

I will give it a go.
I noticed many .notify files within my backup when copying the data. 
Can these be deleted ?

[bombz]

24 minutes ago, Frank1940 said:

Copy back the   /config    directory. This will restore all of your settings. 

 

About making a boot drive.  Follow these instructions rather than using the tool:

 

   https://wiki.unraid.net/Articles/Getting_Started#Manual_Install_Method

 

Remember that name must be  UNRAID   and run the make-bootable file as Administrator.  You already know the EFI directory naming arrangement. 

 

Seems to be back up and running... I won't know 100% until unraid support gets back to me with the new key for the new GUID.
I can report back once everything is 100% 

Seems to not be booting via UEFI anymore, and back to a legacy boot on this USB 3.0 disk 
UFI- folder = does not show a UFEI boot device in the boot POST list anymore

I suppose moving forward, the manual method is the method that is to be used when moving from an old flash drive to a new flash drive.

Thank you for your help, I was looking at some of this the wrong way.

Edited April 21, 2023 by bombz

[Frank1940]

2 hours ago, bombz said:

Seems to not be booting via UEFI anymore, and back to a legacy boot on this USB 3.0 disk 
UFI- folder = does not show a UFEI boot device in the boot POST list anymore

 

Quote from the Manual Install instructions:

[bombz]

11 hours ago, Frank1940 said:

 

Quote from the Manual Install instructions:

Hello, 
Yes I did read that, and followed that guide. However it made no difference. When the USB was created with UFEI enabled or renaming the folder itself, The device would not boot.

Attempting the manual method 

• Format 'UNRAID'
• Copy .zip to flash (which had the EFI-)
• Run the makebootable.bat

Ran with success.

• I then shut down the server
• copied my backup from the old flash
• Powered on & booted server. 
• Performed the GUID swap for the new key
• Tested all services (docker, etc.)
• Ran Parity Sync

 

When I did attempt to rename the EFI- to EFI (for kicks) there was no success with the boot process (no bootable device found)

 

As it stands the system & flash is operational again. Was able to marry the GUID to the key and things seem good to go. In mid swing on a parity sync for sanity at this time. All services seem to be up and running 100%

 

I do appreciate the assist here, not sure why I had forgotten this process (in a sense). I believe I will stick with the manual method moving forward over the USB Creator.

Thank you again!

Edited April 22, 2023 by bombz

[Frank1940]

4 minutes ago, bombz said:

I believe I will stick with the manual method moving forward over the USB Creator.

The tool seems to give people problems at times.  (I am not sure what is going on...)  The standard solution is to tell people to use the manual method. 

 

About the renaming of the   EFI-   directory to EFI    In the list of instructions, it says to run the make-bootable file after the renaming.  I don't know if that makes any difference or not.  Whether you use UEFI or BIOS to boot Unraid is (probably) immaterial in the big picture for most of us.   Where it is a problem is that there are a few MBs that no longer have a BIOS boot option.  There you have to use it. 

 

 

[bombz]

15 minutes ago, Frank1940 said:

The tool seems to give people problems at times.  (I am not sure what is going on...)  The standard solution is to tell people to use the manual method. 

 

About the renaming of the   EFI-   directory to EFI    In the list of instructions, it says to run the make-bootable file after the renaming.  I don't know if that makes any difference or not.  Whether you use UEFI or BIOS to boot Unraid is (probably) immaterial in the big picture for most of us.   Where it is a problem is that there are a few MBs that no longer have a BIOS boot option.  There you have to use it. 

 

 

Hello.

 

I was wiped out from my Friday work day, and cannot recall my order of operations. I was referencing my previous USB flash drive file structure which did have 'EFI'

If I am correct I did run makebootable.bat when the folder was set as 'EFI' without success.

 

I want to say for some reason this USB 3.0 drive paired with this older Asus motherboard may be the concern with the BIOS is on it (I am not 100%). The reason I say this is because I took that same USB 3.0 flash and tossed it into the Dell laptop for kick to see if the flash would boot, which had success (there was one time it didn't). Then again my Windows Server 3.0 USB (UFEI) created with Rufus booted with no issues... blah who knows :-) 

 

Regardless, going back to the good old trusted manual method seems to be tried and true. Flash drive replacement happens so rarely, clearly forgot some of the little nuances that come with it. I do apologize that I was a little frantic last night after a long day. (I laugh at myself because the simplest of things can be so hard somedays)

 

As always; the community comes though time and time again, and really makes this product even better overall! The developers, support personnel, and end-users all coming together.

 

Really appreciate the back and forth here. Sorry to be posting on a [SOLVED] thread, but I suppose we can add this to the 'solved' discussion :-) 

[bombz]

Well I am sad now.
The new flash drive seems to be doing the same thing.

I wonder what is causing the corruption or if the motherboard is failing ?
Took approx. 1d 22h for the corruption to reoccur
Rebooting the server seems to fix the issue, but I am sure it will reoccur again.

Edited April 26, 2023 by bombz