Boot from USB stick

Hello Steffen,

I would like to welcome you to the forum and thank you for posting. I will certainly take care of this issue for you.

It is caused by the USB stick not being active, it is possible it was not formatted properly. Please check this KB article and specifically the part called: Creating Acronis Bootable Media on a USB Flash Drive and make sure that you follow those instructions please.

Let me know if you have additional questions or any other issues.

Thank you.

Hello Anton

It works fine now.

Thank You very much for Your help.

Steffen Ernst

Anton --
I have EXACTLY the same problem -- same error messages as Stefan. However, the solutions listed for me did not work.
I am running Windows XP Pro and tried to use a 254 MB USB "Stick". What I found is that (a) when I try to use the Diskpart utility, the USB "stick" is NOT seen as a "disk" at all -- it is only seen as a "volume". However, the partition "commands" in diskpart require that the "target" be a "disk"... so THAT did not work
When I tried to use the approach with GRUB4DOS, I had a problem trying to run the GRUB Installer. At step "1.7" (where you click on "Part List Refresh"), the drop-down did NOT include a choice of "Whole disk (MBR)" there was ONLY the single choice of "whole disk FAT12 / FAT16"... which did not seem to be correct.
I do not know if that is because the "stick" is too small (in the article, the "stick" was 8 GB while this was only 254 MB) or if there is some other factor involved. However, there seems to be no way for me to get an MBR onto the "stick"...
On top of everything else, I tried working with Acronis support today -- and the result is that this "Stick" can no longer be read (or even seen consistently!) by Windows on my laptop (though Linux can still see the "stick").
Right now, I am "stuck in the water" trying to create a Bootable Media on a USB "stick". If you have any further suggestions or ideas -- or even if you can tell whether there is some factor in determining WHICH flash drive devices can be used, that would be most helpful.
--Zvi Weiss

Grub4DOS is most likely having a problem with the flash drive because the formatting is not as expected, not because of the size.

XP's DISKPART does not support flash drives. You have to use Vista or Windows 7 for this. Note that this can be done on another computer running Vista or Windows 7 (just be careful not to "clean" the wrong drive).

If Linux can see the flash drive okay, you could try fixing it manually. I have previously used Linux and XP to "fix" flash drives after getting them to the point Windows and/or TI & DD wouldn't see them properly. I can post the instructions if you want. Just be aware that you could wipe out the wrong drive if you do it incorrectly (in other words, do it at your own risk). Please also note that I haven't tried this since Ubuntu Feisty Fawn because the DISKPART method is so much quicker.

Well, the formatting was pretty vanilla -- I ran it right out of XP...
If I knew someone running Windows 7 or Vista, I would consider your suggestion... It is pretty easy to
avoid "cleaning the wrong drive" and sounds quite straightforward....

It sound WAY too messy to try to "fix" this manually... I *finally* got my "stick" to be seen by Windows after disabling it in Device Manager ... waiting ... rebooting (for a different reason) and finally re-enabling it...

However, this seems such a hassle... I will be hearing from Support tomorrow... If you REALLY think that the formatting makes a difference, I can check with the Support Rep and try again... but -- as I said earlier -- this was REGULAR Windows Formatting....

I just wish that this had been clear in the article -- to begin with....
--Zvi

It's not the formatting on the partition that's the problem. In my tests, it's the setup/layout/etc. of the flash drive that causes the problem (I probably shouldn't have used the word "formatting"). In other words, the "room" (partition) in the house is just fine, but the "house" (drive) outside can't be recognized properly.

Are you familiar with Linux at all? Particularly, using the fdisk and dd commands?

Unfortunately. I have almost no access to Linux. I have heard (in the past) of the fdisk and dd commands -- but they are only a hazy memory now. However, if I understand you correctly, the fact of the matter is that not all USB Flash Drives are suitable for this use UNLESS (a) one has Windows 7 to "pre-massage" the drive or (b) GRUB4DOS is able to install properly on it (which, it seems, is not always the case...)....

I think that I understand what you mean -- that there is SOMETHING in the Flash Drive "organization" that prevents it from being properly recognized... It is just that I do not know what I can do about this...

At the very least, can anyone tell me what sort of USB Flash Drives DO work properly here?
[Prehaps, by "brand name" or "capacity" or SOMETHING....]
I have a cheap ("free") no-name brand that just stores data and is listed as "FAT"...
Maybe if someone can suggest the USB "stick" to be used, I could locate that... Right now, I have no idea what
will and what won't work (except that mine does NOT work....).
Thanks.

Zvi,
The PNY brand works for me. This is a plain and simple storage device.

Avoid the SanDisk brand for this use because it has its own boot process and its hard to get this cleared.

Capacity can be 2G or more or less. Even 512Mb will work.

I used the normal TrueImage installed program to create the usb boot disk using the Media Builder program.

I've found that using the HP USB formatter gives me the most consistently bootable flash drives. You might try using it before going to the other steps in your flash drive build. Google is your friend.

I always use it before building a bootable drive. I'm sure it isn't always necessary - in fact my OCZ drives tend to work out of the box - but it's worth running to be sure.

I tend to use legacy grub (not grub4dos) for this kind of thing. It requires running Linux to install it, but it's let me build multi-boot flash drives. The one I keep on my keychain boots Knoppix Linux, Ubuntu Linux, Acronis rescue "CD", and a bunch of other forensic and recovery tools.

(Another random tip that helps with some older machines/funky BIOS is to install grub in _both_ the MBR and the partition's boot sector.)

Bill

I use the SanDisk Cruzer flash drives. They work just fine if you remove the U3 software (you can do this easily).

I've had good success with PNY, Patriot, and Crucial drives.

I can provide instructions for Linux and XP to try and fix the drive, if you want. You would need to have access to Linux. I usually use an installed version, but I think you can do it just fine from a Live CD also (Ubuntu, for example).

Thank you for the follow-up. I do NOT have easy access to Linux so I am not sure how useful "instructions" would be. However, if the SanDisk Cruzer drives work well and the instructions (relating to cleaning off the U3 software) can be executed on XP Pro, I would be very interested.

Thank you for your help here. As you can imagine, this has been frustrating and what I am now looking at is to get a "USB Enclosure" for my [second] Hard drive -- instead of using the Ultra-Bay -- so that I could then boot off of a recovery CD (which DOES work just fine). However, if I could use a USB "stick" for the Recovery and have the two Hard Drives in the respective slots without having to use a "USB Enclosure" -- that would be much easier....

I will look out for the PNY Brand. I would look for the smallest flash drive that works...
I am assuming that I can use the PNY "as is" -- i.e., no special "cleaning" but simply putting it into the USB and running the Acronis Rescue Media Builder without any problem.....

Thank you for the follow-up. Since I do not have access to either Linux or the HP USB Formatter, I am afraid that I can not really take advantage of this. I am using XP Pro (on a "company laptop") so I am pretty limited when it comes to anything that goes "outside" of XP.

However, based upon the replies that I am seeing, it appears that the PNY and SanDisk (when appropriately "cleaned") would be good choices.

It also appears that IF there was access for me ot Windows 7, the diskpart utility would "bail me out" of this issue.

Are you not allowed to install anything on the laptop? The HP formatter just installs in WinXX and runs as any other windows app - in admin mode.

Bill

It really depends... I had no problem installing Acronis... however, I am pretty cautious about other products...

Just to let all know...
I had access to a Windows laptop
and I took my "clunky" 255 MB "stick" and ran diskpart
against it there... and everything went GREAT.
Tested after and booted RIGHT OFF of the "stick" without ANY problems!

As a side question (nothing to do with Acronis), I am just curious if anyone
has encountered this [minor] issue.
EVERY TIME that I boot into Linux on laptop (whether form CD, "stick", or Hard Drive)
I find that when I re-boot into Windows [XP], the graphics are all messed up... as if
Windows has lost access to all of the graphics s.w. I get pop-up messages to the effect that all of my
video drivers have been lost / corrupted...

However, when I do a regular shut-down, shut of the laptop, and then turn it back on and boot into Windows,
everything is "back ot normal".... Graphics are restored and all is working properly. I *suspect* that there is SOME
sort of BIOS setting involved but have no clue as to what setting(s) could be involved...

Not a big deal [but it is an annoyance]...

Any ideas???

THANK YOU!!
--Zvi

We're getting pretty OT here.

I have seem something similar when rebooting from Linux to windows, but with my network. I can't use the NIC on my i7 desktop until I do a cold boot. There's presumably something changed in the ACPI tables or BIOS or ??? that gets cleared on cold boot.

Does your laptop have switchable graphics, by any chance?

Bill

I've seen problems like that. Sometimes it's the video, sometimes some other piece of hardware. Linux does not always work correctly and set or leaves the hardware in a state that is not correct or stable. Booting between two different Linux kernels can cause this too (it doesn't have to be Linux/Windows).

A shutdown or reset is usually required to fix it. You could try a different version of Linux.

Well, I am not sure if the Graphics are switchable (I have never had any reason to check)... but this is something I can find out. However, from the additional commentary, this just seems to be an oddity with Linux and, since it is pretty easy to "fix", not sure how much effort to put into this....