Can't boot from my Usb memory stick!

Booting, installing, newbie
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lensv
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu 26 May 2005, 10:44

Can't boot from my Usb memory stick!

#1 Post by lensv »

Hi,

I'm quite new to Linux and specially to this version. Anyway, I'm trying to make my memory stick bootable with Puppy. After finishing the setup script (without any errors) and rebooting the computer (with the right boot device set in bios) I get this error message...

Operating system not found

Any ideas what may be wrong?

Regards,

/LS

nduanetesh
Ultra Super-stud
Posts: 168
Joined: Fri 06 May 2005, 02:36

#2 Post by nduanetesh »

This could be one of many problems...

If the USB port you're using is part of a hub, rather than a hard-mounted port, sometimes the boot will fail. I don't know the wheres and whys of this, but I have found this to be true in my experience. Also, sometimes a front-mounted USB port on your case is seen as a separate hub, and will not work.

This could also be the fault of your BIOS. It took a while for hardware manufacturers to get booting from USB settled out (I'm not even sure you can say it's settled out now), so there are a lot of computers out there that have serious difficulties booting from anything USB, though the have bios settings for it.

Finally, it could be your USB key. Some older keys in particular are just no good for booting (this is also from my experience). However, I've had pretty good luck with newer keys...so....

Also, depending on what BIOS you have, you may be using the wrong settings. Many many sites on the net will tell you to set your Bios to something like, "USB floppy" or "USB boot", but for many BIOS out there, these will not boot a USB key. If your BIOS sees the key as an additional hard drive, what you need to do is boot into the bios (with the key plugged in) and find the "hard drive boot order" setting. your key will be listed there with the hard drives, set it to first in the boot order and reboot.

Oh, and just to be sure, have the key plugged into one of the ports on the back.

Good luck.

ND

Guest

#3 Post by Guest »

Well,

Unfortunately none of those arguments fits in as a solution :cry:

My PC is new (I have also tried my Usb key on other machines) and I dont use any hubs or front side ports. My Usb device is brand new and since I can boot my PC from another Usb key containing "Windows 98 boot diskette", there should be no problems with my bios.

Any other suggestions?

/LS

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danleff
Posts: 294
Joined: Sun 08 May 2005, 13:11
Location: Albany, NY
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#4 Post by danleff »

Actually, nduanetesh comments do apply. I have two systems that refuse to boot from USB sticks, although they do using the utility that came with the USB stick, formatted as a win boot disk. The issue seems to be the varying standards that a bios uses to boot from usb. They vary from bios to bios.

Add how syslinux uses the bios to boot Puppy and the possibility of having more than one partition on the USB disk from trying to use the key over and over (over-writing say a win boot formatted key with syslinux) and there you have it.

My key drove me crazy like this. PartitionMagic saw one partition on the disk, qtparted saw a corrupted key with multiple partitions. A different brand USB key gave me even more headaches. Good as a data disk, but nogo as a boot device.

The message you are getting often refers to the bios not seeing the boot sector as what it thinks it should be. Often you get this using the USB-HDD option in the bios. The bios sees the key but finds no boot sector/reference to an OS, or no operating system.

This has been discussed a lot in the older form as well. On my Asus board, the readme of one of the bios updates even mentioned that they removed the USB boot option!

Barry mentions this also. He notes that on some systems, the option that works is actually USB-ZIP. So you have;

1. The bios and how it sees USB key devices

2. How the key is formatted and it it is formatted correctly for booting.

3. How syslinux is designed to work with your bios to properly see and use the device as a boot disk.

4. The key's complaince to standards, say USB1 or USB2 and if the usb port that you are using is USB1 or 2 compliant. Often the onboard usb ports work better than added cards or hubs. Some hubs require external power to work properly, expecially on laptops.
I love it when a plan comes together

--Hannibal Smith

Guest

#5 Post by Guest »

Hmm...

I tried the same procedure with another Usb memory stick and then I got this short error message...

Boot failed

I don't know if this means exactly the same thing as the earlier message or if there may be some other problem here?!?

Another question... Can I put a boot loader on Puppy?

Regards,

/LS

visitor

Make Bootable

#6 Post by visitor »

It appears that installing Puppy to a usb flash/pen drive does not make the drive bootable. I used a fdisk from a FreeDOS bootfloppy to set the boot flag.
http://www.fdos.org/ripcord/beta9sr1/fdos1440.img

Guest

#7 Post by Guest »

I've already tried that, but it doesn't help :cry:

guest

Can't boot from USB key

#8 Post by guest »

This is what worked for me. I use a Sandisk Cruzer 128MB flash drive with puppy installed. First, I had to format the drive as a boot device. I found a free utility from HP that works with many other brands at this link:

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files ... 20306.html

My drive appears as a USB-HDD or USB-Floppy, depending on the BIOS of the computer that I boot from. Some older BIOS's won't recognize the USB drive at all. Note that I first tried FDISK and dos format commands under windows 98, before I found the HP utility. YMMV.

Guest

#9 Post by Guest »

May I just ask how you did it? If you format the drive as a boot device and then install Puppy on it, the boot files will be wiped out by the setup program!?!

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