Problem With Bootable USB Flash Media Builder

[chadorland]

Hello. I have just downloaded the trial version of Acronis Disk Director from Acronis website. I can create bootable media from Disk Director fine, but when I try to boot it from it, my system does not recognize it.

Here is my current system information:
Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45-UD3R
Flash Memory: Corsair 16 GB Flash Voyager
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 32 bit

In bios, I made it detect any USB including USB legacy... Furthermore, I set the boot sequency priority to USB-HDD > HDD.

From testing it out, I have found the following:
1. When choosing all the option when creating the media, the program will give an error message saying that the disk is full.

2. When choosing the full version, upon booting, the system does not recognize my usb flash drive and goes into the OS.

3. When choosing the safe version, upon booting, it says my usb dirve has non-system file or something like that.

Can anybody help me with the issue I am having? I spent more than a day trying to figure this out, but so far, it's not working. I even tried the diskpart method written by Acronis support.

Thanks in advance!

[K0LO]

chadorland:

Welcome to the forum. The issue that you have run into is more prevalent with large flash drives. Booting from USB flash drives is still somewhat of a hit-or-miss proposition and is highly dependent on your PC's BIOS among other things. If you have a smaller flash drive (2 GB or less) then you might try using Bootable Media Builder on the smaller drive.

Otherwise, if you want to get the Disk Director recovery program working on your 16 GB flash drive, the method with the highest probability of success is to make the drive bootable using Grub4DOS. Here is a simplified procedure:

1. Use the Bootable Media Builder application to create an iso image file instead of creating a bootable CD or USB flash drive. Include both full and safe versions of the software in the image.
2. Copy the iso file to your USB flash drive.
3. Follow the procedure from forum member MudCrab here (http://www.themudcrab.com/acronis_grub4dos.php) to make the drive bootable. Skip over Section 2 of his procedure and instead just follow Sections 1 and 3.

An advantage of this method is that you can preserve any of the files currently on your flash drive, so there is no need to erase or reformat the drive. Be aware that the trial version of Acronis Disk Director is limited - you will be able to test drive the software but it will only let you create/modify a very tiny partition (one cylinder or 7.8 MB). If you later decide to purchase the full version then all you need to do is to repeat steps 1 and 2 above to copy the uncrippled iso image file to the flash drive.

[chadorland]

If I use a flash drive of less than or equal to 2 GB, I should not have problem following Acronis media buillder?

Just out of curiosity, why do I need to use WIN 98SE for boot sector? Doesn't Windows Vista already has one?

Thanks in advance!

[K0LO]

-{ Quote: "If I use a flash drive of less than or equal to 2 GB, I should not have problem following Acronis media buillder?" }-Probably not, but due to variations in PC BIOS, booting from a removable USB flash drive is not a 100% sure thing. Also, some users have reported that Bootable Media Builder failed to set the Active flag on the first partition on the flash drive (I've had that happen to me once or twice, but usually it has worked OK).

-{ Quote: "Just out of curiosity, why do I need to use WIN 98SE for boot sector? Doesn't Windows Vista already has one?..." }-??? You should not need WIN 98SE. I'm not sure what you are referring to here. Could you provide a reference to the document that said you need WIN 98SE?

[chadorland]

-{ Quote: "Probably not, but due to variations in PC BIOS, booting from a removable USB flash drive is not a 100% sure thing. Also, some users have reported that Bootable Media Builder failed to set the Active flag on the first partition on the flash drive (I've had that happen to me once or twice, but usually it has worked OK).

??? You should not need WIN 98SE. I'm not sure what you are referring to here. Could you provide a reference to the document that said you need WIN 98SE?" }-

I am currently using Gigabyte EP45-UD3R motherboard, which from the looks of it, should support USB booting because in my bios, there is an option to set the priority of device booting and I see USB HDD and such. I am currently using verion 9.

I have tried using 2 GB of Sandisk Cruzer USB flash drive, my system could not detect the USB drive. That means, I am going to assume the Acronis media builder did not work. I also tried with 16 GB but the same result.

I must have confused with some other posts on Corsair forum about Windows 98 SE. Some people recommended Windows 98 SE for boot sector.

I will try your methold and let you know. By that way, if I use your software, will I be able to wipe them out once I am done with it?

[chadorland]

Hopefully, some one from Acronis will be posting replies too.

[K0LO]

-{ Quote: "...I will try your methold and let you know. By that way, if I use your software, will I be able to wipe them out once I am done with it?" }-It isn't my method but rather was developed by forum member MudCrab. Yes, if Grub4DOS does not work out, all you need to do is to delete the files that you added to the flash drive (grldr, menu.lst, and the Acronis ISO file). You can leave Grub4DOS installed to the MBR - it will not affect normal operation of the flash drive; it only affects the way that the drive boots.

If you want to completely eliminate Grub4DOS from the MBR of the flash drive then you can use Vista diskpart to clean the drive as described here (http://www.themudcrab.com/acronis_diskpart.php). The Vista diskpart method is an alternative approach that you could try, by the way, although using Grub4DOS has the highest probability of success for booting from USB flash drives.

[chadorland]

Diskpart only formats the drive though, it does not create bootable flash drive.

[K0LO]

-{ Quote: "Diskpart only formats the drive though, it does not create bootable flash drive." }-From Microsoft:-{ Quote: "clean [all]

Use the clean command to remove partition or volume formatting from the current in-focus disk by zeroing sectors. By default, only the MBR or GPT partitioning information and any hidden sector information on MBR disks is overwritten. If you specify the all parameter, each and every sector can be zeroed, and all data that is contained on the drive can be deleted." }-Diskpart replaces the MBR on the target disk with the standard Vista MBR, which boots the partition marked as "Active". From MudCrab's article:-{ Quote: "The version of the diskpart program that is included with Vista allows working with flashdrives. This is an easy way to get a flashdrive bootable and seems to work well. This procedure is posted in several places on various websites.

When you clean the flashdrive and then create the new partition, diskpart writes the Vista standard MBR code to the flashdrive. This sets up the flashdrive to be bootable regardless of whether there was any existing MBR code or not." }-

[chadorland]

-{ Quote: "It isn't my method but rather was developed by forum member MudCrab
The Vista diskpart method is an alternative approach that you could try, by the way, although using Grub4DOS has the highest probability of success for booting from USB flash drives." }-

Just letting you know, diskpart method did not work. I will keep you updated with my progressw ith Grub4DOS.

[chadorland]

Grub4DOS method did not work either...

[Acronis Support]

Hello all,

Thank you for using Acronis True Image (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/)

chadorland,

Could you please burn the standalone version of the program to a CD disk and try to boot the system under it? This will help to localize the issue. If you are able to boot the system under Acronis Booting Rescue Media burned onto a CD disk, please try the SYSLINUX method described here (http://kb.acronis.com/content/1526)

Thank you.

--
Oleg Lee

[chadorland]

I got 2 GB Sandisk Cruzer to work with Grub4Dos program using the ISO file. However, when I tried on higher capacity drive, it did not work.

I don't know if this has to do with my motherboard, flash drive, or the software, but it ignores my flash drives(16 GB Corsair Flash Voyager flash drive and 8 GB Patriot Xporter X drive) during booting.

None of the suggested method by Acronis Support did not work. What is up with that?

As stated the above by k0lo, it seems that the Acronis Media buiilder only works with flash drive less than or equal to 2 GB.

[K0LO]

-{ Quote: "...As stated the above by k0lo, it seems that the Acronis Media buiilder only works with flash drive less than or equal to 2 GB." }-I didn't mean to imply that. I know for a fact that there is nothing wrong with the Acronis Media Builder program on larger USB flash drives -- I have two 8 GB drives that it works fine with.

From what you've described, it sounds like the problem may be with your motherboard BIOS. Booting from USB removable devices does not always work like it should on all PCs. What you see -- booting works with a 2 GB drive but not with a 16 GB drive, or booting works with Grub4DOS but not with SYSLINUX -- are some of the symptoms of an incorrectly coded BIOS. USB has been out for years and this is still an area where not all manufacturers get this right.

Can you try your 16 GB drive on some other PCs to see if it boots on any of them? Also, could you check online with your motherboard manufacturer to see if they have a BIOS update? Some users on the forum here who have had similar problems have been lucky enough to find a BIOS update that fixes the problem. Others have not been so lucky.

What I don't understand is why CD boot works on virtually all PCs but USB boot is so hit or miss.

[chadorland]

I will try 16 GB drives on other computers. My friend has 32 GB Corsair Voyager and he tried on my computer and his notebook and it could not boot it.

I am currently running the latest BIOS, F9.

So you think it's the motherboard BIOS problem? What is funny is that it detects it, but it would not boot it. >:(