usb flash drive problem

I am trying to make a usb flash drive bootable for use with Acronis true
image. I have done it successfully with a small usb drive ( 1gb ) but I want
to do it on an 8gb drive so I can load the image file from Acronis onto the
flash drive also.
When I try to do it using the make bootable media ( same way as with the
successful smaller drive ) I get the errror "no bootable partition in table"

 

I have further discovered that on the 2 usb flash drives which don't work, when I boot into partition magic, the flash drives are shown with a partition table error 105 and also 106. I cannot find any way to format them with partition magic to get rid of these errors.
On the one usb drive which does work then pm shows no problems.
It seems clear that this error is stopping TI making successful boot media out of them but how can I proceed?
Thanks,

 

What version and build of TI are you using?

You might try my FAT32 PEtoUSB "empty" image (see signature link).

Some versions of Media Builder have problems with larger flashdrives.

 

True Image Home® version 11.0 (build 8,027)
One driver is 8gb and the other is 1gb.
The only one which works is 512mb

 

I've tried TI 10 and TI 11 with a 4GB flashdrive and it worked okay. You might also want to consider updating to build 8,053 unless there's a specific reason you're sticking with 8,027.

 

I tried Mudcrab's excellent suggestion to create the partitions and now the usb drive can boot up the computer . However, I want to load the tib file also onto the usb drive and i see that the procedure has created 2 partitions on the drive- a small one and a larger one apparently holding the mbr.
I cannot format or load the tib file onto the larger partition.
Mudcrab, what is the solution please? I think I will be there shortly.
Many thanks !!

 

When creating the bootable USB hard drive following the guide, you should have a small (normally) FAT32 partition for the Acronis files and a large NTFS partition for the backup storage. The MBR is contained at the very start of the drive and not in either partition.

Can you please provide details on your partition layout or a screenshot from DD or Disk Management? Does the second partition show up as an NTFS partition or is that area of the drive shown as unallocated space?

What version of Windows are you using?

 

I am using winxp pro sp2. Attached is the screen shot showing remaining partition as unallocated.
I think I may have solved the problem by reading and reading again Mudcrab's tutorial.
I use the first image file and then when restoring the image ( tib file ) I did it in the 2 steps - first resiziing the first partition to a larger ( 7gb) size and then second part - restoring the mbr etc.
I am guessing that I know have to put the tib file onto this first larger partition and then boot up and restore this to the target pc.
I am not in my office and therefore unable to test just now .
Am I now right Mudcrab ?
Many thanks !!
-keevill-

 

You can have the first partition larger if you want to store images there too, but since it's FAT32 the maximum filesize is 4GB.

Normally, the first partition (the "Acronis" partition) is small (maybe 100-200MB) and just holds the flashdrive files. The second partition (the NTFS) partition then occupies the remainder of the unallocated space on the drive.

 

but how can I make the second partition ntfs ? When I use your procedure, and use the default size it comes out as unallocated and I am unable to store anything on that partition.
I can only manage to store my tib files on the first partition so I need to make that as large as possible.
-keevill-

 

I have successfully boot from a SanDisk Cruzer Countour 8GB.

It works with NTFS and FAT32.

 

keevill:

Windows XP will only see the first partition on a USB flash drive. So even though you can put many partitions on your flash drive, and you can format and use them in other operating systems (like Linux, for example), Windows will only be able to see the first partition. So perhaps your best bet is to create only one 8 GB partition on the flash drive.

The two-partition scheme described by MudCrab works well on USB hard disks. Windows will see both partitions on an external USB hard disk but not on a USB flash drive.

 

OT slightly, but is booting from a flash drive significantly faster than booting from a rescue disk or, as I do, a VistaPE disk? My VistaPE disk works very well, but is a bit slow as it examines the hardware setup and a speedier solution would be welcome.

 

Earthling:

Booting the safe mode version of TI 10 from a USB flash drive takes only 10 seconds or so. Booting VistaPE from a USB flash drive is about 4 times faster than booting it from a CD on my machine.

 

4X would be worth the effort. I'll see if I can do it. Thanks

 

Post #17 in Mustang's Guide Thread has one way to do this. You can start at step 3.

 

Your instructions clearly worked, but despite having everything correctly set in BIOS it seems my MD8818 just doesn't like booting from flash. It starts, fails to boot, offers to boot from the next device (CD, then HDD), and still fails to boot until the flash drive is removed.

I've also got an external 80GB. If I bump and shrink the existing partition up by a GB or two and create a new partition in the gap, can I then use the same process to make my external bootable into VistaPE? I don't need to set it as a boot priority as F8 allows me to choose the boot device.

 

Earthling:

Can your PC boot any flash drive? If so, make sure that the VistaPE partition on the flash drive is set as Active.

I've never tried a build of VistaPE on a USB hard disk so I don't know if it will work. If you decide to try, the partition that you choose for VistaPE will have to be active unless you use a boot manager. If you decide to use a boot manager, Grub4DOS is recommended. This is the boot manager used on the VistaPE bootable CD and is easier to work with than regular GRUB.

 

Putting VistaPE on a USB hard drive works fine. I have setup several in testing as well as an internal drive and my eSATA/USB2 drive.

Basic instructions can be found here.

However, if your computer has problems booting from a USB flashdrive, it may also have problems booting from a USB hard drive.

 

The partition is Primary, Active but it doesn't boot and just passes on to the next boot device. It doesn't boot in an older XP PC here either - the boot record is recognised, but it doesn't get any further than that - just hangs.

Back on the Vista PC I've also tried a second faster flash drive and my external drive . All show the same, so I can only assume this comp just isn't going to boot from any USB device despite apparently giving the option to do so.

Thanks for the help though Mark, very educational if ultimately a dead end.

 

Earthling:

How did you create a partition on your USB flash drive? Windows Disk Management? Acronis Disk Director? Partition Magic? Other?

You might want to give MudCrab's troubleshooting guide a try before giving up. Once you can get the flash drive to boot the rest is a snap.

 

I formatted it from Vista, FAT32

 

Then that's the reason you're having problems. Windows does not create a standard partition table and MBR on the flash drive and booting is hit or miss. Try one of MudCrab's blank TI images as a starting point.

 

okay, I'll have a go. Might not be tonight but I'll be back with the results.

 

It doesn't look promising. Tried the first of MudCrab's empty partitions and then the file copying and bootsect.exe bit but the response is identical to before on both computers.

The VistaPE disk I'm copying from works correctly on both machines.

That'll do for this evening, and thanks again.