Question

Computer won't boot with USB Disk Pro flash drive plugged in, but it will with my "older" flash drives. Why?

Asked by: CaptainPickard

I just unplug it & reboot and I'm fine. Just wondering why. The USB Disk Pro flash drive does have a separate small partition on it with a small file called lockv101.exe, which I assume is for password protect on your pc, but dunno if that extra partition would cause it or not. Other flash drives don't have this partition.
Size of this new flash drive is 4GB. "Olde" ones are 512 & 128...

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Asked On
2006-05-22 at 08:00:32ID21859230
Tags

usb

,

disk

,

boot

,

pro

Topic

General Computer Systems

Participating Experts
5
Points
500
Comments
15

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Answers

 

by: irwinpksPosted on 2006-05-22 at 08:05:30ID: 16734865

If the 512 & 128 let you boot OK.. then it is by DESIGN of the 4gig that prevents you from a normal startup.

 

by: CallandorPosted on 2006-05-22 at 08:20:13ID: 16734988

USB drives are essentially part of the network that PCs "see" on bootip.  If there is something (like a password protection setup) which prevents anyone from looking at the drive, the boot system won't be able to see it either and hangs waiting for a response.

 

by: irwinpksPosted on 2006-05-22 at 08:23:09ID: 16735020

@CaptainPickard...by DESIGN, I  meant what Callandor described.

 

by: CaptainPickardPosted on 2006-05-22 at 08:27:43ID: 16735067

I forgot to point out that the drive's password protect exe file was never installed, and the bootup hangs at the motherboards splash screen...

 

by: irwinpksPosted on 2006-05-22 at 08:28:47ID: 16735071

does this exhibit the same results on another computer?

 

by: CaptainPickardPosted on 2006-05-22 at 08:44:04ID: 16735198

Now that you mention it, it does hang on my fancier computer, saying in the echo report, Auto-detecting USB Mass Storage Devices....after four entire minutes it finally lists the 2 partitions, then throws me into CLS with a blinking cursor in the corner and after another four minutes it finally said to Reboot and Select proper Boot device or insert Boot Media in the selected boot device and press a key

 

by: garycasePosted on 2006-05-22 at 09:14:00ID: 16735473

CaptainPickard -- In the absence of an MBR defining an active partition other than the 1st partition on a drive (whether it's a hard drive, flash drive, or whatever), the BIOS boot code can only boot from the first partition on a device.   Since your flash drive has this additional partition, that explains why it won't boot from it.   However ... it does not explain why the system would hang for such an extended period; as it should simply "go on" to the next device in your BIOS boot order.

I'd suggest you boot into your BIOS setup and disable the BIOS splash screen -- this will let you see the messages from the BIOS during the POST execution.   Then reboot with the flash drive installed and see what messages you are getting ... this may provide a clue that will help resolve this.

 

by: garycasePosted on 2006-05-22 at 09:25:31ID: 16735602

Note:  the last link on the following page is to a utility (PC Lock) that will eliminate the additional security partition on your Disk Pro so you have a single partition for the entire flash drive:
http://patriotmem.com/support/driversp.jsp

 

by: irwinpksPosted on 2006-05-22 at 11:39:50ID: 16736756

@captainpickard...if garycase' last comment doesn't work...then you can't...it's viable software to use. Was there a need to boot off the USB flashdrive or just that you didn't want to constantly remove and put back the device on the USB port?

 

by: Dark720Posted on 2006-05-23 at 06:35:49ID: 16742233

In the Bios there is a boot preference menu.

It seems that when your flash pro is in the slot it picks that disk up as bootable but stalls.

If you have no need for booting from USB then enter the bios setup screen.

Somewhere you will find (advanced bios menu usually) Boot preferecnce or First boot device.

Order it so USB is not before HDD0 and it will not boot from usb, causing your stalls.

HDD0 or Primary Hard disk is where your main OS usually resides.

 

by: CaptainPickardPosted on 2006-05-27 at 06:37:15ID: 16775436

I was able to get rid of the pesky additional partition with the link from garycase.
In deference to irwinpks, the USB still is STILL demanding to be a boot drive! (after partition elimination!)
Dark720 - why my fancy system is still wanting to boot from it is a mystery, BIOS is clear from USB boot

Thanks to all!

 

by: irwinpksPosted on 2006-05-27 at 09:41:01ID: 16775873

cool... thank you.. sorry about the bad news.

 

by: garycasePosted on 2006-05-27 at 13:23:00ID: 16776642

"... BIOS is clear from USB boot ..." ==>  Do you mean there's no USB boot device in the boot order?   ... or that you've disabled "USB Boot" ?   Many BIOS's have a separate setting for "Enable USB boot" -- not even on the same page as the boot order in some cases.   If this is checked, it will often precede any of the "boot order" preferences.   Just something to check ...

 

by: CaptainPickardPosted on 2006-05-27 at 19:11:50ID: 16777735

No provision to disable/disable USB Boot

 

by: beojanPosted on 2008-02-14 at 10:28:14ID: 20895798

The real problem here is that the virtual 1.44meg floppy drive is being used as a boot device, but with no boot files, the bios is hanging, since when any floppy is formatted under windows, it gets a DOS bootsector

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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