GA-73PVM-S2 (Rev1) USB Boot problem

[BobMac]

Greetings,

Got this MB recently. Good piece of kit, but the "Boot From USB" will
only work with a small flash drive (128Mb).  A 2Gb flash drive won't
boot - nor will an external USB HDD.  The small one is fine. what's
going on?

I asked GigaByte tech help a week or more ago, and so far they
don't seem to have even read my mail.

Anyone tell me how to get this thing to boot properly from USB?


Thanks,
Bobmac

[oggmonster]

Are all USB options enabled in the BIOS? Are you using latest version of BIOS?

[BobMac]

I'm sure I have the correct options selected. The MB boots from the small (128Mb) USB flash drive okay.

If I write exactly the same boot info to a larger flash drive (2Gb) it won't boot.

The Bios is F2. There is an F3 revision, but this appears only to be a CPU ID update.


BobMac

[oggmonster]

A BIOS update could be worth a try... Have you tried changing the USB memory type from shadow to base? Have you tried formatting the pen drive in different file systems + different allocation unit sizes?

[BobMac]

USB memory type from shadow to base  -  don't have that option in my BIOS.

Different allocation units  -  XP's format app doesn't allow this.

I'm using the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, which produces a working
boot system on my 128Mb pendrive.  Same install doesn't boot on the
larger pendrive.  HDD with Linux on it, which works fine internally, won't
boot on an external USB caddy either.


BobMac

[oggmonster]

Just out of interest what exactly are you trying to get to boot from usb? Could well be a glitch the with hp disk storage tool?

[BobMac]

At the moment I'm simply trying to get ANYTHING to work!  For initial testing
purposes, I've used the HP utility to install isolinux boot info - and it works
fine on the small pendrive.  That's the killer here, it works great on a 128Mb
pendrive - but install exactly the same on a 2Gb pendrive and it won't boot!

Thanks for your help, by the way. Apologies for not adding that before.


BobMac

[oggmonster]

What if you try running a memtest on your 2gb drive http://www.memtest.org/download/4.00/memtest86+-4.00.exe.zip Pretty sure you just plonk the .exe onto a usb stick then set to boot from USB.

[Elemental_Dragon]

Funny you should say this because I have teh same problem with this utitlity with my current pen drive.... (8GB Dane elec)

Boots on every other PC I try with but my Gigabyte X58-UD4P doesn't like it at all

Just using my camera memory card atm in the monitor card reader... Although I wonder if it's a communication issue.... will try unplugging the card reader thent rying to boot form my pen drive (dunno why I didn't think of that actually)

~Bex

[Beekeeper]

I'm sure I have the correct options selected. The MB boots from the small (128Mb) USB flash drive okay.

If I write exactly the same boot info to a larger flash drive (2Gb) it won't boot.

The Bios is F2. There is an F3 revision, but this appears only to be a CPU ID update.


BobMac

try with newest bios, as not all fixes are mentioned at their website

[oggmonster]

What if you try running a memtest on your 2gb drive http://www.memtest.org/download/4.00/memtest86+-4.00.exe.zip Pretty sure you just plonk the .exe onto a usb stick then set to boot from USB.

The reason for doing this btw was seeing if memtest will boot from your 2gb drive...but while you're at it you may aswell test your RAM 

[Badbonji]

Weird issue, I would check for a Beta BIOS or google the issue to see if others have found a fix.

I can boot from my USB drive on my extreme, on a fairly old BIOS (F5???)

[BobMac]

I tried the memtest prog, but no change. Elsewhere, I saw a suggestion that
if the pendrive had two (or more) partitions then this would make it look more
like a HDD to the BIOS. So far I've not found a utility that will do this.

Just about out of ideas!  This one may have to hang until I can afford
to buy a different make of MB - this GigaByte one isn't impressing me
a whole lot 

Thanks for all your suggestions.


BobMac

[oggmonster]

Really strange...you could try partitioning it using Windows' built in Disk management?

[BobMac]

No, the XP disk Management tool won't allow you to partition a pendrive.
You can format it etc - but only as a single drive.  I've tried Paragon
Partition Manager which will allow me to make a second partition, but
will only let me format and mount the Primary one!

Got to be a MB issue. It seems very picky about what USB devices
it will boot from. And don't you know, I've got the wrong ones 


BobMac