Emtec 16GB Flash Drive not detected in BIOS

Cross Bones · 22 Jun 2013

Hello. I bought a little 16 GB flash drive by Emtec yesterday because it was on sale for ten bucks at Office Max. I tested it out transferring a few music files from my laptop to my PC, and it worked like a charm. Around half an hour ago, I decided to see what it can really do. I used Unetbootin and loaded Damn Small Linux. I shut the computer down and opened up the BIOS Boot Options, and I was only picking up my computer's hard drive. Hmm. So I boot it as I normally would, and it went fine. Assuming it was that Linux black magic, I loaded a different distribution, and opened up the BIOS again. What the heck? The USB still isnt' showing up. I restarted a few times just to make sure it wasn't just a fluke, and it's still not showing up.
Any idea what's going on here?

jumanji · 22 Jun 2013

Cross Bones said:

....... I loaded a different distribution,..........

How did you do that if your Flash drive was not recognised on your PC?

Cross Bones · 22 Jun 2013

Sorry if I was vague, I loaded it onto the flash drive using Unetbootin on Windows.

jumanji · 22 Jun 2013

OK, I downloaded dsl-4.11.rc2.iso (50.4MB) - not the .syslinux.iso (50.5MB), from Index of /damnsmall/release_candidate/ and created the bootable pen drive with Rufus Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way and successfully booted into Linux.(.... I don't know how to use it.

)

Emtec 16GB Flash Drive not detected in BIOS-100_3376.jpg

So may be you are not creating the bootable pen drive right with Unetbootin. Suggest you try Rufus to create your bootable pen drive.

Cross Bones · 22 Jun 2013

No sir, Rufus and the file you recommended did not help one bit. I assume it's a problem with the USB drive. Is there any way to make my computer think it's a hard drive or something?

jumanji · 22 Jun 2013

If you think it is a problem with the Emtec drive, try my suggestion with any other pen drive not touched with UNetbootin

If you are unable to boot from the one time boot menu, try getting into BIOS setup and make the USB drive as first boot. ( I wouldn't advise meddling with the pen drive's firmware to emulate a HDD, though possible.)

Off to Auchan for Sunday shopping.

Cross Bones · 22 Jun 2013

Well, I've used Unetbootin for dual booting off my other flash drive, and I successfully booted Fedora and SliTaz, but my professor "lost" my old USB. The problem here is that the BIOS can't see my USB at all.

jumanji · 23 Jun 2013

Try the Rufus created bootable pen drive on another PC and check whether you can boot.

bobafetthotmail · 23 Jun 2013

some USB drives are seen as removable and others as hard drives. Make sure you are looking in both lists.

Cross Bones · 23 Jun 2013

Tried it in my 2001 Dell running XP, worked like a charm. This means it's something with my computer? And is there any way to record exactly what happens during startup?