Solved Emtec 16GB Flash Drive not detected in BIOS

[Cross Bones]

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]

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

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

 

[Cross Bones]

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

 

[jumanji]

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.)



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]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[bobafetthotmail]

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

 

[Cross Bones]

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?

 

[Eblim]

Maybe your USB ports aren't actually "on" until you're actually inside the operating system. For USB to function without an operating system, USB Legacy must be enabled. This can be enabled within the BIOS screen in which you can toggle enable/disable. Good luck!

 

[Cross Bones]

Erm, which tab would that be under? My computer is a post 2006, meaning that I press F10 to enter the BIOS screen, if that helps.

 

[Eblim]

I'm not sure, everyone's BIOS is different based the motherboard manufacturer and model. Just in some way, you need a way to enable your USB ports without having an operating system.

Someone showing USB Legacy support: PC Bios Explained - USB Legacy support - YouTube

 

[Brooklyn67]

BobaFettHotmail may be correct.

some drives are seen as a harddrive, in this case right click computer and choose manage

then select disk management and see if it is there, it will probably NOT have a drive letter, you will have to assign it.

if it fails to show up regularly in your windows explorer you will have to set how its viewed by windows in its properties.

Its probably set up as a harddrive which will have write cache enabled. Set it for fast removal (aka removable drive)

Under hardware >> Usb device >> policies

 

[Cross Bones]

Fixed! It booted successfully, and is running perfect! Thank you!

 

[Brooklyn67]

Was it a bios or windows issue?

How did you fix it?

 

[Cross Bones]

Sorry, that's probably a good thing to say. I just went into my BIOS and moved my USB up on the Boot Order.

 

[jumanji]

Glad your problem is resolved.