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booting from USB
Hi, I am setting up a lab for vmware - well lab and some production stuff for my small company.
I have several optiplex 9010s to work with. So far they work really well, but I am now trying to streamline and also setup for vmware vSAN.
I want to boot from a USB drive - i.e. have ESXi loaded to my USB drive. After trying a few different thumb drives, I found the DataTraveler drive would be listed as an install drive when I booted ESXi install. So that worked, installed, but whenever I boot, I have to do an F12, and bring up the boot menu and select USB. If I don't, I get a screen full of multicolored characters and symbols for a second and then it reboots. I got the rest of the system working and decided to address this problem this morning. I thought if I went into the BIOS and boot section and removed all other boot devices so that USB was the only one listed that it would force it to boot from the USB as it does successfully when I bring up a boot menu using F12. Unfortunately this was not the case and now I can't get back into setup or F12... it never gives me the option. I found this out when I put a USB stick in to boot from and upgrade the BIOS.
So, two questions, how can I get back into setup?
what do I need to do to get this to boot by itself from a USB stick and not have to do F12? I could do the F12 each time... but I am also using DPM power mgmt to keep my electric costs down and if vsphere decided to spin the host up because it needs it, it ain't gonna happen.
Appreciate any advice on this you can think of, THanks!
RoHe
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November 24th, 2016 14:00
Not sure about your USB boot problem, but try clearing BIOS to see if you can restore the functions of F2 and F12:
wddossett
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November 25th, 2016 08:00
Hey thanks, that was what I was looking for most! I have ordered some cheap 8GB SATA drives and giving up on USB booting for now - 10 bucks each and save my self the hassle, thanks again for replying!
RoHe
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November 25th, 2016 16:00
You're welcome.
Did clearing BIOS fix the F2/F12 problem?
wddossett
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November 26th, 2016 09:00
yes it did, thanks... finally got a chance to try that today. Curious how it will boot from USB when I enter F11 and the boot menu but now when I configure it to do so.. but like I say I got some cheap sata flash drives off of ebay and that should do the trick for me. Thanks again
RoHe
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November 26th, 2016 11:00
Glad that clearing BIOS fixed the F2/F12 problem.
What USB port are you using when it won't boot directly from USB without having to use F12?
You can try this:
Set BIOS to boot from USB and then power the system off completely. Now connect the USB boot device to a rear USB port and power on. Will it boot automatically now? You may have to try several different rear USB ports...
wddossett
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November 27th, 2016 09:00
tried all 6 ports - some had slightly different results. one of them it just said there were no boot devices available... so not sure about that one, might be the one it would work from, or just won't. The others either give me the whole screen flashing characters for either a second and then it reboots or else it just hangs at the flashing screen completely and have to hold power button for 5 secs to get it to power down. Well, anyway, good to know my investment in SSD drives was probably necessary. Thanks again.