vostro 400 "boot error" from usb key

Has the BIOS been enabled to boot from USB?  I don't recall if that option is off by default or not.

Cheers, Dave

porkfat,

In the bios, what options do you see in Removable Device Priority? The USB key is plugged into a USB port on the rear of the PC?

I see the key in the bios.  If I use F12 during boot to get the boot menu, the first thing in the list is a USB-ZIP FD type entry.  There's a little activity light on the key, too, and when I attempt to boot from it, the light blinks nicely, so it's being tried.

 

I was using a USB port on the front of the box, but using one on the back makes no difference.

 

I imagine that seeing the key in the boot sequence list means it should be bootable?  Or is there another bios setting hidden somewhere that could be getting in the way?

It sounds to me like you have everything set OK to boot, perhaps the device isn't configured with the boot files needed.  I've not had a lot of luck with USB booting myself.

Oops, I've been meaning to say it's got bios revision 1.0.11.  Apparently 1.0.13 is

available, but I looked at the changelog for it and there was nothing about "usb".

Not wanting to brick my work computer I don't particularly want to flash the bios

unless I know it's going to help.

 

Otherwise, it's a vostro 400 -- quad core, 4gb of ram, unspecial graphics card.

The 4gb key's configured with a single partition, so nothing special there.

 

Has anyone booted off a usb key with a vostro 400?  Maybe I've gotta

install lilo on the key rather than the default grub that comes with fedora?  But remember, the key

works fine on all sorts of other systems. 

Hi porkfat,

 

did you try to start booting from USB stick without any other device activated for boot ? 

 

At least your problem could be fixed by a BIOS update( also when nothing about "USB" is mentioned in the changelog ;) ), but it could be helpful to set BIOS after BIOS update via F9 to defaults...)

There's no change if the usb's the only thing activated for boot.

 

This key works on a modern dell precision -- another quad core beastie with 4gb ram.

But still no joy on the vostro.

 

If anyone's been able to boot a usb key on a vostro it might be good to know what was on the key and the

bios version!  I'll hold off on updating the bios for the moment. 

I have 2 vostro 400's here with the same problem.  I have a ubuntu persistant live usb drive I made following these directions..   http://www.ryancloke.com/ubuntu-804-hardy-heron-live-usb-how-to 

 

It will boot on most current computers but the vostro's just say "boot error".  One I updated to the latest bios today also.. no change.

 

Odd.

 

sam

OK -- it's good to know that a bios update doesn't help.  I'm still monitoring

this thread and haven't found a solution.  Darn shame!

 

It's a very old thread, but for the record, the Vostro 200 cannot boot from USB either. Bios versioon is 1.0.16, from 04/27/2010.

The solution I found to be able to boot from usb drives was to install the plop boot manager (I did not replace my grub with it, although it is possible; I added it as one of the grub boot options).

So I boot to grub, then have the options: Linux, Vista, Dell Diagnostics partition, and Plop. Go to Plop, and select USB.

Of course it does not work for booting from USB if I have a HD/grub problem and want to use a live pen drive to rescue it.

 

 

another usb booter user with problems here

 

 

i updated bios to 1.0.15 and still i cant boot from either a usb key ( BOOT ERROR) or an HDD external disk, with a long error about disk not being bootable.

 

Good thing is, vostro 400 is the only PC where i CANT boot, even vostro1500 can boot.

 

 

HELP!

Same issue with Inspiron N5010 , i5 4GB

Tried with multiple Usb key creator, got same error every time boot error

And after lot of research over internet I came to know its incapability of Bios only.

Even latest bios is not latest enough .

Please rply if someone got any fixes/solution 

Hi, depending on the USB drive, I managed to boot my Vostro 200:

1 - (as I posted before) With a Sandisk Cruzer 8GB created from Kubuntu's Startup Disk Creator, using Plop boot manager called from Grub2 (not a good solution, as you need grub2/plop starting from the hard disk anyway)

www.plop.at/.../index.html

2 - With 32GB pendrive (recognized by lsusb as ID 13fe:3d00 Kingston Technology Company Inc.) created with Yumi (www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator), recognized by the Vostro 200 BIOS boot menu as a "Hard Disk/USB-HDD0 USB DISK 2.0 PMAPCa", I could finally manage to boot directly from the Dell boot menu by configuring the BIOS as: Integrated peripherals -> Usb device setting -> Usb operation mode -> Full/Low Speed (instead of High Speed).

Interestingly, without this setting even with plop it is not possible to boot this 32GB pendrive (plop doesn't even load the menu).

Apart from being big, the main difference I see in the 32GB pendrive is that Yumi creates a NTFS filesystem right on /dev/sdX (no partition number).

This BIOS setting does not help with the Sandisk 8GB, which has proper partitions, and is recognized by the boot menu as "Removable/USB-ZIP0 Sandisk Cruzer".

You guys might try this combination (Yumi-created boot pendrive, Full/Low Speed BIOS setting) with different pendrives and post your results. With Yumi it is possible to create b

oot pendrives for Windows bootable ISO images too.

Joao S Veiga

Sandisk Cruisers have the CDROM emulation junk on them.

No way to disable or remove this.