2950 can't boot from usb flash drive!!

Question

I have a pair of 2950's that cannot boot from a usb flash drive I have created. Both servers have the latest BIOS installed (2.6.2 I think). One is an original 2950, the other is a 2950-III. If I use the flash drive in one of our 1850's it boots up fine and appears to work correctly so I know the flash drive itself is fine. I have also tried another larger flash drive with the same results.

I have tried messing with all the BIOS settings I could find, even going as far as disabling all peripherals (RAID, DRAC, etc) or even physically removing them from the system. The only thing I encountered that might explain this is the USB Emulation setting. No matter what I do it ALWAYS gets stuck on the FLOPPY setting. I have a hunch that getting it to stick to AUTO or HARD DRIVE will make the flash drive work fine.

Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas on what the problem could be or how to do a full factory reset of the BIOS (in case some old setting is getting it stuck)?

Thanks

theflash1932 · Accepted Answer

If you want to reset BIOS, you can use the NVRAM jumpers ... http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/pe2950/en/hom/html/jumpers.htm#wp1054535

msgale · Answer

What makes you think a 2950 will boot from a USB Flash Drive?  I have a T410, that will - but my PE 1600SC will not (no BIOS Support) .

Dev Mgr · Answer

The 2950 definitely can boot from a USB drive; I've done it multiple times (even have run ESXi from a USB key in the back (pre-III version, when there was no internal USB port to put a USB key or SD card in)).

One note is that you may need to pick the option for the manual boot choice (for an OS install for instance), or if you want to permanently use it, plug in the USB key and only then power up, go into the bios, look under boot order options, and then specifically the harddrives section and pick the USB key to be the first harddrive.

reybeast1 · Answer

yeah, that USB flash drive type should be set to Auto. to reset the bios to factory settings, you can do an Alt-F.

nobodyyouknow · Answer

Finally got it to work. I ended up using the jumper pins to reset the bios to default and it finally let me choose AUTO for the flash setting. It's booting from the flash drive fine now. I guess after all the bios updates since we got the server some settings just got stuck in a weird state. Thanks for the help everyone.

Jett22 · Answer

On the inside of the case, follow the harness that tucks into the fan shroud to the left. Where this harness connects on the left, just in front of that connector is a barely visible usb port. Insert your bootable usb drive here. Then boot, and press f11, you will now see the usb on the boot menu. It took me a month of Sundays to figure out the only way to boot off usb on the 2970 was use the internal usb port.

Wardevour · Answer

To boot a 2950 to USB you must make sure the USB drive is plugged in before booting or the BIOS setting to change the USB emulation type will not show up. After this setting is changed to harddisk you must save and reboot back to the BIOS because only then will the option, to change the hard disk boot sequence to the USB drive, show up

Hilsec7 · Answer

Yes, Its working Thanks.

PowerEdge Hardware General

2950 can't boot from usb flash drive!!

Was this post helpful?