Booting from a USB stick

[spendorman]

I have been testing out (and using) different distributions of Linux by installing them on USB sticks. This must be for around two years.

In the last couple of days my machine won't boot from any of them. The USB installations boot on other machines, so there is nothing wrong with them.

It's just on my desktop machine. The stick is recognised is the BIOS boot manager and it all begins to load, then just stops.

I have tried different USB sockets, and reset the BIOS.

I am at a loss to know what has happened.

Any ideas?

[dave2010]

spendorman

Can you still boot from hard drive or from a CD or DVD?

[spendorman]

spendorman

Can you still boot from hard drive or from a CD or DVD?

Oh yes, using machine to type this now.

[Stratmangler]

I'm assuming that the USB connections are on the motherboard - are they being recognised in BIOS ?
Or is there a powering issue with the USB conections ?

[spendorman]

I'm assuming that the USB connections are on the motherboard - are they being recognised in BIOS ?
Or is there a powering issue with the USB conections ?

Yes USB sockets are mounted on motherboard, all working in Windows and the USB stick(s) is/ are recognised and booting starts (get the Linux start screen) but then it stops loading. This is the same on several sticks with different Linux. These same sticks boot on my laptop.

No the USB powering is OK, can run external mechanical HD from them and my scanner that draws a fair amount of power.

Funny one!

[Welder]

I don’t know how you’ve got your PC set up Alex; partition per distribution, virtual drive, etc.
You may have partition allocation problems. It’s certainly worth a check.

Linux as you probably know uses grub and this sometimes messes up mbr.

Try running this from a disc rather than USB to a) check your partitions and b) reinstall mbr.
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-next-generation.htm

I tend to run experiments in a virtual drive so any problems hopefully don’t effect anything in the main installation.

[spendorman]

I don’t know how you’ve got your PC set up Alex; partition per distribution, virtual drive, etc.
You may have partition allocation problems. It’s certainly worth a check.

Linux as you probably know uses grub and this sometimes messes up mbr.

Try running this from a disc rather than USB to a) check your partitions and b) reinstall mbr.
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-next-generation.htm

I tend to run experiments in a virtual drive so any problems hopefully don’t effect anything in the main installation.

Perhaps I missing something, but I am trying (as was) booting from the USB stick, surely whatever is on the internal drive is unimportant. I am going to disconnect the internal HD now to see if this makes any difference.

[spendorman]

Perhaps I missing something, but I am trying (as was) booting from the USB stick, surely whatever is on the internal drive is unimportant. I am going to disconnect the internal HD now to see if this makes any difference.

Just disconnected the internal HD, just the same result. USB stick is recognised and machine starts to boot. Linux Mint words displayed with the running dots underneath is there. But the dots just keep running, and machine does not boot.

[spendorman]

Just did another BIOS rest, and guess what, all working now.

Thanks to everyone who took the trouble to post.

[aquapiranha]

Glad you got it sorted. So, is it Spendor or Radford? :lol:

[spendorman]

Glad you got it sorted. So, is it Spendor or Radford? :lol:

Both, Quad too and even Williamson!!!