USB disk only recognized first-time

[ginganinga]

I booted up with plop cd (CD-RW), one internal SATA disk and one attached USB disk. The internal disk is always recognized. The USB disk only appeared once and never again. The first time I chose the wrong partition to boot on the USB disk, it searched for a while and told me it's not a boot partition and the disk disappeared from the list. Nothing I can do will bring it back (tried restart, power-off/on, boot disk in another machine, re-attach & reboot)... Has Plop written something somewhere that is advising it not to recognise the USB disk now? How can I reset things so that the USB disk is recognized again?

[Elmar]

The internal disk is always recognized. The USB disk only appeared once and never again.

when you want to say that the usb drive was listed in the main menu, then the usb drive was recognized by your bios and the boot manager has seen it as internal drive. but the boot manager did not use its internal usb drivers.

Has Plop written something somewhere that is advising it not to recognise the USB disk now?

no

[ginganinga]

My descriptions are not meant to imply any assumptions about anything. My BIOS will not boot from USB, that is why I am trying to use your plop disk...

My computer was shutdown with plop CD in the CD drawer, an internal SATA drive and an external USB drive.

The internal drive has 4 partitions, the external USB has 4 partitions (both drives contain complete Windows 7 64 bit operating systems).

The first time I booted the PC in this configuration, your disk booted bringing up the screen with the space theme showing a list with HDA Partitions 1 to 4 and HDB Partions 1 to 4 (ie 8 disk/partition items in the list). I selected HDB partition 2 in the list. After a few seconds, your program gave a message that this was not a boot partition (or something like that), all HDB partitions disappeared from the list and I cannot get them to show again

...so now whenever I boot the PC in exactly the same configuration (your CD in the drive, internal SATA hard drive and external USB drive all connected), the list of possible drives/partitions only has 4 entries - HDA Partions 1-4

I think that although Win 7 is installed in partion 2 of a disk, information required to boot is in partition 1, so it was an accident to select partition 1, but I have never been able to get your disk to show any HDB options in the list after that first time, it only shows HDA partitions (partitions of the internal drive) now :-(

[Elmar]

My BIOS will not boot from USB

this does not mean that you bios is unable to provide disk access support for usb drives

The first time I booted the PC in this configuration, your disk booted bringing up the screen with the space theme showing a list with HDA Partitions 1 to 4 and HDB Partions 1 to 4 (ie 8 disk/partition items in the list).

hdb is the usb drive provided by the bios. as i described in my previous post.

but I have never been able to get your disk to show any HDB options in the list after that first time, it only shows HDA partitions (partitions of the internal drive) now :-(

the boot manager shows in this list only the drives that it gets from the bios.


when you want to use the boot manager built-in usb drivers (that is currently somehow the only thing you can do now) then you have to use the "USB" boot menu option. i dont understand why you dont use that option. i mean its called USB, this would be the first thing that i choose when i want to boot from usb and the drive is not listed.

[ginganinga]

Please can we start again. I am lost somehow...

The question is simple:

Booting off your plop boot disk the first time showed me 2 attached disks, now it is only showing me one of the attached disks.

I have not changed anything. Both disks are still attached exactly the same as the first time I booted your disk and nothing else has changed except that I have tried to re-boot, so please tell me what I need to do to see both disks in the list again?

[jan4]

Hello ginganinga,

As Elmar has cleared out HD* does have NOTHING to do with USB boot
But some biosses have the possibility to make an usb drive available as normal internal harddisk.
If that is the case the usb drive will be available as HD* (possible HDB in your case).
If you boot that you are NOT using plop's USB boot drivers but passing boot back to the bios.

To boot using plop USB drivers you must use the usb option.
I think the partition that has the active flag set wil be boot.
I Don't know is it is possible to boot direct other partitions never dit that (grub on USB device can boot whatever partition i like) , look in the manual for that .

Hope this clears thinks out

Regards Jan.

[ginganinga]

So please forget about everything I said before - that was only to try and help to explain, but it seems to be confusing everyone instead...

I have only 1 question - if plop showed a list with all partitions from both attached disks one time, then why will it not show me the same ever again

[Elmar]

... but it seems to be confusing everyone instead...

I am sure, jan4 and I are not confused. we understand what you say.

I have only 1 question - if plop showed a list with all partitions from both attached disks one time, then why will it not show me the same ever again

the boot manager can show drives in this list only when the drives are recognized by the bios.

the questions should be "why does your bios recognized the usb drive only once". i cannot answer that question. take a look in you bios. i am sure there are options for usb.


however, there is still the way to boot the usb drive with the boot manager usb option, but you totally ignore that. i am sure you have your reasons.

[ginganinga]

I have managed to find a hidden option in my BIOS to boot from USB, so I am happily booting direct from the BIOS with no need for plop.

If I understand what you have said in previous posts, and I understand correctly what plop should do, the fact that my BIOS completely recognizes the USB drive and can boot it every time would indicate that there is something wrong with plop on my BIOS or configuration or whatever (or perhaps you prefer that I say that my BIOS or PC configuration or whatever is not compatible with plop). If there is anything I can do to help you understand the incompatibility, then let me know.

...oh and by the way, I think I understand that you have been trying to tell me that the "USB" menu item in your disk is supposed to be used to boot a usb disk using drivers that you have included with plop. Selecting that option popped up a window that appeared to try a number of things that all failed, so it was not obvious what "USB" should do. I kept selecting it randomly thinking that it may be configuring something that would make the USB drive available... In any case that obviously also fails with my setup.

Thanks anyway