Deleted flash drive by mistake--back up copy will not boot. SOLVED

I was upgrading from 4.5.4 to 4.7 stable. When I was trying to delete one of the files on the flash drive to copy a file from 4.7 I deleted all contents somehow....

Before I started, I made a copy of what was on the flash drive (4.5.4) and saved to my desktop computer. ....I am trying just to get the server to boot with my old copy of 4.5.4 and it will not boot.

I have tried reformatting flash drive. Copy the files from desktop to flash drive. Right click on the "make bootable" run as administrator and eject flash drive.

It will not boot up server. 

Any suggestions.

Did you format it as something the BIOS can read? Such as FAT32? Is the boot partition the first (and in the majority of the cases) and only partition? What does the BIOS say when you're trying to boot from it? Have you tried going into the BIOS and forcing a boot from the flash drive (When I reformat my drive my BIOS changes the boot device back to my network card)?

Etc...

Ya, The instructions say use default format...that didn't work. I even tried fat 32.... when I loaded the the flash drive with an unrelated program

http://www.afterdawn.com/software/system_tools/misc_system_tools/memtest86plus_exe.cfm

It will boot this up..so I think the bios is correct. I think it is something with the copied files or making it bootable.

Bump for help..

Exactly what message(s) are you getting on the screen?

Did you get the boot selection menu That unRAID displays before beginning the autoboot of unRAID? 

Could you take a picture of the monitor screen at the point of failure?

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Here is a pic of the files on my flash drive. I did a long format (default mode on win7) copied these files to the flash drive and right click and ran as administrator the make_bootable labled windows batch file. ejected flash drive.

Plugged flash drive into server booted up and this is what happens.

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If I load only 4.7 download and run as admin make _bootable this is what happens.

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Your pictures show the system doing a POST startup test. Your USB drive hasn't been booted at that point. Regardless of the unRaid version you have installed, the USB drive is not booted up.

Check your BIOS settings again, make sure it's set to boot from the USB key. It was probably reset when you took the key out to reformat it.

If it really is set to boot from USB then try doing the format from a DOS prompt instead of using the Windows Shell Extension.

Run cmd.exe as admin.

At the DOS prompt change to the USB drive.

Run make_bootable.bat

Close the DOS window and eject the key properly from Windows.

Put the key in your unRAID box, Boot, Enter setup and check to see that the USB is set as the first drive to boot.

Make any changes and Exit setup to continue booting.

Should I be formatted for fat or fat32?

fat32

you will need to make it bootable again.

when opening the cmd prompt - make sure to open it as a administrator

the way i do it is in the search box off the windows start button - type cmd

then when you see it in the list, right click and run as admin. 

then go to your drive letter for the usb and run the make_bootable batch file

make sure when formatting - you name the usb drive unraid.

Myk

then go to your drive letter for the usb and run the make_bootable batch file

I get to h:\>    which is where the flash drive is. What exactly do I type?

I type

make_bootable.bat

but gives me the same Attrib error message.

the attrib error message is because "cmd" is not being run as administrator

ATTRIB %windir%\system32 -h | FINDSTR /I "denied" >nul
IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 (
ECHO.
ECHO This script must be run as an Administrator.
ECHO.
ECHO Right click and select 'Run as administrator' or execute
ECHO from an elevated command prompt.
ECHO.
GOTO exit
)

you can right click on make_bootable and select run as admin

Myk

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you can see in the pick i right clicked run as administrator when I opened CMD...look at top of pic.

what happens if you open a cmd prompt and just type attrib?

the program should be in c:\windows\system32

Myk

 

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you can see in the pick i right clicked run as administrator when I opened CMD...look at top of pic.

If this is the full directory of your flash drive, you are missing the ldlinux.sys file.  The absence of this file will prevent unRIAD from booting.)

If that file is on your flash drive, will your flash drive boot  in your windows machine?  (You will have to set the BIOS to boot first from a USB drive.  You will not damage your windows machine by just booting up.)

should I take the ldlinux.sys from my 4.5.4 copied file and put in with the downloaded 4.7 file?

should I take the ldlinux.sys from my 4.5.4 copied file and put in with the downloaded 4.7 file?

My bad.  After looking at the distribution files and at a working flash drive, the ldlinux.sys file is evidently created when you successfully run the make_bootable.bat file.  If you don't have the file, something is wrong with the way the file is being run. 

^^^^^^^ u didnt answer my post - what is the output of the attrib in a cmd prompt window - its acting like your missing the attrib program from windows....

Myk

OP, since you claim that attrib doesn't work, try modifying this in your .bat:-

Line 7 is by default:-

ATTRIB %windir%\system32 -h | FINDSTR /I "denied" >nul

Change that to:-

%windir%\system32\ATTRIB.exe %windir%\system32 -h | FINDSTR /I "denied" >nul

Or, if you're sure that you're running it as administration, just delete lines 7 through 17, so, delete this:-

ATTRIB %windir%\system32 -h | FINDSTR /I "denied" >nul
IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 (
ECHO.
ECHO This script must be run as an Administrator.
ECHO.
ECHO Right click and select 'Run as administrator' or execute
ECHO from an elevated command prompt.
ECHO.
GOTO exit
)

OR the final way to make the flash drive bootable is to run the required command manually. But a note of caution is required.  Be sure that you are know EXACTLY what the drive letter is for your flash drive.  Executing this command line on the wrong drive could turn your Windows machine into a brick.  (That is why LimeTech has provided this script to check that to see that the flash drive is the target and the user has administrative privileges.)

In your reply No 11 of this thread, the picture shows that your flash drive has the Drive Letter of      J:\

If you determine that this Drive Letter assignment is still true, the command that you need to run in a cmd window as Administrator is:

J:\syslinux.exe -ma J:

Of course, if you find that the Drive Letter assigned has changed, you will have to change the 'J:' to that assigned letter.  I did test this  (With the proper drive letter assigned to the flash drive that I was using) and it does make the flash drive bootable. 

If attrib is not recognized then you have broken Windows. You should fix windows or you are going to have other problems besides just your unRAID.

In command prompt, type

path

and post the result.

You should have system32 somewhere in the result, probably C:\Windows\system32

If it is there, type

dir %windir%\system32\attrib.exe

and post the result

if you right click on H: from "My Computer" do you get the eject option? if not, then you have to edit make_bootable.bat and change "-ma" to "-maf"

you guys are not paying attention to what he is saying - he FORMATTED the usb stick - it is no longer bootable no matter what - the make_bootable.bat is failing the the attrib command.  He needs to fix that problem 1st.

Boot order etc will make no diff until he gets the syslinux to a bootable state on it....

Myk

you guys are not paying attention to what he is saying - he FORMATTED the usb stick - it is no longer bootable no matter what - the make_bootable.bat is failing the the attrib command.  He needs to fix that problem 1st.

 

Boot order etc will make no diff until he gets the syslinux to a bootable state on it....

 

Myk

That's exactly what me & trurl are talking about, please read the thread first.

Is this what he needs to do first?

to make the flash bootable?

or, http://www.intowindows.com/bootable-usb/

If his PATH is screwed then DISKPART will do the same as ATTRIB, "not recognized". In any case, exactly what he needs to do is run make_bootable.bat . That is the simplest way and less prone to error than trying to do it manually.

He's got 2 threads going about this and has not given us requested information so we can help.