[syslinux] USB boot problems on Gigabyte GA-M55Plus-S3G

Ady
2014-01-14T09:44:19Z

>
> Now things get even less far.
>
> Now my BIOS gets down to the point of printing its standard message:
>
> 	Boot from CD/DVD :
>
> and then immediately, in the very next line, I get this message:
>
> 	Invalid partition table
>
> and then the system is just hung.
>
> I hope that helps!
>
>
> Regards,
> rfg
>
>
> P.S.  As I was rebooting with the USB stick I created via the process
> you described/suggested/recommended/requested above, I took a quick
> moment to first go into my BIOS Setup menus and looked there to see if
> the fresh USB stick was or was not listed in the BIOS's Hard Disk
> boot Priority list.  (See above regarding the significance of this.)
>
> It was _not_ so listed.  Thus, the fact that booting failed is not at
> all surprising, based on this one fact alone.
>
>

I am probably misunderstanding something. We seem to go backwards.

"Something" changed. If you now cannot see your USB drive in your
list (press F12 during POST), there is no point on redacting
instructions.

The following conditions are the ones that should give us the higher
chances to have your USB drive bootable:

_ Standard MBR;
_ Only ONE partition;
_ The partition formatted as FAT32;
_ The partition is marked as "active" (AKA. "boot"able) in
the MBR.

Then you need to have the content of the Clonezilla Live ISO (or the
zip archive) expanded / extracted / copy (choose your favorite term)
in the FAT32 partition.

Can you confirm this is the current situation? Can Windows Explorer
see this content?

Boot into your BIOS settings. Look for something similar to SATA or
IDE or NATIVE or AHCI mode. There might be more than one setting
regarding this mode(s). Is it set to something like "IDE compatible",
or "AHCI" or "RAID"? Please post your BIOS settings.

In your BIOS, is the USB controller enabled? Is USB 2.0 enabled?

In your BIOS, is there some "onboard IDE controller" setting? Is it
enabled?

I am not asking to change any particular setting. I just want to
understand the current situation.

With the USB drive connected, boot the system and use F12 during
POST. Can you still see your USB drive listed somewhere? Possibly
under HDD or under USB-HDD? Where is it listed?

We must regain the possibility to at least *potentially* boot to the
USB drive before attempting any additional instructions.

Please use the above paragraphs / questions so to clarify the current
situation. According to your answers, we might know how to go on.

Regards,
Ady.