[syslinux] Re: Trying to figure out why my Cruzer Micro 512"MB" won't boot.

[Nazo]

On 2/8/06, Nazo <nazosan at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2/6/06, Nazo <nazosan at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 2/6/06, Nazo <nazosan at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Office Depot ran a deal with a Cruzer Micro 512MB (actually, around
> > > 488MiB) for about $20 after a rebate I may not see for months.  I saw
> > > the ad yesterday and stopped by pretty well first thing this afternoon
> > > to snatch one up while they were still there since I've been having to
> > > make do with two 256MB drives to hold all the data I neded since one
> > > drive couldn't hold enough (though I must admit my rescue disc type
> > > stuff takes up most of that space that made me need another flash
> > > drive to hold it all.)  I really wanted to completely consolidate
> > > everything into one flashdrive and just sell the old drives or
> > > something.  Unfortunately, it just doesn't seem to want to boot.  I
> > > used the trick highlighted in the readme file on the fake USB-ZIP
> > > method because my bios is among those which can't boot a USB-HDD.
> > > This method has worked on my previous 256MB flashdrives and my bios,
> > > so I had good reason to believe it should have worked on this one.  I
> > > get no errors and windows and linux both work flawlessly with it, so
> > > the only conclusions I can draw is that either the bios absolutely
> > > does not recognize it as a valid boot device so skips it completely
> > > (which might explain why it instantly goes straight to the harddrive
> > > with no visible delay) or that the drive itself is not properly
> > > working as a bootable drive.
> > >
> > > Any idea if it's the drive or the bios?  Either way, is there anything
> > > I can do at all, or am I stuck having to keep carrying two flashdrives
> > > still?
> > >
> >
> > I'm sorry, I just remembered I could use my grandmother's computer to
> > test on another system.  Her's is an Intel chipset (can't recall which
> > one) P4 system made around the time they switched from RDRAM to DDR
> > SDRAM (sorry, can't be more specific off the top of my head.)  Anyway,
> > it too lacks the USB-HDD option in the boot options, but, also has the
> > USB-ZIP, so I tried my drive on it too.  While mine simply skips the
> > drive almost like it's not even there, hers freezes up on it.  I think
> > this proves the problem is more specific to the drive itself than my
> > bios.  I guess this means I'm stuck, but, just to be sure I would like
> > to ask if anyone knows of anything that might be done?
> >
>
> I did some searching on google and saw mention by various people of
> having tested a SanDisk Cruzer Micro 512MB with Syslinux and it
> working.  Probably the most notable one I found was from Puppylinux
> (or linux puppy or something with a puppy in it anyway) where they
> mentioned specifically what they'd tested with and what version of
> Syslinux they used.  They said they used version 3.08, so I tried
> that, but, it still doesn't work.  I don't think they tested it with
> the whole fake usb zipdrive thing though.  I'd bet on USB-HDD mode.
> Thing is, a bootable rescue is worthless if it won't boot, so I have
> to get it working in USB-ZIP mode and, for that matter, working at
> all.  If those people were able to get it working at all, I can't help
> but think that it must be physically possible to do so.  Is there
> anything I could have done wrong or just something that can be done
> differently that might make a difference?
>

Hi.  I'm ressurecting an old thread just to inform anyone who may be
interested that I have finally gotten my SanDisk Cruzer Micro to boot.
 I'm not sure if it was more luck than anything else or what. 
Firstly, I was using syslinux-3.20-pre6 (pre7 wouldn't run on the live
disc I was using) and the mkdiskimage which came with it.  I just used
the standard command "./mkdiskimage -4 /dev/sda 0 64 32" to make the
image, then used "./unix/syslinux-nomtools /dev/sda4" to install. 
Every now and then it doesn't boot unless I take the drive out and put
it back in just after the system has rebooted, but, now it does work.

If anyone is interested, let me know and I can send a clean disk image
for either examination or your own uses if you also have a Cruzer
Micro.  Just bear in mind that it's the 512MB image, so if you have a
1GB or 256MB drive it will end up giving you either a filesystem too
large to work or too small to properly utilize your drive. 
(Compressed the 512MB image comes to about 668KiB, so most e-mails
should accept it.)  It's a full disk image, so you'd just extract over
the whole disk, not just the partition -- this way it includes the
full partition table and all boot data.