The drive boots after all but only as far as grub. I found out earlier today that the grub menu comes up but it fails to find the file systems for booting the actual system. It looks like I will have to rebuild the grub configuration or something. So yes, you're right; the drive should boot and the MBR does work; it's just the rest of it that doesn't but that sounds more like a grub issue now rather than booting from the USB drive. Somehow while preparing this disk with the Arch Linux installer, I think grub's identification of drives may have been off or something. I almost wrecked my windows internal disk doing this some how but at least I salvaged that for now so I need to walk on some egg shells while doing this I guess. On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 05:34:31PM -0700, Lisa Kachold wrote: > If the drive is bootable, it will boot. > > Check the bios to ensure you have allowed boot from bios, and use spare > systems before rebuilding your drive. > > You should be able to fdisk -l /dev/sdN (or whatever it is) plugged in and > verify the boot. You should be able to verify your MBR and GRUB settings > also. You can always REPEAT setting up the MBR? > > If you can't boot it, it's not built. > > Rebuild with a better set of instructions! > > On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 9:57 AM, Stephen wrote: > > > newer machines should be able to boot directly to USB hdd just fine... > > just never have had a drive that really worked with that. > > > > On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 9:24 AM, Steve Holmes > > wrote: > > > That's rather annoying when some drive manufacturer forces us to leave > > > their junk on the drive when we wish to do otherwise with it. > > > Actually, my drive came out of an old laptop and I stuck it inside a > > > portable drive enclosure so I would think we should be able to boot > > > with it. I used grub to make this disk bootable or at least attempt > > > to do so. > > > > > > I might have to do a grub-install to the /dev/sda MBR but I hesitate > > > to do so at the moment. > > > > > > On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 07:25:08AM -0700, Stephen wrote: > > >> I have an external drive that has the same issue. in my case there is > > >> a small "firmware" that resides on the USB-PATA bridge that has about > > >> 3-400 MB of stuff on it and mounts as a CD. this definitely fouled all > > >> my attempts at booting to the device. > > >> > > >> On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 3:23 AM, Steve Holmes > > wrote: > > >> > I got a new machine which (of course) has Windows pre-installed and > > >> > I'm not ready to dump it entirely just yet so in the meantime, I built > > >> > out a complete Arch Linux 64-bit system on a portable USB external > > >> > drive. I also used or tried to use grub to set it up to boot. During > > >> > the original settup session, it appeared to do all this OK but I can't > > >> > get the laptop to recognize or boot from this device. I did not > > >> > modify the master boot record on my laptop; instead, I figured on > > >> > using the boot menu on the laptop to choose the USB drive; this method > > >> > works beautifully with an ISO image I burned to a small thumbdrive but > > >> > I cannot do the same with my larger USB portable drive on which I > > >> > installed Arch Linux. Do I have to do anything else to make this > > >> > thing bootable? > > >> > --------------------------------------------------- > > >> > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > > >> > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > > >> > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > >> > > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> -- > > >> A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from > > >> rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button. > > >> > > >> Stephen > > >> --------------------------------------------------- > > >> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > > >> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > > >> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > > --------------------------------------------------- > > > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > > > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > > > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from > > rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button. > > > > Stephen > > --------------------------------------------------- > > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > > > > > -- > Network Operations Center Engineer > Atjeu Hosting > > (503) 754-4452 > (623) 688-3392 > > http://www.it-clowns.com | http://www.obnosis.com > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss