Booting my A7N8X from USB

I have a venerable A7N8X Deluxe which has done sterling service since 2003.
I've never booted it off USB, but I have sometimes *accidentally* done so -
ie. left a USB stick plugged in and wondered why I was getting "NO SYSTEM
DISK" when I rebooted. (Removing the USB stick returned the system to
normal.)

So I know it can do it, but damned if I can get it to work now that I want
it to. I've tried all four USB options (USB-FLOPPY, USB-ZIP, USB-HDD and
even USB-CDROM) but nothing works. I've tried formatting my USB stick as a
hard disk (with MBR, partition table etc.) and also as a "superfloppy"
(all-in-one without partitions), and neither works. It just skips straight
past all three USB boot options and either fails (if "Boot Other Device" is
disabled) or boots GRUB from the SATA RAID set (if "Boot Other Device" is
enabled).

This isn't a question of whether my USB stick is properly formatted, is it?
I mean, if it wasn't, I should still get the "NO SYSTEM DISK" error, just as
I did by accident before. The mobo no longer seems to be checking USB
devices at all on boot, even though the BIOS says they're the first three
checked (USB-FLOPPY, USB-ZIP and USB-HDD). I've tried GRUB4DOS and Syslinux
to make it bootable (it's an Apacer Handy Steno which definitely *us*
bootable) - is there a foolproof app anyone can recommend?

Is there another BIOS setting that I'm missing?? I have the latest BIOS
(which I flashed not long ago - some time last year).

Is it something to do with my SATA RAID set? Linux sees my SATA drives as
/dev/sda and /dev/sdb, and my USB stick as /dev/sdc. Windows just sees the
RAID set as "disk0" and the USB stick as "disk1". Like I said, I've
"accidentally" had it try to boot from this USB stick before (and I had the
RAID set then), so I know it can be done.

Grateful for any hints - this is driving me nuts.

CC

What exactly are you trying to boot, on the usb, ie a boot disk?

"Magnate" wrote in message

>I have a venerable A7N8X Deluxe which has done sterling service since 2003.
>I've never booted it off USB, but I have sometimes *accidentally* done so -
>ie. left a USB stick plugged in and wondered why I was getting "NO SYSTEM
>DISK" when I rebooted. (Removing the USB stick returned the system to
>normal.)
>
> So I know it can do it, but damned if I can get it to work now that I want
> it to. I've tried all four USB options (USB-FLOPPY, USB-ZIP, USB-HDD and
> even USB-CDROM) but nothing works. I've tried formatting my USB stick as a
> hard disk (with MBR, partition table etc.) and also as a "superfloppy"
> (all-in-one without partitions), and neither works. It just skips straight
> past all three USB boot options and either fails (if "Boot Other Device"
> is disabled) or boots GRUB from the SATA RAID set (if "Boot Other Device"
> is enabled).
>
> This isn't a question of whether my USB stick is properly formatted, is
> it? I mean, if it wasn't, I should still get the "NO SYSTEM DISK" error,
> just as I did by accident before. The mobo no longer seems to be checking
> USB devices at all on boot, even though the BIOS says they're the first
> three checked (USB-FLOPPY, USB-ZIP and USB-HDD). I've tried GRUB4DOS and
> Syslinux to make it bootable (it's an Apacer Handy Steno which definitely
> *us* bootable) - is there a foolproof app anyone can recommend?
>
> Is there another BIOS setting that I'm missing?? I have the latest BIOS
> (which I flashed not long ago - some time last year).
>
> Is it something to do with my SATA RAID set? Linux sees my SATA drives as
> /dev/sda and /dev/sdb, and my USB stick as /dev/sdc. Windows just sees the
> RAID set as "disk0" and the USB stick as "disk1". Like I said, I've
> "accidentally" had it try to boot from this USB stick before (and I had
> the RAID set then), so I know it can be done.
>
> Grateful for any hints - this is driving me nuts.
>
> CC
>