onederer Posted September 3, 2014 Share Posted September 3, 2014 That's right, I tried it in two of my machines. This laptop wll boot memory sticks, but not SSD's. Talk about compactness, these flat SSD's take no room, can be secured by simply flicking the switch on the card, to make it RO. I've got the 32bit Knoppix on one of those cards. It's supposed to be bootable, but the technology for my machines have not caught up with our times. Now, some years back, I saw some floppy disks which were by-passing the Bios, and allowed some items to bootup without any problems. With that in mind, I think that you already know what I'm getting at. Anyone of you know how to code something like that? For 32bit systems (to make it universal). Or, alternatively, anyone know of an existing program that can do such a thing? I have a 32bit Dell, with a USB SSD card reader pluged into the port. It can't boot SSD's. I have a 32bit Acer netbook. It too, can't bootup an SSD. I have (2) HP laptops, 64bit, and also, they can't bootup the flat memory cards. And the last of my running collection, is a 10.1" Acer Windows 8.1 tablet. Outside of being totally self-contained, with a full-blown OS inside, it is useless for the most part, using external devices in it's USB port. I have a hub into that port, and it connects a wireless keyboard and mouse (that works!). I have a 32GB memory plugged into that hub (it's only good to store and retrieve data (not bootable). I have a SSD memory card reader (it acknowledges the reader, but not the flat memories plugged into it. There is a slot for a micro SSD (not bootable). I cannot use an external USB HD, it won't boot it, but will use it as an external storage device. I cannot use an external DVD player (not bootable). Now, this tablet is supposed to be the cat's meow, (with 4 legs cut off). And look what it can't do! It also has an HDMI port (I've not tried it). This means that I cannot install an external Linux, and run it in this tablet. Same thing with running a movie from the DVD player. So, for all the people out there who would like to make their existing hardware more usable, there is a need to be able to bootup the above-mentioned items. What it will take is for one of you with the knowledge on how to cope with this, to kindly share it with us. You will make a big difference for us users. Cheers! Le svant n'as pas peure de demander des questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 I am confused... do you mean sd or ssd as there is not such thing as a micro ssd? If you mean sd, then it is identified as a usb drive and some distros load usb late in the boot process so the sd card will not be detected at boot. There are ways to change this but that depends on the distro. SD card (Secure Digital): SSD (Solid State Drive): 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onederer Posted September 4, 2014 Author Share Posted September 4, 2014 Well, put the card on a diet, and make it "sd". My mistake, nervous finger you know? As far as the image that you printed out, what am I supposed to do with it? How am I supposed to handle that? And what is it's actual function? Yes I was actually looking as a means of booting both, sd cards, and USB memory sticks. What is the limitation of this image that you sent me? Is that to be put on a CD or DVD? Or is that supposed to actually directly go on the SD or memory stick? I called up Acer. The female tech support, didn't seem to know much of anything. She told me of pressing some buttons when the tablet is booting up. I asked her, what buttons? A virtual keyboard is only active when the OS is totally functional!. I ended up being the teacher, instead of being the client. I got nothing out of them. The darn machine does not recognize USB hard drives, DVD player, memory stick, nor SD cards. It doesn't look like I'll get much help from Acer, in spite that the item is still in waranty until the end of Nov. I guess that she didn''t have a script for the questions that I was posing to her. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 Dunno if this is the model you have but: Can my Acer Aspire One boot off of the SD card reader? While the Acer Aspire One netbook is able to boot from its internal storage drive, the network card, and a variety of USB devices, the Aspire One netbook is unable to boot off of the multi-in-one card reader or, if equipped, the SD expansion slot. https://acer.custhel...sd-card-reader? Is it listed under the boot menu (F12)? If that doesnt work, you could install grub on a USB device and use that to boot off of the SD card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunrat Posted September 12, 2014 Share Posted September 12, 2014 I have a EeePC which boots fine from SD card. Pressing the Esc button on startup brings up a boot device menu. You probably need to install a boot loader on the SD card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onederer Posted September 12, 2014 Author Share Posted September 12, 2014 As it stands out now, I can't boot any external USB/SD devices. And that's due to the UEFI. The boot manager in the Acer tablet, is blank. No choices to boot anything. All the items, except for the DVD player, had Grub installed in it. And a "live" OS in the USB connected DVD player, will also not bootup. It's a terrible situation. Somehow he UEFI has to e defeated. HOW? I don't really know. I thought that now Grub was supposed to be able to handle UEFI booting. But it can't be proven from my end! Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted September 12, 2014 Share Posted September 12, 2014 Odd as my system is setup with uefi and I am able to boot off of usb drives just fine so maybe it is something else entirely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted September 12, 2014 Share Posted September 12, 2014 Some hardware vendors did disable those things in UEFI. UEFI Legacy boot hidden - tricks to unlock it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted September 12, 2014 Share Posted September 12, 2014 Oh, wow... I didn't know that. My bios is dual uefi which means that it can run in uefi or bios mode or both at the same time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted September 12, 2014 Share Posted September 12, 2014 Yep, many are thankfully. But not all are. Especially in tablets and in some netbooks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted September 12, 2014 Share Posted September 12, 2014 Yep, many are thankfully. But not all are. Especially in tablets and in some netbooks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onederer Posted September 13, 2014 Author Share Posted September 13, 2014 Acer doesn't like me! They saw me coming. Now, how can I overcome this problem? I thought that Grub now can deal with UEFI? Doesn't that mean that OS's that don't have UEFI, still should still boot up? I've got Grub in all the things that I tried to bootup. Oh well! Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted September 13, 2014 Share Posted September 13, 2014 Read the link I posted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhbell Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 Acer doesn't like me! They saw me coming. Now, how can I overcome this problem? I thought that Grub now can deal with UEFI? Doesn't that mean that OS's that don't have UEFI, still should still boot up? I've got Grub in all the things that I tried to bootup. Oh well! Cheers! If the OS you are trying to boot to is not UEFI aware it won't boot period unless you have a bios that has legacy in it to boot to a MBR. UEFI uses the GPT partitioning method. Also there are such things as Fast Boot and secure boot. With secure boot enabled you can't boot anything but a UEFI aware OS. I have a newer HP Laptop that Has Windows 8.1 and UEFI I multi Boot using Mint17, Ubuntu 1404.1. HP has it set up so Win 8.1 will not boot unless UEFI is enabled. I wrote a article about my experience with it. Linux, Windows 8.1, Dual Boot, UEFI, and a HP Laptop https://pctechman.wordpress.com/2014/08/28/linux-windows-8-1-dual-boot-uefi-and-a-hp-laptop/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 I wrote a article about my experience with it. Linux, Windows 8.1, Dual Boot, UEFI, and a HP Laptop https://pctechman.wo...nd-a-hp-laptop/ Nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onederer Posted September 24, 2014 Author Share Posted September 24, 2014 Thanks for the tip. Unf0rtunateoly, my tablet has no means of switching to another OS. The Bios is blank in that aspect. Only one boot, and that's t0 Windows. USB bootup is unkmown. This is why I was looking for some programming that (like days of old) would by-pass UEFI, before it starts up, and that software would overcome that problem. It rejects the booting of the DVD drive, which means that I can't even boot the Windows' rescue disk. As for a USB hard drive, forget it! It was a bad mistake to get that Windows powered tablet. I't too much of jealous OS. And that's a shame. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 It was a bad mistake to get that Windows powered tablet. I't too much of jealous OS. And that's a shame. Yeah that sounds about right... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 Thanks for the tip. Unf0rtunateoly, my tablet has no means of switching to another OS. The Bios is blank in that aspect. Only one boot, and that's t0 Windows. USB bootup is unkmown. This is why I was looking for some programming that (like days of old) would by-pass UEFI, before it starts up, and that software would overcome that problem. It rejects the booting of the DVD drive, which means that I can't even boot the Windows' rescue disk. As for a USB hard drive, forget it! It was a bad mistake to get that Windows powered tablet. I't too much of jealous OS. And that's a shame. Cheers! Most Windows 8 tablet computers are like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt.Crow Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 If you can get your hands on an external floppy drive *serial* and a 98 boot floppy . I just bet you will be in business. There has to be a hack . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebrke Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 (edited) Sounds as though my days of dual-booting will be over the next time I have to buy hardware--this is all sounding like way too much headache. Since I won't be able to afford multiple pieces of hardware, I'll have to decide whether to run linux or windows. And I'm sure I'd void the hardware warranty if I wiped windows. Bummer. Edited September 24, 2014 by ebrke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhbell Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 Sounds as though my days of dual-booting will be over the next time I have to buy hardware--this is all sounding like way too much headache. Since I won't be able to afford multiple pieces of hardware, I'll have to decide whether to run linux or windows. And I'm sure I'd void the hardware warranty if I wiped windows. Bummer. Not really. If you use a distro that is UEFI Aware or the bios on the motherboard will let you use legacy and MBR. I experaminted with my new laptop and UEFI I even formated the hard drive using MBR and MBR partitioning and setting the bios to legacy. I installed a couple of distro's just for fun. Everything worked fine. I then restored the Hard drive back to GPT and changed the bios to boot UEFI I booting 2 distros and Win8.1 using UEFI and GPT with Grub2 as my boot manager.Mel 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onederer Posted September 25, 2014 Author Share Posted September 25, 2014 For booting with this tablet, everything has to be external via the USB port. This adds another layer to complicate the situation. And for whatever reason, Acer didn't setup the bios to disable UEFI, or to boot anything external. I thought that if it wasn't an OS or software that didn't need booting, that should not have been a problem. But the USB hard drive, the USB DVD player, just spiin. Isn't there something that could be UEFI bootable, and then turn around, and enable non UEFI devices to boot? Is there a coder in this Forum that knows the ins-and-outs of software, and a run-around the problem? Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhbell Posted September 25, 2014 Share Posted September 25, 2014 What OS is on the tablet? Can you access the bios at all? Can you read CD's in the USB CD/DVD Drive? There use to be a program that you could install in windows and boot from windows. If you can read and write to a DVD then you could copy the DVD CD to the hard drive and install from there. I can't remember the name of the program. Can you press a key at boot up to get a boot order? There has to be a work around. If you can access the efi partition you could install the boot loader for grub or any Linux UEFI aware distro's boot loader for EFI there. Do you have restore disks for your tablet or a hidden partition to restore from? I assume you are using windows 8.0 or 8.1 on your tablet. if so they are using UEFI and GPT. BTW UEFI is not a Bios in the regular sense. I think maybe you should read up on the UEFI referred to as EFI and GPT. once you have a understanding of them you may be able to do a work around. If you have restoredisks that came with the tablet you could try to boot with them and maybe format the drive and use the MBR. The MBR at least in most UEFI / GPT setups is still there but used to tell UEFI to boot the software thats on the hard drive. generally there are the following partitions for a UEFI / GPT setup. Not all versions of windows can utilise a GPT however the first sector of a GPT is called a Reserved MBR for certain backward compatibility reasons. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted September 25, 2014 Share Posted September 25, 2014 Can you give me the make and mode so I can research it for you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onederer Posted September 25, 2014 Author Share Posted September 25, 2014 Hi. As I had posted before, it is an Acer tablet, 10.1", Windows 8.1, (1) HD port, (1) USB port, (1) earbud connector, (1) SD slot. Internal memory/storage. No hard drive. I can make the Bios show up by using the exteral USB keyboard/mouse, or playing with the volume/and the other button to force the Bios to show it's face. Contents = empty. No boot choices available. The CD/DVD just kept on spinning, nothing picked up by the OS. The hard drive kept on clicking with the head seeking something, but not picked up by the OS. The problem with the EFI aware OS, the Linux which supports it, I don't cherish to use it. And it doesn't seem that the hardware will do my bidding. I have restore disks, but at the moment, if the OS doesn't pick up the DVD player, then the rescue Windows 8.0 DVD is useless. Anything can be done using the browser and HTML, and the Internet. This would be one way to defeat the problem. How about a program that is UEFI aware, can bootup, and then take over, and transfer control to the USB perepherals? think that this is possible? This is just like the Windows 3 which external programs would bootup in floppy, and override Windows, and take over the system. I'm not smart enough in that dept. to do something about it. It would take an up-to-date coder/developer who knows his way around Windows' intricasies. It's too bad that when we buy something over the Internet, information is sparce, and only taking a chance will reveal the results. I guess that I got bit. No external USB dual booting possible for me! Whose fault? Acer? Windows? Or both? Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onederer Posted September 25, 2014 Author Share Posted September 25, 2014 The make is Acer. The model number is: Iconia|W510 it is a 10.1" screen-type. OS=Win 8.1. I don't yet want to go overboard with this unit. The warranty is still good 'till Nov 31st. And they aren't very helpful to overcome this problem. I'd really love to dual-boot with this tablet, and use a USB memory stick with a Linux OS in it. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted September 25, 2014 Share Posted September 25, 2014 Ok let me see what I can find. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted September 25, 2014 Share Posted September 25, 2014 Sorry, honestly I am not finding very much and my google-fu is strong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onederer Posted September 25, 2014 Author Share Posted September 25, 2014 Thanks for trying! Do you know Eric Turgeon? I don't, but he's the developper for that PC BSD, or is it the Ghost BSD? He's a coder and developper for BSD. Do you think that he could come up with a useful workaround? This fix could help a whole lot of people who are in the same predictamemt than me. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted September 25, 2014 Share Posted September 25, 2014 I do not but he sounds like he may be to help out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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