usb 3.0 issue

[burninbush]

I'll have to give some background first ... have two nearly identical Asrock-mobo machines here, both with AMD-II 3ghz cpus. Neither mobo has onboard usb 3.0 hardware.

 

So ... I've been reading recently about some very fast usb3.0 usbsticks -- "Super speed" rated. And mulling my upgrade choices so I can play with some of this stuff.

 

Then Newegg put some choices in front of me; a Patriot 16gb 3.0 stick that users reported seeing more than 125mB transfer speeds. With rebate, this beauty was only $6.00. Bought it.

 

Then found a pci-express usb3.0 interface card. Both my mobos have two pci-express sockets, one short and one long each.

 

I first played with the stick to make it bootable -- just did an install of Porteus 3.0, very simple. Tested it in my existing 2.0 ports, it boots just fine, and hdparm says it xfers at 22 mB / second. Which is just about as fast as any other usb2.0 device I have here. All OK.

 

Reboot with the card plugged in and the Patriot in a usb 3.0 socket. Sadly, my motherboard seems not to know that the card OR the stick is there. Looked in bios setup, there is zippo there that has anything to do with pci-express. Checked bios revs, both have the latest versions. Using the function key [during POST] to choose which device to boot from, does not offer to boot from the usb3.0 card.

 

Booted win7 and installed the supplied driver. Downloaded a benchmark program (ATTO) and checked the stick xfer speed, now flying along at 128mB /second**, very respectable. So I conclude that the stick is OK and so is the interface card [which is brand "Orico" model PFU3-2P]. Moved some files back/forth, it's easily the fastest usb device I've used so far.

 

But my dream of booting from the card is dashed, unless I can somehow get bios to know it's there.

 

Mint 17 linux running hdparm -t shows it at ~88 mB/second, in Porteus 3.0. Again, the fastest usb device.

 

All suggestions welcome. I can easily return the card for something else if anyone can tell me that some other brand/type would work.

 

Edit: ** later result, on the 4-core mobo, plugged into the longer 'green' mobo socket, produced read speeds of 168 MB/second. Which happens to be faster than either of my sata 1-tb harddrives.

Edited September 27, 2014 by burninbush

[mac]

My Gigabyte P75 motherboard came with USB3 drivers on the CD, and Gigabyte offers the USB3 drivers on their support website for the motherboard. Perhaps that is what you need? Also, you could check Patriot support for a USB3 driver. HTH

[burninbush]

My Gigabyte P75 motherboard came with USB3 drivers on the CD, and Gigabyte offers the USB3 drivers on their support website for the motherboard. Perhaps that is what you need? Also, you could check Patriot support for a USB3 driver. HTH

 

 

Hi ... I suspect that what I want is not possible; my original goal was to be able to boot from the usb 3.0 device, at the higher speed of xfer. But having tried the new stick and other bootable usbsticks plugged into the pci-express card, none of them appear to bios at boot time.

 

In the olden days, an add-in card might include a bios 'extension' that would cause the added interface to appear as a boot device. Common example would be a scsi card.

 

I was hoping someone here would know of some other pci-express card that is somehow bootable. I can't be the only one with this problem.

[crp]

In the BIOS setup, what are the boot up options?

[burninbush]

In the BIOS setup, what are the boot up options?

 

It's the usual; diskette, cd, hard disk, usb, network. You can choose boot order, and when there are multiple devices you can specify which has priority. But to the point, no usbstick either 2.0 or 3.0 is recognized by bios, either in setup or when I hit the F11 key to choose a specific boot device. Like it's just not there. Works perfectly in both Win7 and linux after the OS is booted from some other device.

 

I have sent an email query to ASrock mobo -- maybe they'll be able to say something specific.

 

I'm thinking it might be more appropriate to just upgrade the mobo to one with onboard usb 3.0 and SATA 3.0. Could probably re-use my existing memory and cpu.

[zlim]

When you click whatever keys you need to, to get a boot menu, what choices do you have there?

 

I thought for years that my eMachine was not able to boot from a USB stick because when I selected "removable" it would always say "no bootable devices". I was helping someone troubleshoot an inability to boot a Live Linus USB stick and on my eMachine selected hard drive in the boot menu. In that menu was listed my USB stick and I could finally boot from it! I was shocked that the stick was listed under hd and not removable.

[burninbush]

When you click whatever keys you need to, to get a boot menu, what choices do you have there?

 

I thought for years that my eMachine was not able to boot from a USB stick because when I selected "removable" it would always say "no bootable devices". I was helping someone troubleshoot an inability to boot a Live Linus USB stick and on my eMachine selected hard drive in the boot menu. In that menu was listed my USB stick and I could finally boot from it! I was shocked that the stick was listed under hd and not removable.

 

 

Ah ... well, that's the F11 key that I mentioned; all bootable devices that are plugged in and ready will be offered as a choice, it bypasses the usual boot preference settings. But a usbstick that boots fine when plugged into a usb2.0 port is not recognized when plugged into the pci-express card. Until I boot the computer some other way, after which files on the bootable stick can be accessed OK.

 

I'll add that the mobo is very friendly about booting, for example I can boot from a SD card that is plugged into a card reader that is connected internally to a mobo usb port. Same for a CF card and a defunct mp3 player gizmo.

 

I have even prepped the stick for booting while it is plugged into the new pci-express port [i.e., installed Porteus onto the stick from win7] -- after which a restart with the new stick still plugged again fails to boot. But then when I move the stick to a usb2.0 port, it boots fine. So I think all the hardware is working OK, just that the mobos' bios doesn't recognize the added pci-express interface.

 

There may be some other brand of pci-express card that would do what I want -- I was hoping somebody here would know of such. I can't tell (from the adverts on newegg) that any of the other cards offered would behave different from the one I bought.

[crp]

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10074599/booting-from-pcie-usb-3-0-expansion-card

 

http://www.computing.net/answers/hardware/how-do-make-a-pci-express-card-bootable-/84323.html

 

yeah, a little long-in-tooth but probably still applicable.

[burninbush]

http://stackoverflow...-expansion-card

 

http://www.computing...ble-/84323.html

 

yeah, a little long-in-tooth but probably still applicable.

 

 

Thanks for the links. I believe I have that exact situation -- no extension rom on the card, and the lack of that shoots down two of the usage schemes I had in mind at the beginning of the adventure. Oh well.

 

No biggie, I've made worse mistakes in my time.