2

I have an old Medion MD 8818 desktop PC with MS-7318 mobo with Phoenix AwardBIOS 6.00PG.

I'm attempting to run Zorin OS 7 Core on it, but the PC won't boot my 32GB Sandisk Cruzer Switch USB stick that I prepared using Universal USB Installer and the Zorin ISO.

The BIOS auto-recognizes and lists the stick as a removable device, and I've specified removable device as first boot option. During boot, I see the stick listed before my (SATA) HDD, but it won't boot.

Using Trinity Rescue Kit 3.4 in the single drive connected to the end of an IDE cable, I can copy files between the stick and my HDD.

Prepping the stick with other things like FreeDOS and attempting to boot from floppy using a FreeDOS DVD also gives me the "isolinux: Disk error 01, AX=0201, drive 80" error, which should be coming from the stick as the HDD only has Windows (of which I renamed bootmgr to keep it from booting) and I believe FreeDOS doesn't use isolinux.

Why am I getting this error? I fear it might be my BIOS, despite it apparently recognizing the stick, as I've read terrible things about updating a BIOS from a DVD.

4
  • Can you check the Zorin ISO with md5 to make sure you have a good download? If so, I'd try with a different USB stick. I personally don't think the BIOS is faulty here.
    – schaiba
    Jul 20, 2013 at 14:52
  • The MD5 is correct. This Toshiba 8GB USB stick is recognized by Windows 7 as removable drive. The Sandisk was recognized as local drive. One of these machines is wrong. I'll manually try the Sandisk as HDD on the Medion again.
    – Cees Timmerman
    Jul 20, 2013 at 16:50
  • Setting the Sandisk 32GB USB stick as HDD instead of auto-detected FDD mode worked. I guess that old BIOS was mistaken.
    – Cees Timmerman
    Jul 20, 2013 at 17:04
  • TDK, rather than Toshiba. Also, the BIOS doesn't like to boot FDD sticks.
    – Cees Timmerman
    Jul 23, 2013 at 20:12

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

Setting the Sandisk 32GB USB stick as HDD instead of auto-detected FDD mode worked. I guess that old BIOS was mistaken. Unfortunately the BIOS update only runs in Windows. (Should i try it in Zorin?)

Windows 7 recognized the USB stick as local drive correctly, it turns out. Weird.

1
  • Setting the Removable Media Bit to 0 allows Windows to see all partitions.
    – Cees Timmerman
    Jul 21, 2013 at 21:39

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .