Operating system not found when booting from USB

[David47295]

Hey everyone!

So I'm trying to install FreeNAS 9.10.2 onto my Dell XPS L50X2 laptop, but for some reason, my laptop keeps displaying the message "Operating System not found" whenever I try to boot from my USB flash drive even though the install went on without and error. I'll explain what steps I took so that maybe it can help with finding a solution.

1. Downloaded the .iso file from the main FreeNAS website.
2. Used rufus to create a bootable USB drive on some random 2GB USB I had lying around.
3. Plugged the previously mentioned USB and my other 32GB Sandisk USB into my laptop and booted into the USB with the FreeNAS installer.
4. Installed the OS onto my Sandisk USB and finished with no errors
5. Restared my laptop and removed the USB with the installer
6. Aaaaand... laptop tells me "Operating System not found"

A thing to note is that the HDD in my laptop does have Ubuntu and Windows 10 on it but I don't think that should interfere with FreeNAS since that OS is on a separate USB drive. Any ideas on why this is happening? Thanks!

 

[joeschmuck]

Are you using UEFI or BIOS for the install? BIOS is more compatible.

Additionally, if you are just playing around with FreeNAS, I recommend that you run your Windoze 10 and install something like VMWare Player and then create a VM of FreeNAS and play with it. You will really hate yourself if you destroy your laptop hard drive.

 

[David47295]

I'm using BIOS, I think. When you say that do you mean that option in the wizard where it asks you choose you boot mode to be either "Boot from UEFI" or "Boot from BIOS"? Because I'm choosing the BIOS option. Also I'm alright with wiping my laptop hard drive on accident, it was my old laptop and doesn't hold anything important. Though I'll try to avoid it still!

 

[joeschmuck]

Your laptop may not recognize the 32GB USB as being bootable if it's older. You could try a 4GB USB drive.

 

[David47295]

The laptop isn't too old. I remember I was able to boot into it using the same Sandisk drive when I was installing Ubuntu a while back. But I'll try that. Curious question though doesn't FreeNAS require 8 GB of space minimum or is that just a recommendation?

 

[joeschmuck]

The 8GB of drive space recommended for the FreeNAS boot device is based on maintaining a few different boot environments on the device. Early on people would not clean up old boot environments and it would lead to bad things. We started to recommend a larger boot drive. Now the software should remove any old boot environments automatically. But a 4GB drive is just fine, it just doesn't leave much leftover space for but a few updates.

 

[David47295]

Ah I see. Neat! Also a little update, so I tried running my FreeNAS OS on my main desktop rig just to see if it works, and it does! It also works on my newer laptop as well. So my guess as to why FreeNAS can't be identified on my older laptop is probably something to do with the motherboard and how it may not be compatible in some way. Not entirely sure though.

 

[joeschmuck]

Try the smaller USB drive. But it may not run either.