Trying to setup FreeNas but can't boot from USB

[Dom Buxton]

Hi All,

Brand new to this, but trying to set up my dads old computer as a NAS. Has reasonable specs:

AMD Athlon x64 4000+ processor
2GB RAM (which I plan on upgrading, Mboard supports up to 8)
Motherboard is an ASROCK am2nf6g-vsta

I've followed the Lifehacker guide and downloaded the USB image from http://www.freenas.org/download-freenas-release.html

and then used 7zip and win32 disk imager to create the image.

I put it into the computer and change bios setttings, removing all options apart from the USB drive and try and restart, but I get a black screen with the message "Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key."

I've tried the USB drive in another computer and it works.

Can anyone help with this?

Thanks,

Dom

 

[vikingboy]

Honestly Id start by helping yourself first by reading Cyberjocks how-to guides before you spend more time on this. If you are struggling booting from USB sticks you are in for a world of pain.....

 

[Dom Buxton]

I can boot from a USB stick, just not on the computer that I'm trying to install it on. Any ideas why it would work on one machine but not the other?

 

[pirateghost]

If the computer you are trying to install it on doesn't boot to USB, you have a hardware problem. I wouldn't trust my data on something of that nature

 

[joeschmuck]

Likely all you need to do is configure your BIOS properly. Ensure you have set that the USB device is treated like a hard drive and then ensure the USB device is the first boot device. If you don't know how to do this then FreeNAS is over your head.

2GB of RAM is not enough to run FreeNAS. You might be able to run version 8.0.4 on UFS formatted disks, but that is about it.

 

[Dom Buxton]

I just needed to enable Legacy support for USB devices. Forgot about that as it wasn't my computer. All sorted now (I think!)

Thanks for the advice. I know I need more RAM, I just want to check I am able to set it up before I spend any money on it.

Thanks again,
Dom