Question USB 3.0 flash drive, booting problem ?

[rdindir]

Hello All,

I have an old Acer Aspire E15 E5-551G laptop which has 2 x USB 2.0 ports and one USB 3.0 port.

I was using the usb3 port with a usb2 flash drive, and was booting (UEFI) linux (besides windows), and it is working fine. I have a GPT partition scheme, and 2 partitions, one for EFI, and one for data (for backups) on the 16G/usb2 flash drive.

Since this flash drive is 16G and I am using this also as a backup, I bought a new flashdrive that is 64G and is usb3. I have created a EFI partition, and a data partition on that drive, as I had on the 16G/usb2 flash drive.

Here is the strange thing. When I use the 16G/usb2 flash drive on any of the usb ports on the machine (usb2 and usb2 ports) the system identifies the flashdrive as a UEFI drive and is able to choose that drive and start loading my linux system.

But when I connect the 64G/usb3 flash drive to the usb3 port and restart my system, the system (firmware) does not recognize the 64G/usb3 drive as a UEFI drive, and boots into windows. But if I connect the 64G/usb3 flash drive to one of the usb2 ports, it is recognized and I can boot up my linux system.

Now this is puzzling. I was thinking that usb drives might be the same, and the system would have recognized both UEFI drives (16G/usb2 and the 64G/usb3 flash drive) and boot into my linux system. It turns out that this is not the case.

Would anybody have an idea what might be the reason for why

1. The 64G/usb3 flash drive can not be detected when connected to the usb3 port on the system, but can be detected, and booted from when on a usb2 port?
2. Why the 16G/usb2 flash drive can be used on any of the usb ports (usb2 or usb3 ports) on the system and be recognized and be able to boot from.

Any ideas would be welcome.

Best Regards
riza

 

[boohoo2u]

Do you have your laptop plugged in and power turned on when trying out the usb3 port?

 

[rdindir]

Yes. The laptop is plugged in. And my battery is also on the laptop. Did not remove that.

It does not look right, but it seems as if the firmware is not able to use usb3 devices for some reason to boot. Sounds really not logical.

Or my UEFI setup is not correct. But that would mean that I should not be able to use that usb3 flash drive at all. But when the I plug the 64G/usb3 flash drive to one of the usb2 port on the system it boots (UEFI boot) and I even can see the drive in the boot menu.

Really strange.

 

[CountMike]

Some system just can't boot from USB3. Did you try with a live Linux on it ?

 

[rdindir]

That is what I was suspecting.

I had also other problems on this hardware. There is the problem of not being able to boot from a second sata hdd in place of a cdrom drive (which is where my linux system is). Hence the usb for booting linux using UEFI.

Trying a live linux on it might be another thing to do. I already have put it in use for my backups, but will try that when I get a chance. Have to back these up to my HDD and install a live linux on it to try.