samsung external SSD T5 not being recognized

[Alex Winter]

Hey I Have Installed qubes 4.0 on my Samsung External SSD T5 using a usb drive with qubes.iso, but I am having an Issue with it not booting up after install. I keep getting this error when trying to boot "No Boot device available". I can boot from the Qubes Installer fine that is on a diffrent usb. For my Bios I am using AHCI and with fast-boot disabled. My bios is set to legacy mode. I have tryed installing this on a different USB all together and It installed and booted up fine So I think it has to do with the SSD not recognizing it somehow. The Computer I am having this issue on is Dell Precision T7500.

I have two Partitions on the External SSD. One with qubes Installed and the other I was using for data storage for Windows.

I have looked into https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/uefi-troubleshooting/ but couldnt see much on legacy mode. I have tryed this section of the page with no success "Boot device not recognized after installing". Any Ideas on how to fix this?

[awokd]

You're right, if you're using legacy boot you won't find much helpful
information on the UEFI troubleshooting page. I'm assuming you're using
manual partitioning when installing to the SSD. Double-check your
settings, especially the one for your boot partition with Active flag,
against what the installer proposes if set to Automatic mode. You could
also back up the data partition on the SSD somewhere else and try to
install Qubes to the whole SSD (erasing the contents).

[al...@palcam.com]

> You're right, if you're using legacy boot you won't find much helpful
> information on the UEFI troubleshooting page. I'm assuming you're using
> manual partitioning when installing to the SSD. Double-check your
> settings, especially the one for your boot partition with Active flag,
> against what the installer proposes if set to Automatic mode. You could
> also back up the data partition on the SSD somewhere else and try to
> install Qubes to the whole SSD (erasing the contents).

I have tryed Backing up my data partition and installing it on the entire SSD but It still doesnt boot up. I have tryed on a diffrent PC and it boots up like normal so Im thinking its a setting possibly on the dell but not to sure. I was just using Automatic Partioning. When I look at a Partition manager in windows, It shows the active flag on the EXT4 Partition.

[awokd]

I agree, sounds like a setting on your Dell. Try looking for ones like USB
compatibility mode, USB HDD boot sequence, etc.

[Alex W]

> I agree, sounds like a setting on your Dell. Try looking for ones like USB
> compatibility mode, USB HDD boot sequence, etc.

What setting would make a Removable USB Flash drive boot up fine but not a External USB SSD?. I have went through the settings and I have everything enabled for USB. I can name a few here maybe something will stick out.

Integrated NIC = Enabled
USB Controller = Enabled
Parallel Port = PS/2
Parallel Port Address = 378h
Serial Port #1 = Auto (BIOS Selects between COM1 and COM3
SATA Operation = AHCI
SATA Drives = All drives are enabled
Multi Core Support = Enabled
HyperThreading technology = Disabled
Intel Turbo Boost Technology = Enabled
Intel Speedstep = Disabled
C States Control = Enabled
Hardware Prefetcher = Enabled
Adjacent Cashe Line Prefetch = Enabled
High IO Performance Optimization = enabled
Memory Node Interleaving = NUMA
Fast-Boot = Disabled

[bowl...@gmail.com]

Any luck?

[Alex Winter]

Not Yet. The Samsung External SSD T5 is being recognized in windows as a local disk but my flash drive(that boots up properly) is recognized as a removable disk so I think this might have something to do with it.

The Motherboard might not support booting from a local disk from USB. Im going to test this out in the next day or two if I can figure out how to do it/if its even possible to change it to a removable disk. This is the only thing I can think of at the moment. Here is some Specs of the Samsung T5:

========== Storage Volume on Disk 2 in Partition 1 ==========
MountPoint = G:\
Volume Label = ---
Volume Status = mounted
Volume Size = 1 TB / 931.5 GiB / 1,000,201,224,704 Bytes
Volume Size User = 1 TB / 931.5 GiB / 1,000,170,455,040 Bytes
File System = exFAT, 128 KB clusters, 1 TB free
Volume Serial = F79F-C088
File System Flags = CASE_PRESERVED_NAMES, UNICODE_ON_DISK
Volume Name = \\?\Volume{f6ba9200-7937-11e8-92b4-14feb5ef49eb}\
KernelName = \Device\HarddiskVolume7
Win32 Device Name = \\.\HarddiskVolume7
Writable = yes
GPT Attributes = hidden
Partition Name = \Device\Harddisk2\Partition1
Partition Device = \\.\Harddisk2Partition1
Partition Type = NTFS (0x07)
Partition Start = 0x100000
Partition Length = 0xE8E0A38200 (1 TB / 931.5 GiB / 1,000,201,224,704 Bytes)
Partition Align = 1 M
1st Cluster Align = 256 K
Disk Size = 1 TB / 931.5 GiB / 1,000,204,886,016 Bytes
Disk Geometry = 121601 Cylinders, 255 Heads, 63 Sectors per Track, 512 Bytes per Sector
Requested Align = 512
Disk Signature = 247B2A7A
Drive Type = fixed
Bus Type = USB
USB LocationIds = PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1A07)#USBROOT(0)#USB(3)
USB ContainerId = {2f4a6f70-7f6f-587a-9db6-8cef1963f5f6}
Device Types = ---
DeviceID Drive = USBSTOR\DISK&VEN_SAMSUNG&PROD_PORTABLE_SSD_T5&REV_0\1234567A02DC&0
DeviceID USB = USB\VID_04E8&PID_61F5\1234567A02DC
Device ID HostCtl = PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_3A3C&SUBSYS_026D1028&REV_00\3&172E68DD&0&D7
Host Controller = Intel(R) ICH10 Family USB Enhanced Host Controller - 3A3C
DevicePath = \\.\STORAGE#Volume#{bc3954f4-786a-11e8-a83d-14feb5ef49eb}#0000000000100000#{7f108a28-9833-4b3b-b780-2c6b5fa5c062}
FS Write Cache = no
Requested Power = 500 mA (bus powered)
USB Version = 2.1
USB Friendly Name = Samsung Portable SSD T5
USB Serial = 1234567A02DC
USB Port Name old = 8-3

-------------------------- Disk 2 --------------------------
Disk Size = 1 TB / 931.5 GiB / 1,000,204,886,016 Bytes
Disk Geometry = 121601 Cylinders, 255 Heads, 63 Sectors per Track, 512 Bytes per Sector
Requested Align = 512
Disk Signature = 247B2A7A (7A,2A,7B,24)
Disk Writable = yes
Trim Enabled = no
PtMgr DiskId GUID = {bc3954f4-786a-11e8-a83d-14feb5ef49eb}
Volume Count = 1
PartitionTable = MBR
Partition Count = 1
Partition1 Type = NTFS (0x07)
Start = 0x100000
Length = 0xE8E0A38200 (1 TB)
Align = 1 M
Kernel Name = \Device\Harddisk2\Partition1
Win32 Device = \\.\Harddisk2Partition1
File System = exFAT
MountPoint = G:\
Bus Type = USB
USB LocationIds = PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1A07)#USBROOT(0)#USB(3)
USB ContainerId = {2f4a6f70-7f6f-587a-9db6-8cef1963f5f6}
Drive Type = fixed
Device Types = ---
Device ID = USBSTOR\DISK&VEN_SAMSUNG&PROD_PORTABLE_SSD_T5&REV_0\1234567A02DC&0
Device ID USB = USB\VID_04E8&PID_61F5\1234567A02DC
Device ID HostCtl = PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_3A3C&SUBSYS_026D1028&REV_00\3&172E68DD&0&D7
Host Controller = Intel(R) ICH10 Family USB Enhanced Host Controller - 3A3C
USB Speed = High-Speed
USB Dev Max Speed = SuperSpeed
KernelNames = \Device\Harddisk2\DR3, \Device\000000b4
Win32 Device = \\.\PhysicalDrive2
DevicePath = \\?\usbstor#disk&ven_samsung&prod_portable_ssd_t5&rev_0#1234567a02dc&0#{53f56307-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}
Capabilities = 0x10 (UniqueID)
Removal Policy = surprise removal ('Optimize for quick removal')
Hotplug Device = yes
Hotplug Media = no
Removable Media = no
Command Queueing = no
HW Write Cache = no
Friendly Name = Samsung Portable SSD T5 USB Device
Requested Power = 500 mA (bus powered)
USB Version = 2.1
USB Friendly Name = Samsung Portable SSD T5
USB Serial = 1234567A02DC
USB Port Name old = 8-3