grubinst.exe could not make a backup of MBR of disk #3

[paraffin]

I have succesfully used WinSetupfromUSB on a 4GB drive however I am trying to use a 16GB one now and its failing with the message

grubinst.exe could not make a backup of MBR of disk #3

Log file below... Can you use this size of USB stick?

2009/10/12 12:30:19- WinSetupFromUSB 0.2.3 started

2009/10/12 12:30:19- OS: WIN_XP Architecture type: X86 ServicePack: Service Pack 3 OS Language: 0409

2009/10/12 12:30:19- Getting USB drives information

2009/10/12 12:30:19- Found USB Physical Disk: Corsair VoyagerGT USB Device -- \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE3

2009/10/12 12:30:19- Found USB Disk Partition: Disk #3, Partition #0

2009/10/12 12:30:19- Found USB Logical Disk: L: File system: NTFS Bootable: -1

2009/10/12 12:30:19- Found USB Disk Partition: Disk #3, Partition #1

2009/10/12 12:30:19- Found USB Physical Disk: WDC WD25 00JB-00REA0 USB Device -- \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2

2009/10/12 12:30:19- Target drive selected- L:

2009/10/12 12:30:19- Drive letter of the active partition in selected disk- L:

2009/10/12 12:30:19- Total target size avialable- 15231 MB

2009/10/12 12:30:19- Checking sizes...

2009/10/12 12:30:19- Total source size- 0 MB

2009/10/12 12:30:19- Target space available- 15231 MB

2009/10/12 12:30:25- Checking sizes...

2009/10/12 12:30:25- Total source size- 709.8 MB

2009/10/12 12:30:25- Target space available- 15231 MB

2009/10/12 12:30:25- Windows source selected- H:\Windows 2003 x64

2009/10/12 12:30:25- Source version- Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 Edition

2009/10/12 12:30:25- Service Pack- Service Pack 2

2009/10/12 12:30:25- AMD64 flag- 1

2009/10/12 12:30:26- Removing TEMP folder

2009/10/12 12:30:26- Checking if grub4dos is installed properly

2009/10/12 12:30:26- grub4dos BS/MBR and files are NOT installed properly

2009/10/12 12:30:26- Installing grub4dos BS/MBR and files

2009/10/12 12:30:26- Backing up MBR of disk #3

2009/10/12 12:30:26- C:\WinSetupFromUSB\files\grub4dos\grubinst.exe -s=mbrdisk3-20091012-123019.dat -t (hd3)

2009/10/12 12:30:38- grubinst.exe could not make a backup of MBR of disk #3

2009/10/12 12:30:38- ---------------------------------Program quited-----------------------------------------------

[jaclaz]

Can you use this size of USB stick?

Yes .

http://homepages.tesco.net/J.deBoynePollar...no-answers.html

Under which OS are you running?

grubinst may find a locked drive under certain conditions.

Why you have TWO USB devices connected?

I mean is there a reason for it or it is simply a way to make things more difficult?

Which program did you use to partition/format the USB stick?

HOW is it partitioned?

2009/10/12 12:30:19- Found USB Disk Partition: Disk #3, Partition #0

2009/10/12 12:30:19- Found USB Logical Disk: L: File system: NTFS Bootable: -1

2009/10/12 12:30:19- Found USB Disk Partition: Disk #3, Partition #1

jaclaz

[paraffin]

Update

I managed to get the setup to work by using the HP Format tool, this also cured the extra partition being seen.

So looks like an issue with RMPrepUSB

Original

Sorry I will try to use open questions from now on..

The O/S I am running the process on is XP SP3..

Funny you should say have I got 2 USB devices plugged in as I actually have not, I have used RMPrepUSB to format the drive and now it appears in Disk Management (DM) like image attached.

The USB stick is 16 GB in total I can use 15 GB approx of it but DM still reports 8 GB unformatted. I canot format this 8 GB partition either.

Should I use a different tool for the format?

Anything else I should look at?

Edited October 12, 2009 by paraffin

[jaclaz]

Funny you should say have I got 2 USB devices plugged in as I actually have not, I have used RMPrepUSB to format the drive and now it appears in Disk Management (DM) like image attached.

Not really funny , I just read the LOG:

2009/10/12 12:30:19- Getting USB drives information

2009/10/12 12:30:19- Found USB Physical Disk: Corsair VoyagerGT USB Device -- \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE3

2009/10/12 12:30:19- Found USB Disk Partition: Disk #3, Partition #0

2009/10/12 12:30:19- Found USB Logical Disk: L: File system: NTFS Bootable: -1

2009/10/12 12:30:19- Found USB Disk Partition: Disk #3, Partition #1

2009/10/12 12:30:19- Found USB Physical Disk: WDC WD25 00JB-00REA0 USB Device -- \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2

The USB stick is 16 GB in total I can use 15 GB approx of it but DM still reports 8 GB unformatted. I canot format this 8 GB partition either.

Should I use a different tool for the format?

At this point, yes.

It is possible that either RMPREPUSB has a limit/bug (unprobable but possible) or you used it somehow incorrectly.

If I were you I would install a Filter driver (cfadisk.sys or dummydisk.sys) and use directly Disk Management.

jaclaz

EDIT: Wait a minute, something is definitely wrong, the stick is reported as being 23 Gb total size!

Get the MBR from it with HD hacker (1 sector, first sector of PhysicalDrive) compress it in a .zip and attach it to your next post, as soon as I have time i'll have a look at it:

http://dimio.altervista.org/eng/

Edited October 12, 2009 by jaclaz

[ilko_t]

Maybe the new version of RMPrepUSB is worth a try?

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...;showtopic=7739

http://www.datafilehost.com/download-d9c267f2.html

[paraffin]

I tried the new version but it's the same issue

My workaround is to use RMPrep to do most of the work and then format it again with the HP Format Tool... not sure if I need the RMPrep stage but I am superticous and it works....

Thanks for your help

Edited October 15, 2009 by paraffin

[ilko_t]

Could you reply to the request of Jaclaz? It would be interesting to find out why it's reported with wrong geometry.

BTW- HDHacker can be found in \WinSetupFromUSB\files\tools\.

[paraffin]

I can thats no problem but wont be until next week..

[redpathcc]

Sorry to necro the thread but it's a popular search result in google for the query so thought i'd help out anyone with the same problem.

I was having this same problem with a 16GB drive, running XP, and the only solution was to download the new version of RMPrepUSB from http://www.rmprepusb.com/. It went off without a hitch after that.

Regards.