Unable to boot from USB Flash Drive

I just tried to create a bootable USB stick for Macrium Reflect on my Dell AIO. The creation went smoothly as did the boot. When I took that stick to my Acer Laptop and tried to boot it I got a message saying, "Remove disk or other menu" followed by "Press any key to continue." I then reversed the process and created an USB stick on on the Acer and took it to the Dell. When I pressed F12 to get to the boot selection menu of BIOS the USB stick wasn't shown as a choice. BIOS itself does show much in the way of choice of boot mode that is familiar to me.

Both machines run W10 ver 1903. I took both machine back to 1809 but that didn't correct the situation so that seems to rule out a 1903 problem.

I have a USB version on Mini Tools Partition Wizard created a log time ago that is interchange able between machines

Would someone please try to help me solve this problem? I really don't want to have 2 sets of USB sticks, one for each machine.

Thank you.

What do you mean exactly by "create a bootable stick for Macrium Reflect"? Did you use this application to create a regular bootable USB drive with an installation of Windows , or did you create a system image backup with Macrium Reflect/Mini Tools Partition Wizard and transfered the image file to the USB drive? In the first case, have you tried using Rufus to create a bootable USB drive? In the second, I really wouldn't know how to help you, as I have no familiriaty with creating and restoring a system backup imagem with either programs. The only backup/restore applications that I'm familiar with are EaseUS Partition Master and EaseUS Todo Backup.

Have you tried different USB ports on the machines?

Have you tried using the USB sticks interchangeable on the machines (when they are already booted)?

Can you update your USB Tool, or have you tried others?

Have you tried to format the USBs and retry (not the fast format on windows)? Obviously saving files before if you want to keep any of it.

This how I would try to pin point the error

zizzler said:

Have you tried different USB ports on the machines?

Have you tried using the USB sticks interchangeable on the machines (when they are already booted)?

Can you update your USB Tool, or have you tried others?

Have you tried to format the USBs and retry (not the fast format on windows)? Obviously saving files before if you want to keep any of it.

This how I would try to pin point the error

Thank you zizzler.

Yes to all of the above. The data on each stick is readable on each machine. it is just the ability to boot that causes the grief.

Sorry for the newbie questions but it’s always a good to try the basic steps first…

Honestly this sounds like some weird driver issue, but I really don’t know. The last thing that comes to my mind is trying to update the BIOS of the Laptops, but I am not sure if it would really help you

One more thing can you tell whats the USB version of your sticks is + the ports you are using?

zizzler said:

Sorry for the newbie questions but it’s always a good to try the basic steps first…

Honestly this sounds like some weird driver issue, but I really don’t know. The last thing that comes to my mind is trying to update the BIOS of the Laptops, but I am not sure if it would really help you

One more thing can you tell whats the USB version of your sticks is + the ports you are using?

USB 3 and that might be the problem. The Acer does not have USB 3 port only 2 at best. The Dell AIO has 2 and 3 but I'm not sure which I used.

Anyway I think I had better reset to zero and start over again as soon as I get my month-end book keeping done.

Thanks again.

zizzler said:

Sorry for the newbie questions but it’s always a good to try the basic steps first…

Honestly this sounds like some weird driver issue, but I really don’t know. The last thing that comes to my mind is trying to update the BIOS of the Laptops, but I am not sure if it would really help you

One more thing can you tell whats the USB version of your sticks is + the ports you are using?

I found a break in my things to do and started over not using a USB3 flash drive and thus no mixing of port and drive. I used an old USB 2 or 1 drive (I'm not sure which) and the problem cleared up. I learned an important lesson I think.

Thanks again for getting me started on the right course.

I could be wrong but I thought flash drives were universal? I mean a usb 2.0 is faster than a usb 1.0 but the 2.0 could be used in a 1.0 port but it's speed wouldn't be as advertised. It would just run slower. Someone correct if I'm wrong.