HP USB Key Utility with External HD?

[Jase4772]

Hi,

Is it possible to use an external 2.5" hard drive with the utility? I'm wanting to create a drive with everything I ever use in one place to make my life easier.

I've searched the forums for "HP USB Key Utility" but couldn't see anything about this.

Thanks
Jason

P.S. this thread has been moved Servers > general to ProLiant Servers (ML,DL,SL) - HP Forums moderator

[Torsten.]

Interesting question, why not plug such disk in and try?

[Jase4772]

Let me word it differently then.

The drive doesn't appear on the USB Key Utility, is this because it's a HD and not a Pen Drive?

Can an external HD be used for Smartstart booting and server OS installation?

[Torsten.]

I did not try this. I have the firmware DVD and the smartstart CD on a single 2GB stick. Since even a 8GB costs almost nothing, why not using such stick? It's more handy than a HDD I think.
However, I think it will work too if you just copy the stick contents to the HDD (also never tried).

[Jase4772]

Hi,

The HP util works okay with a pen drive and I have a 4gb one with 32/64 bit Smartstarts and the firmware dvd (also the OS iso's) but I'm wanting to put loads more on so opted for a HD. Sadly this doesn't show in the HP utility and I need to use that to add any extra Smartstart/Firmware images.

Just in the process of trying the HP Drive Key Boot util to make the external drive bootable and then dumping the pendrive onto it.

Will report back the results.

[tbone72 · Accepted solution]

Jason,

The HP USB Key Utility will work on hard drives and pen drives, it just only works with drives less then 32GB. This limit was put in place to stop users from writing over their external USB hard drives. So if you can find a ~20GB drive, it should work.

You could also do the following:

1)Format your hard drive FAT32
2)Go to the directory where the USB Key Utility is located and run the following command: syslinux -fma x: (where x: is the drive letter of your hard drive).
3) Xcopy all the files from the USB key your created with the utility. This will give you tons of extra space for FW.

Thanks,
Tom

[Jase4772]

Hi,

I'll give that a go, many thanks.

I've tried some other variations of copying the files and also ensured that I formatted the external drive to a 30gb FAT32 to ensure it was happy.

Sadly the normal USB util doesn't see the HD and the other utility I've got just formats everytime to 873mb, but at least it boots :)

Cheers
Jase

[Jase4772]

Just to confirm that worked a treat! \o/

Many thanks :)