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    Booting from USB on M6810, and a possibly dead HDD

    Discussion in 'eMachines' started by darlyn, Jul 24, 2010.

  1. darlyn

    darlyn Notebook Enthusiast

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    I am trying to boot from a working USB installation of Ubuntu. When selecting the M6810's "Removable Device" option, nothing seems to happen and the bootloader goes right on to the next item in the boot sequence. Being a 2004-era laptop, the M6810 should be able to boot from a 2008 USB 2.0 drive. I have used this drive countless times on older laptops with success. Some searching around indicates that the older M6809 variant is capable of booting from a USB device, leading to my conclusion that the M6810 is capable as well. The M6810 has the original BIOS on it and except for this Bios downloads - eMachines Resource Portal v3.0 , I am unable to find anything close to a BIOS update.

    The reason for my USB-boot attempts is to recover data from the non-functioning 2.5" IDE laptop drive that shipped with the M6810. I have a feeling the drive has plain old failed, because the BIOS does not even detect it. After booting into a live CD of Knoppix, further proof that the drive has died surfaced when it was not detected by the OS. At the moment it is going onto its second hour in the freezer. In a few hours I shall attempt to salvage the data.