Question Alternate booting on Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3

[Jeff H]

Guys,

Mobo is an elder Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 Rev 3, with AMD870 Northbridge. It has been running Win10 Pro w/o incident until recently. Recent Win10 error code (update-error-0x800700d) points to corrupted Windows files, and nothing will now update (Windows, drivers, etc). I've tried everything I can find via Google, to no avail. So, it's time to do a clean install. Previous clean installs of Win10 have gone fine, w/ an MCT DVD.

This time I would like to do the clean install via USB (as MCT install now exceeds capacity of singe sided VD). I don't see a clear BIOS option for booting from a thumb drive. The boot options include USB-FDD, USB-ZIP, and USB-CDROM. Would one of these work, or does my BIOS predate booting from USB thumb drive?

TIA,

Jeff

 

[Shmee]

To answer your question, it may be shown as a HDD in BIOS. Or you could try doing a one time boot to the USB, probably by pressing F12 for boot menu and then selecting it. That said, you may want to check hardware as well, given the system is older, the software corruption may have been caused by failing hardware.

 

[Jeff H]

Shmee,

Good points. The processor (Phenom II, X5-555, stock clock) & mobo are original. The RAM (recent DDR3 4GB sticks), SSD (1GB Crucial MX500 SATAIII), vid card (RX-560 4GB) are less than 18 months old. What's the best utility out these days for checking out hardware?

TIA,

Jeff

 

[Shmee]

Well, with the fairly recent SSD, and one of good quality, I doubt it is the drive. You can always run memtest86 on the RAM though (another bootable flashdrive or optical disc is needed). Also, may want to stress test the CPU, and monitor temps. Could do this with something as simple as CPUz and coretemp.

Of course it may just be time for a fresh windows install. How old is the current one? And was it an upgrade from windows 7?

 

[Lopoetve]

So, just did this dance with a similar system. Format and prep the drive, MBR if at all possible. shut off system, plug in the usb drive, and boot. If it worked right, you should see USB-HDD in the boot list in BIOS. If not, try USB-CDROM - that may also work. My experience, needs to be MBR, and needs to be plugged in BEFORE you power on.

 

[Iron Woode]

Guys,

Mobo is an elder Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 Rev 3, with AMD870 Northbridge. It has been running Win10 Pro w/o incident until recently. Recent Win10 error code (update-error-0x800700d) points to corrupted Windows files, and nothing will now update (Windows, drivers, etc). I've tried everything I can find via Google, to no avail. So, it's time to do a clean install. Previous clean installs of Win10 have gone fine, w/ an MCT DVD.

This time I would like to do the clean install via USB (as MCT install now exceeds capacity of singe sided VD). I don't see a clear BIOS option for booting from a thumb drive. The boot options include USB-FDD, USB-ZIP, and USB-CDROM. Would one of these work, or does my BIOS predate booting from USB thumb drive?

TIA,

Jeff

This should work no problem. I installed win 8.1 on my old Asus 880 board using a thumb drive. I just set the boot in BIOS to the thumb drive making sure the drive was attached while doing so.

You can also hit F12 while booting the system and choose the thumb drive from the list and boot that way.

 

[VirtualLarry]

That's... interesting.

I have a sort-of-friend, whom had an older AM2+ rig with an Athlon II X4 and 4x4GB DDR2-800, we added Windows 7 and an SSD, SSD has been through a cloning to a bigger SSD, and then, eventually imaged, and restored the image to a 512GB SATA6G SSD, on a Ryzen 3 1200 / AM4 rig with 2x8GB DDR4, and then, re-activated, and then, in-place upgraded to Win10 64-bit, and then, eventually, upgraded to successive versions of Win10 64-bit.

Only problem is, he was getting appcrashes and browser tab crashes, and eventually, BSODs on boot of Win10.

He replaced the RAM with another, newer, kit of DDR4-3200. So far so good. But he also had upgraded to 20H2, or maybe it was even 2004 (20-04), and somewhere along the long, Windows Update has since been failing all updates, and even downloading MCT and trying to use it won't work either, because it uses Windows Update behind-the-scenes to download the Win10 ISO to use to make the install USB.

He's really rather stuck, having a massively-upgraded through the years copy of Windows, with a whole bunch of legacy stuff on there. I'm not even sure if I can do an over-top re-install or in-place overtop upgrade install to 20H2, if he's not already on that.

My best guess is, the crypto cert store was corrupted or something, when doing the upgrade installation, which has left Windows Update unable to verify downloads and install them. Or something along those lines.

We did use Malwarebytes to scan for rootkits, as well as Kaspersky Rescue Disk USB.

I sent him another SSD, to do a fresh installation of Win10 onto, but he hasn't gone through the steps using a different PC to download and make an MCT Win10 20H2 install USB yet.

I *think* that he was getting the same error code, too, which is why I posted this.

Very weird stuff, IMHO.

If you ever find a solution, OTHER than a re-install, PLEASE POST IT. Many thanks!

 

[Jeff H]

Guys, thanks for all your thoughts and ideas. I tried everything I could find out there, re Win10 troubleshooting, YouTube videos, MS docs, registry fixes, etc. Upshot is I did a clean install (after a lot of wrestling with initializing Crucial MX500 SATAIII 2.5" SSD). Got back up and running, w/ a hiccup on sound that seems to have righted itself.

Never did dig deep enough to determine if I could boot from a thumb drive. Ended up using a double sided DVD and MCT.

FWIW I've been assembling parts to build a new system. I figure nearly 10 years is a lot to expect from a system that's used nearly every day. The Gigabyte board/Phenom II combo has been the best system I recall owning. Now, it's on to the new build: ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4, Ryzen 5 3600, 16GB kit Crucial Ballistix DDR4-3200, WD SN550 NVMe m.2 SSD. I'll be using the RX 560 4GB vid card (less than 1 year old), and Asus BluRay writer.

 

[Jeff H]

Nearly a year later the above-mentioned new system is running great. Not having assembled a new system for 10 years, I'll have to say the most surprising thing was the speed of the WD SN550 NVMe drive. I saw an appreciable speed increase when I went from hybrid HDD to the Crucial MX500 SATA drive on the old system. But, that increase paled in comparison to the Ryzen 5/SN550 combo. I understand Asrock BIOS' can be a bit slow to process, but once that happens this new system flies. I went with a Fractal Design Focus G case, Noctua case fans, and an Arctic Freezer Sports 34 cpu cooler. This system is dead quiet.

My next move is to flash the BIOS to current version (2.10), then sway out the Ballistix 16GB kit with a GSkill 32GB kit.