Alienrespawn: no usb key detected

Any ideas: have a brand new right out the box M18x and want to do an AR backup. Got a new USB 3.0 memory stick. Upgraded to latest version of AlienRespawn. Running Windows 8.

Get error message at the point where I select Factory Backup --> Select Drive. Error I receive is "No USB key detected".

I can write and read from the USB stick. The reported size of the backup is 7,7Gb. My stick is 16Gb. Have tried all 4 USB slots.

Am stuck for ideas and its not helping that I've never touched Windows 8 before as well

 

Is it a SanDisk, I have the same exact issue with my Extreme stick, known problem as it turns out with no fix. Anyway some USB sticks simply can't be made bootable, best advice is to just get another stick and yes make sure it's 16GB min, 8GB doesn't cut it anymore.

 

You must be a mind reader ! Yes, I bought the Extreme specifically for this backup as it has very fast write speeds. Dang, guess I'll have to go out and buy another stick. Will get a cheap and cheery one this time. Been holding off doing anything to my brand new monster it until I can get the backup done. Don't know how long my patience will last until I start gaming

 

Try a 2.0 usb drive. If you don't have one, rip some recovery DVD's instead. Use them and it will most likely work - don' use DVD rw's though....

 

Cheers Stevie, will get a 2.0. Cheaper than a 3.0 anyway :thumbsup:

 

I did it to a pny 16gb with not problem. dvd disc is even better.

 

pny?

Anyway, internet searching has resulted in no hits. Will try calling AW support tomorrow, in case they have it in their database somehow.

 

It's just a brand, like Sandisk.... https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=p...i57j0l3j69i62.2800j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

So AW support had no insight to this which led me to buying another USB stick. This time a 2.0 one. Worked like a charm.

Thanks again for the tips!

Interestingly, as part of my attempts to get this working I uninstalled alienrespawn, reinstalled and hit the update button. It downloaded a 2MB(ish) update and after that the system backup was no longer available from within AWR. It would still do it via AlienAutopsy, but requires the full version if run alone via AWR.

 

Nice to see you got it sorted. :thumbsup:

 

any idea what the issue was.. was it the stick or some usb issue on the AW systems.. I ask because Im seeing a trend here...

 

The option to do a system system backup and a variety of customized backups is a feature of the full (paid) version of Alienware Respawn. That is different than simply creating recovery media with the basic (free) version.

 

I happened to download the latest version of Rufus (1.4.3) and thought hell why not try again to make this SanDisk Extreme stick bootable and this time it recognized the drive and it worked fine so yay! I seriously doubt it has anything to do with Rufus, more likely the couple BIOS updates I've applied since then (A04 presently).