Symptom

On IGEL WES7 device installing a snapshot from a USB storage medium fails with the message "Failed to access Snapshot File...". You may find that some media will work while others don't.

Problem

The USB storage medium has the wrong formatting.

USB sticks are sold pre-formatted either

  • with a Master Boot Record (MBR) and a FAT32 filesystem or
  • a FAT32 filesystem without an MBR ("Superfloppy")

Only USB storage media with an MBR can be used to install a snapshot on IGEL WES7 devices.


Once a USB storage medium has been formatted, the format is not changed when using standard formatting tools. The IGEL tool Prepare USB Device does not change it either.

Solution

To erase a medium formatted as Superfloppy and format it with an MBR on Windows, follow these steps:

  1. Launch a Command Prompt as administrator.

  2. Run the command diskpart like this:
    DISKPART
    LIST DISK
    SELECT DISK 1

    Warning: disk 0 is almost always the internal system hard disk. If there is only one attached hard disk, then disk 1 should be the USB stick. Double-check to avoid overwriting the wrong medium.
  3. Run the following commands:
    CLEAN
    CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
    SELECT PARTITION 1
    ACTIVE
    FORMAT FS=FAT32 QUICK
    ASSIGN
    EXIT
  4. Use Prepare USB Device from the local IGEL setup update menu to complete the preparation. 


    On a Linux system, a medium with a FAT32 filesystem and MBR will be detected as /dev/sdb1 or /dev/sdc1, a Superfloppy as /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc.