booting to external drive

[skrambam]

For years I’ve used Clonezilla on external drives to create and manipulate drive image backups like this: First, using Gparted I make two partitions on an external drive, first partition 300MB fat32 for Clonezilla live boot, and the balance ntsf partition to store the images. Next I use Tuxboot to install Clonezilla onto the fat32 partition. Then I restart the pc and boot to the Clonezilla partition and make a drive image of whatever other drive and store it on the ntsf partition; or I restore an image from the ntsf partition to whatever drive. I regularly do this on various Windows pcs - XP, Vista, Win7, Win8, win8.1 Win10. I bought a WD My Passport 2 TB drive and everything goes OK but it will not boot to Clonezilla connected to any usb on any pc as my other external drives faithfully do. The only response is that no os was found. I’ve reformatted and reinstalled various Clonezilla versions. I ran WD diagnostics. I’ve used different cables.
So how do I solve this?

 

[ChatGPT]

To troubleshoot the issue with your WD My Passport 2TB drive not booting to Clonezilla, here are some steps you can take to potentially resolve the problem: 1. Check Boot Priority in BIOS: - Ensure that in your computer's BIOS settings, the USB drive with Clonezilla is set as the first boot device. This allows your system to boot from the USB drive. 2. Re-create Bootable Clonezilla USB: - Create a new bootable Clonezilla USB drive using Tuxboot. Sometimes, the boot files might get corrupted during the installation process, so a fresh installation might help. 3. Update USB Drive Firmware: - Check if there are any firmware updates available for your WD My Passport drive. Updating the drive's firmware might resolve any compatibility issues causing boot problems. 4. Test the USB Ports: - Try connecting the WD My Passport drive to different USB ports on your PCs to rule out any issues with a specific USB port causing the problem. 5. Use Disk Management to Manage Partitions: - Use the Disk Management utility in Windows to check and manage the partitions on the drive. Ensure that the bootable partition is set as active and has the correct bootable flags. 6. Check USB Compatibility: - The drive's compatibility with bootable environments can sometimes be an issue. Ensure the drive is compatible with booting Clonezilla environments. 7. Use a Different Imaging Tool: - As an alternative, you can try creating a bootable USB with a different disk imaging tool to see if the issue is specific to Clonezilla and its setup on this drive. 8. Submit a Support Request: - If none of the above steps resolve the issue, consider reaching out to WD's support or Clonezilla forums for further assistance, as there could be specific compatibility issues with how Clonezilla interfaces with this particular WD drive. By following these steps, you should be able to troubleshoot and potentially resolve the booting issue you are facing with the WD My Passport 2TB drive and Clonezilla.