TC-1775 How to purchase a small USB drive and be sure it's compatible

I have a few USB drives and some boot in my TC-1775 and some don't.

I'm using the same creation tools and if I stop the PC in the BIOS, the ones that boot are listed and the ones that don't are not.

I assume the problem is compatibility with the BIOS so how do I buy a USB and be certain Acer's BIOS will work with it?

I cannot buy the same ones I have that work because they are no longer made. I only "need" a one GB drive but any cheap USB that's minimally larger is fine.

FWIW, several of the ones that work are many years old so it's not a matter of generation.

[Edited the thread to add model name to the title]

Accepted answers

BigRich

Bottom line seems to be BIOS incompatibility.

I have two Win 11 Acer's, one Nitro 5 laptop (AN517-54-77KG ) and one desktop (TC-1775-UR11). The laptop was originally Win 10 but has been updated to Win 11.

The laptop has Insyde BIOS and the desktop has American Megatrends. I'm comparing apples to oranges but it would be nice to know what the root reason is.

I created Win 11 installation media on the desktop (Using a Kingston USII uSD Reader (blue tongue) with a 32GB Pny uSD card in it) and it won't boot in a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port on the front of the desktop which created it or the USB 2.0 ports on the back but it boots fine in any USB 3.2 Gen 1 port on the laptop (the laptop has no USB 2.0 ports).

I created a bootable AOMEI Backup stick on an old pq1 brand 2GB USB 2.0 stick in the laptop and it booted fine on any port. It was not recognized on either the USB 2.0 or USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports on the desktop. The same created on the desktop only boots in the laptop.

Basically, any bootable USB boots in any port on the laptop (Insyde BIOS) and the American Megatrends BIOS on the desktop desktop is VERY picky compatibility wise.

I've done a lot of trial and error testing and I'm assuming my original question does not have a solid answer. Since the blue tongue 32GB "EAGET" brand and the 1GB HP sticks work, I have enough to get by without buying the 8GB USB 2.0 SanDisk Cruzer drives I have in my shopping cart at Amazon but I'd bet they'd work as Puraw suggested in an earlier post in this thread.

Thank you all for your input !

All comments

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/728501/tc-1775-how-to-purchase-a-small-usb-drive-and-be-sure-its-compatible

Hi BigRich,

Thanks for posting. For BIOS-level boot compatibility—especially on older Acer desktops like the TC-1775—it’s best to use USB 2.0 flash drives formatted in FAT32. These older sticks are more reliably detected during POST and tend to avoid UEFI quirks that affect newer USB 3.0 or Apple-branded drives.

Key points when buying a USB stick for boot tasks:

Look for USB 2.0, not USB 3.0 or 3.1. Even if slower, they’re more universally supported by legacy BIOS.
Format the drive in FAT32, not NTFS or exFAT. FAT32 is required for most UEFI boot loaders.
Avoid Apple-branded or dual-interface sticks (USB-C + USB-A)—they often use custom controllers that BIOS may not recognize.
Capacity between 1 GB and 16 GB is ideal. Larger drives may trigger partitioning issues or fail to boot.

If you’re creating a Windows installer, use Microsoft’s Media Creation Tool and reformat the stick manually in FAT32 before writing the image.

Windows 11 USB creation tool: https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11

Let us know which brands worked for you—SanDisk Cruzer, Kingston DataTraveler, and Verbatim Nano are often safe bets.

BigRich

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1352889#Comment_1352889

Thank you for your reply Puraw but I am in the ballpark with all of your suggestions.

My first concern is that you say my TC-1775 as an "older Acer desktop". True, Acer does call it "Classic" but I like classic.

I just bought this and the manufacturing date is listed as 4/2024. If 16 months makes it "old" then the rest of my computers are ancient.

The TC-1775 is 14th generation i7 (i7-14700) with DDR5 memory and the H61H6-AD MotherBoard, UEFI, and TPM V2.0.

I used a built-in media creator from my back up program (AOMEI) as well as the Windows Media Creation Tool, and RUFUS. Microsoft Win11 media creation recommends a minimum USB of 8GB but suggests 16GB or larger and also recommends USB V3.0 or higher. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5353981/size-flash-drive-do-i-need-for-windows-11

Anyway, the sticks I use that are under 64GB are all formatted FAT32 and several of them are USB 2.0 and only a few are USB 3 and up. I always try to use the lowest capacity stick for efficiency reasons. So far, the ones that work are a 32GB "EAGET" brand, a couple old 1GB Hewlett Packard branded (I don't know who exactly made them for HP), but they are no longer available.

You recommend a group of brands and capacities of between 1 & 16GB. I had seen a recommendation for the SanDisk Cruzer somewhere during my research. There are very few USB drives under 32GB available anymore. I try to stay at or under 32GB for efficiency reasons since you must format exFAT for drives above 32GB or lose the addressable capacity.

I did find a few 8GB USB 2.0 SanDisk Cruzer drives and I will order them.

Bottom line. It shouldn't be this hard. There should be a compatibility list for all the combinations that may or may not work. At this rate, it's near impossible to tell whether you have a hardware problem or a compatibility issue.

Thank you.

Larryodie

Read the reviews from the seller on them.

I've bought lots of them and once in awhile, there is a bad one.

I usually buy them 10 at a time as they are very useful if you have multiple computers or important stuff to save.

There used to be a mechanical units that wasn't very reliable , I think that all are SSD now.

If your files are important then don't buy the cheap stuff. Read the reviews.

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/728501/tc-1775-how-to-purchase-a-small-usb-drive-and-be-sure-its-compatible

The below "Integrated I/O" list is what Acer lists as the USB versions and speeds of these ports for the Aspire TC-1775 desktop are. Acer never ever specifies what USB thumb drives are compatible with the USB ports of any of their products, as I don't thing any manufacturer does that. But to assists you, I've included it below and hope it helps you out further.

If this answers your question and solved your query please "Click on Yes" or "Click on Like" if you find my answer useful👍

BigRich

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1353052#Comment_1353052

Thank you StevenGen . I read that list thoroughly before I bought the machine. The list that was advertised with the machine is attached.

As a note to Larryodie . The machine I bought was upgraded to a Kingston 1TB M.2 Pcie SSD. I added a 1TB Samsung 870 EVO SATA III SSD which I am booting from. It also has 64GB DDR5 and Win 11 Pro.

FWIW, I bought an MSI MAG 244F monitor.

BigRich

Bottom line seems to be BIOS incompatibility.

I have two Win 11 Acer's, one Nitro 5 laptop (AN517-54-77KG ) and one desktop (TC-1775-UR11). The laptop was originally Win 10 but has been updated to Win 11.

The laptop has Insyde BIOS and the desktop has American Megatrends. I'm comparing apples to oranges but it would be nice to know what the root reason is.

I created Win 11 installation media on the desktop (Using a Kingston USII uSD Reader (blue tongue) with a 32GB Pny uSD card in it) and it won't boot in a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port on the front of the desktop which created it or the USB 2.0 ports on the back but it boots fine in any USB 3.2 Gen 1 port on the laptop (the laptop has no USB 2.0 ports).

I created a bootable AOMEI Backup stick on an old pq1 brand 2GB USB 2.0 stick in the laptop and it booted fine on any port. It was not recognized on either the USB 2.0 or USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports on the desktop. The same created on the desktop only boots in the laptop.

Basically, any bootable USB boots in any port on the laptop (Insyde BIOS) and the American Megatrends BIOS on the desktop desktop is VERY picky compatibility wise.

I've done a lot of trial and error testing and I'm assuming my original question does not have a solid answer. Since the blue tongue 32GB "EAGET" brand and the 1GB HP sticks work, I have enough to get by without buying the 8GB USB 2.0 SanDisk Cruzer drives I have in my shopping cart at Amazon but I'd bet they'd work as Puraw suggested in an earlier post in this thread.

Thank you all for your input !

billsey

All your USB 2.0 ports are on the back of the computer (black ones) and are typically used for the keyboard, mouse and maybe a camera. The blue port on the back and the blue port on the front are the USB 3.2 ports and those are what you should be using for file transfers or as boot sources, since they are so much faster than the 2.0 slots. I can't think of any reason why some flash drives work for you and others don't, except they might be cheap drives that are marginal and generating errors.

BigRich

Thank you billsey but I am quite familiar with USB versions (and tongue colors), I even posted a list of them highlighting those ports and their versions in red.

The USB sticks that work are random brands. The ones that don't work in this machine work fine in my other machines. The most pronounced difference seems to be the BIOS brand for the boot issue. All of the sticks of varied brands and versions work in the OS. Only a random set do not boot in this new machine while they still work in other machines, even another Acer (which is a laptop but with a different BIOS brand, Insyde).

I'm fairly sure the problem is with the Aspire's American Megatrends BIOS. My Acer laptop has Insyde BIOS as I mentioned before. The issue is not brand, version, or capacity in my testing. I also try these sticks in other machines like HP and MSI and they work.

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