A lot of laptop users, including such a well-known manufacturer as Hewlett Packard , quite often complain that booting from a removable device in the form of a regular USB flash drive containing the installation distribution package of the operating system or specialized recovery tools does not work, despite the fact that the flash drive is inserted into the appropriate port and seems to be determined by a laptop. The fact is that many current laptop models are equipped with built-in tools that allow you to access certain functions of the device, including changing the default boot parameters or even resetting the parameters to the factory state. Next, you are invited to see how to boot from a USB flash drive on an HP laptop. Despite the seemingly narrow focus, some points from the material proposed below will be useful for familiarization with many other users who have encountered such problems.
Downloading from a USB flash drive on an HP laptop: general principles
Like many other manufacturers, HP laptop developers have decided to simplify their owners' access to some important settings, incorporating special menus into most of the latest product lines that are not directly related to the primary or installed (installed) operating system. It is this menu that allows you to access both the BIOS parameters and the start boot menu with the choice of the necessary device that will be used in each particular case. Despite such studies, it is not worthwhile to discount the installation of Windows on an HP laptop from a USB flash drive using standard boot methods. Roughly speaking, the user has two options, however, none of them may work if you do not observe some important conditions and set the necessary parameters.
How to boot from a USB flash drive on an HP laptop using the standard built-in menu?
So, for starters, we’ll dwell on the built-in tools, which can be found in the start menu, which in most cases is called by pressing the Esc button immediately after turning on the laptop (this is directly indicated by the appearance of the corresponding line on the screen).
Next, a list of all those actions that can be used to choose from appears. But in the boot context, we are most interested in start points with the ability to select a device (Boot Device Options - F9) without setting the same parameters in the primary system and the BIOS settings item (BIOS Setup - F10). Logging into the primary system may be required to change some settings that may block the use of removable drives to start from them, which makes it impossible to install another operating system, except the one that already exists.
After pressing the F9 key, if the lock options are not active, select your drive from the list, after which the HP Pavilion laptop starts from the USB flash drive. But sometimes the start may not occur. Why, then, does the installed OS load and the flash drive is ignored? It's all about some parameters of the primary system.
How to set the settings in the primary system BIOS?
The inability to use a USB flash drive as bootable media is explained by the fact that the primary system itself has a special lock called Secure Boot mode. By default, it may just be in the active state.
Bypassing the lock is quite simple. Enter the BIOS by pressing the F10 key, then set the Disabled parameter for the specified mode, then exit the settings with the settings saved (!), And when restarting, use the start point from removable media again.
In some models, such actions are not enough. It also happens that in order to activate the boot from the BIOS flash drive on an HP laptop after disabling the safe start mode, confirmation is required that many users ignore.
The system displays a line with the message that you need to enter the specified code and press the enter key !!! If this is not done, booting from removable media will remain impossible.
What to do if a flash drive is not detected in the BIOS?
Now a few words about user complaints about the fact that neither in the BIOS nor in the boot menu is a flash drive detected. Typically, this situation is resolved quite simply, and not only on HP devices. Most users either do not know or forget that the USB flash drive must be inserted into the USB port before turning on the laptop. How to boot from a flash drive on an HP laptop in this case? Completely turn off the device using standard Windows tools, insert the media into the desired port, turn on the laptop, and only after that perform boot manipulations (in theory, the device will be detected).
USB check
If for some reason the flash drive is still not detected, check the BIOS settings. This is a System Configuration section. Here, the USB Boot item must be set to Enabled. If such download is disabled, change the parameter, save the changes and try to start again.
Note: please note that in some cases, the name of the flash drive in the primary system or in the boot menu may appear with the HDD designation corresponding to the hard disk, after which the name of the removable device will be indicated. This is a normal occurrence.
Proper creation of bootable media
There is another problem regarding HP laptops. Installing from a USB flash drive another Windows OS may not start for the simple reason that the bootable media itself was not created correctly (for example, it has an EFI boot loader and not MBR, which is intended for devices with BIOS rather than UEFI.
Try to overwrite the system image for installation, for example, in the Rufus program, choosing as a bootloader a universal circuit that can be used for both BIOS and UEFI.
If you use UltraISO, record the image exclusively from the boot menu and under no circumstances change the USB-HDD + recording method.
Startup options with a removable device in the eighth and tenth versions of Windows
Now briefly dwell on how to boot from a USB flash drive on an HP laptop using standard Windows 8 and 10 tools. Go to the options menu, go to the recovery and security section, and select special boot options in the recovery point.
After that, after a couple of tens of seconds, a menu appears in which you can choose to start from removable media. Again, booting may not be possible if the BIOS security settings have not been changed, as described above.
Disable disk encryption, if active
Finally, another important issue with HP laptops. How to reinstall the system from a USB flash drive if the hard disk lock is turned on as a Bitlocker encryption tool (this, alas, also occurs).
In this case, you need to call the “Control Panel”, go to the encryption section, and then, if there is such an item, disable Bitlocker. In the absence of such an item, you can generate a code, enter it using special boot options, and after unlocking the disk, install another OS instead of the existing one.
What if nothing helps?
If nothing works at all, try resetting to factory settings. You can do this either by a complete reset in the latest versions of Windows itself, or use the “wired” menu with the choice of the recovery partition (System Recovery - F11). If the malfunction of the laptop or Windows is not so critical, you can perform diagnostics by using the appropriate item in the start menu (System Diagnostics - F2).
Epilogue
As you can see, there is nothing particularly complicated in choosing the right configuration for using a flash drive as an external boot device. As for the most important conclusions and results, they are as follows:
- disable the safe start mode in the BIOS;
- Be sure to confirm the change of parameters by entering the specified code;
- insert the USB flash drive into the desired port before turning on the laptop;
- correctly create bootable media for a specific primary system or disk partition;
- Do not disdain boot tools of the latest versions of Windows;
- unless absolutely necessary, do not replace the hard drive, but if replacing, if possible, clone it;
- Never, under any circumstances, experiment with deleting hidden partitions of a hard disk, which may contain backup copies with factory settings and system utilities embedded in the laptop.
Finally, even when following the above rules, do not forget to periodically clean the system and check it for viruses in a timely manner, since they can play a fatal role in the fact that it will be impossible to boot from a removable device.