Sometimes there are quite unpleasant situations when the operating system “flies”. And recovery requires an original disk. If one is not available, you can write the image to a regular USB flash drive. But here's the problem - what to do when there is no boot from a flash drive in the BIOS? Many users simply do not know what to do, and get lost in this matter. Let's try to dot all the i.
How to enable boot from flash drive in BIOS using the simplest method?
To set these parameters, you first need to decide how the BIOS will be entered. The most common way is to use the keys Del, F2, F12, etc.
However, on the same Sony Vaio laptops, access is via a special ASSIST button located on the keyboard panel. On some laptops, access to the BIOS can only be obtained through a call to the primary boot menu using the Esc key.
How to set boot from a flash drive in BIOS? Yes, very simple. After calling the I / O system, go to the Boot section. Here you need to find the boot priority line, which may have different names, depending on the developer and manufacturer of the BIOS (Boot Device Priority, Boot Sequence, etc.). In any case, something like that will be present. But that’s not the point.
What to do if there is no boot from a flash drive in BIOS?
It also happens that the bootable USB flash drive is not recognized by the primary I / O system. With what it can be connected? There are usually several reasons for this:
- incorrectly recorded image or installation distribution;
- incorrectly set download;
- damage to the USB drive itself.
To make sure that all the steps for downloading from a USB flash drive are completed correctly, you need to take several steps. For now, the question of how to enable boot from a USB flash drive in BIOS will be left in the background, and it will turn to pressing problems.
Check in the "Device Manager"
Let's start with the last paragraph. When checking the device itself for its functionality, there can be two options: either it is malfunctioning by itself, or the accompanying driver responsible for recognizing the flash drive by the operating system is missing or incorrectly installed.
With faults, everything is clear. The device will just have to be replaced. But what to do when it is in working condition (at least it is determined on another computer or laptop)? It is necessary to check its functionality. And for this, in the simplest version, simply insert it into the appropriate USB port 2.0 / 3.0, and then call the standard "Device Manager" through the "Control Panel" or use the devmgmt command in the "Run" menu bar (Win + R).
Suppose that after insertion into the port, the flash drive is not defined. In the dispatcher, it may either not be displayed, or displayed with a yellow icon on which an exclamation mark is present . In the second case, everything is simple: you need to install or reinstall the driver. It may well be that the system itself does not find a suitable driver, although it should do it automatically. But this mostly concerns non-standard devices. Flash drives like Transcend are usually recognized immediately.
If the device is not displayed in the appropriate manager, there can also be two reasons: either the corresponding driver for the universal USB controller is not installed, or the port itself is faulty. Again, you should install the driver (the controller is indicated in yellow or is absent in the manager at all), or try plugging the USB flash drive into another port. It should be borne in mind that if the device is designed exclusively for data transfer only with support for USB 3.0, when connected to a standard port 2.0 it will not be detected.
Formatting partitions on a USB device
The question of how to make a boot from a USB flash drive in BIOS is left aside for now, and we will move on to the procedures without which even recording an image for installing the system on a device may be in vain.
First of all, if the device has problems in operation or you can’t do anything with it, you should format it first. At the same time, it is undesirable to do a quick cleaning of the table of contents, but it is better to perform full formatting. Only in this case the file system contained on it will ensure the correct data transfer and reading.
Such an operation is performed in the standard "Explorer". On the device you just need to right-click, and select the appropriate line from the menu. In a new window, you should definitely remove the “bird” from the quick format line, and then activate the beginning of the process. Depending on the total volume, this can take a long time.
Creating a boot distribution
If we consider the question of how to set the boot from the flash drive in BIOS, even more broadly, you can not ignore the issue of creating a boot image and transferring it to the drive. This can be done using the UltraISO utility or the like.
However, the source must use the original Windows installation disc. Actually, creating a disk image is not so difficult, so stopping at that in detail makes little sense. And if there is no boot from a flash drive in the BIOS, in the future it all comes down to correctly transferring the image or unpacked distribution files to the drive. You’ll have to tinker a bit here.
Media Preparation
In the case of using the system’s own means, even after formatting with a USB device, a number of additional steps need to be performed (it is assumed that the image has already been created from the original disk using the same UltraISO program or even 7-Zip, and the flash drive is in working condition and is connected to a computer or laptop).
First, we call the command line (cmd in the "Run" menu), always on behalf of the system administrator. In the console that appears, enter the diskpart command and press the enter button.
After that, we use the list disk command, again, followed by pressing the Enter key, after which we look through the available disks and remember the number of the USB device. To accurately check the number of the USB drive, you can use the diskmgmt.msc command, which is entered in the Run menu.
Now in the console you need to enter the select disk command and specify the number of the disk you are looking for after space. Next, the device should be cleaned of contents with the clean command.
The next step is to create a primary boot partition. This is done using the create partition primary command followed by input. After the confirmation of the successful operation appears on the screen, we use the select partition 1 command, then active (to activate the selected partition) and finally format fs = ntfs quick for formatting with the NTFS file system selection . If you need to create a FAT32 file system, use the similar format fs = fat32 quick command.
The next step is to name the device using the assign command (the name will be assigned automatically). Finally, enter exit and exit. The bootable USB device is ready to go. It remains only to correctly transfer the distribution files to it.
Transferring data to a USB flash drive
At this point, no configuration is needed. We don’t need the BIOS to boot from the flash drive yet, but we need the 7-Zip program. In the simplest version, with its help, you can correctly copy the installation files to the media (roughly speaking, extract them from the image).
Run the Zip File Manager utility from the standard “Explorer”, then select the image of the installation distribution kit that was previously created or downloaded from the Internet, select the USB flash drive as the end device and confirm the action by clicking OK. At the end of the process, the media will be fully operational.
Launch download
And now we turn to the question of how to install boot from a flash drive in BIOS directly. We reboot the system and at the initial stage we press a key or a combination of keys to enter the BIOS settings. Usually it’s Del, F2, F12 (for ASUS laptops, BIOS loading from a USB flash drive is done that way), but other keys or combinations described above can also be used. Depending on the manufacturer of the equipment, you may first need to call up the main menu. This situation is typical for laptops like HP - loading from a USB flash drive (BIOS) is set somewhat differently, although the operations themselves are very similar.
In the Boot section, look for the item Boot Device Priority and look at the line 1-st Boot Device. By pressing the PgDn key, we select the desired device, and then we exit with saving the parameters (as a rule, this is done using the F10 key). A reboot follows, and the installation starts automatically.
However, it is not enough to know how to select a boot from a flash drive in BIOS. It is important to remember that calling the settings of the primary input / output system should only be done with a USB device connected before starting to boot the computer or laptop. Otherwise, the flash drive is simply not defined.
How to fix problems?
Now let's look at the situation when the device seems to be working, since all the above steps are supposedly performed correctly, but in fact, there is no boot from the USB flash drive in the BIOS. What to do in this case?
We use the same command line. Suppose that the USB device in the system is indicated by the letter F, and the optical drive - E. Now we need to write the command E: \ Boot \ bootsect.exe / nt60 F: (F in our case is a flash drive, and E is the drive).
Alternative method
If this does not work, enter the following one by one:
F:
F: \> cd boot
F: \ Boot \ bootsect.exe / nt60 F:
After that, everything will surely work as expected.
Compatibility issues
If none of the above methods helps, you should first pay attention to the status of the drivers. In the best case scenario, you can use programs like Driver Booster, which are able to update drivers automatically.
If everything is okay with them, the reason may be that the user is trying to install a 32-bit system over a 64-bit one. In addition, the file system on the USB-drive and the installation distribution package may also differ in bit depth. Actually, the flash drive itself may not support the USB 3.0 ports into which it is included. Here you need to be very careful.
Instead of a total
That, in fact, is all that relates to how to set up a boot from a flash drive in BIOS. Of course, many users may have questions about the appropriateness of using their own system tools for preliminary actions, because automated programs do this much faster and easier. But here I want to note that such knowledge is extremely important, and programs with failures in access to the Internet are also not always at hand.
But a prerequisite, as is already clear, is a disk image that is created on the basis of the original or downloaded from the Internet. Nowhere without him. It remains to be added that attention should also be focused on the capacity of the installed system, since the 32-bit version will not be installed on top of the 64-bit version without formatting the system partition. This is due only to the fact that for 32-bit OS versions the FAT32 file system is required , and for 64-bit modifications - a minimum of NTFS. And on the flash drive itself, the corresponding FAT or NTFS file systems should be present, and not UDP, as it sometimes happens. As for the volume, 4 GB will be quite enough for any system, including even the tenth modification gaining popularity.