The world does not stand still. Once upon a time, the height of popularity was to store information on a disk or floppy disk. Now preference is given to more convenient and capacious flash drives.

To boot into BIOS via a flash drive, you need to take into account several features:

• It is recommended to connect the removable disk to the connector located on the back side system unit. It is he who is located on the motherboard;
• Connect the storage device before turning on or restarting the computer.

Regardless of the BIOS manufacturer, to implement Windows boot from the flash drive you need to do the following steps:

1. Open BIOS. To do this you need to click Delete or Esc. Service call keys may differ depending on different versions programs. They are usually written at the bottom of the screen immediately before the operating system boots.
2. Next you need to enable the USB controller.
3. After this, the flash drive must be moved to the first place in the list of devices from which to boot.
4. Save your changes.

Running from a flash drive in Award Bios

This version of the program is called by the button DEL or keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+Esc(in older versions).

Go to the tab "Integrated Peripherals" to enable the USB controller. Near the inscription "USB Controller" And "USB Controller 2.0" set value "Enable". To do this, use the button Enter. Go back one step by clicking Esc.

Now we need to directly configure booting from a flash drive in bios. To do this, go to the tab "Advanced BIOS Features". Choose a section "Hard Disk Boot Priority". Here the first line should indicate the name of the memory card. By default, this position is occupied by the hard drive. Using the key «+» , move the required line to the first place. Return to the previous menu.

Pay attention to the line "First Boot Device» . Next to this inscription there should be "USB-HDD", which means booting from a flash drive or external hard disk. Sometimes the installation process may not proceed. In this case, you should select the external floppy drive indicator - "USB FDD".

Hard Disk should be indicated next to Second Boot Device.

After making changes, you can exit the BIOS while saving the changes. Press Esc to exit to the main menu. Then click "Save & Exit Setup".

Installing boot from flash drive in AMI Bios

Exit to “AMI BIOS” is carried out by pressing keys DEL or F2.

USB controller settings are located in the tab "Advanced", In chapter "USB Configuration". Index "Enable" should be near "USB Function" And "USB 2.0 Controller".

Return to the previous menu (Esc) and go to the tab "Boot", chapter "Hard Disk Drives". The name of the flash drive should come first. Click "Enter" on the first line and in the new window, select the desired item.

In the previous menu, go to "Boot Device Priority". There should be a flash card at the top.

After this, you can return to the main menu and exit the BIOS, saving the settings.

Set to boot from a flash drive in Phoenix-Award Bios

Clicking F1 or F2 you can open the BIOS version “Phoenix-Award” .

The USB controller section can be found in the tab "Peripherals". Index "USB-HDD" must be placed in line "First Boot Device", tab "Advanced". Don't forget to save your settings.

Configure booting from a flash drive in Bios UEFI

New laptops released no earlier than 2013 have a special BIOS version. One of its features is the presence of protection against installing operating systems from any media other than a licensed disk. To install booting from a flash drive in this version of bios, you must first disable this protection and set the compatibility mode with other operating systems.

After entering the BIOS, go to the tab "Security", chapter "Secure Boot" and set the value there "Disabled".

In chapter "Boot", in line « Boot Mode» value should be set "Legacy Support". In line "Boot Priority" should stand "Legacy First".

Enter the BIOS again, go to the Boot section and raise the line "USB-HDD" to first place. After that, save the changes. Booting Windows will be possible from a flash drive.

Microsoft Corporation has been developing and improving operating systems for a long time, but so far not a single distribution has officially appeared that could fully work with external device on any computer. No matter how hard you try to protect your computer from breakdowns or virus infection, sometimes critical situations occur when the installed operating system can no longer function normally and stably, and you need your files and information that remained in the working folders along with the OS. This is why emergency boot disks, or Windows PE, were created.

Good to know!
In order to download this operating system from an external storage device, you must first complete the following steps:

1. Make the device bootable by assigning boot sectors to it;
2. Pre-download and correctly port Windows PE to a removable device;
3. If necessary, add drivers to the image (this especially applies to SATA drivers).

It should be remembered that the speed of the operating system, which is loaded from an external device, is much slower. This is due to the fact that the performance depends on the operating speed of the device itself, as well as the operating frequency of the bus through which the signal travels from/to the device. If you run the OS from USB devices, the speed drops by about ten times (The average speed of loading information from a flash drive is 10 MB/s, the average speed of HDD SATA is 100-120 MB/s).

How does the process of loading and starting OS PE occur?

After pressing the computer's power button, the devices are polled, after which their readiness is checked, and an attempt to boot begins according to the priority list, which is stored in the BIOS settings. The first step is to read the boot sectors, which store the addresses where the bootloader is located for Windows startup P.E. After that in RAM The computer begins to load a pre-installed system image. It is worth noting that all files and settings that occur while working with the OS will be lost the next time you start it.

How to configure the boot process for Windows PE from a flash drive?

There are currently two types of BIOS. The old one is typical and simple, which is similar to MSDOS and contains only menu items that can only be navigated using the keyboard. The new one is UEFI, it differs significantly in both appearance, and in terms of functionality. In UEFI, you can control and select all settings using the mouse and keyboard.

Organization of booting in UEFI

If possible, you can simply drag the mouse pointer to the first place desired device, thus changing the loading order. The classic download method also works:

1. Put Boot from USB or the name of your flash drive first.
2. Start your computer.

Boot organization in a typical BIOS

1. Connect USB device before starting the computer.
2. Go to the BIOS menu in the “Boot Device Priority” section (Del, F2, F12 buttons).
3. Put Boot from USB first (sometimes defined as USB HDD, or in the priority hard drive settings you need to put a USB flash drive) or the name of your flash drive.
4. Save your changes before exiting.
5. Start your computer.

Alternative download method

This method is used if you can go separately to the bootloader menu, explicitly specifying the boot devices to it.

CD/DVD discs are now outdated. They were replaced by USB drives.

The need to boot from a flash drive may arise when solving many problems:

• installing a new operating system;
• launch in Live CD mode;
• to treat your computer from viruses and malware;
• to correct errors that occur when loading the operating system;
• preliminary installation of additional drivers;
• scanning hard drive for the presence of problem sectors;
• starting the operating system installed on the flash drive.

On many systems, the default is to boot from USB storage disabled. Because of this, a user who wants to use a bootable USB flash drive may have problems changing settings.

Features of booting from a flash drive

The order in which devices are selected for startup is determined Bios settings– built-in firmware designed to provide operating system access to device APIs.

To boot the system from a flash drive, you need to go to Bios and change the startup order, or use a special boot menu. But this is not always easy to do, since firmware versions and types may differ on different motherboards.

If you need to boot from USB or any other storage device, you must follow these steps:

1. insert a disk or flash drive;
2. turn on the computer or restart it;
3. enter the Bios or Boot menu and select the USB device;
4. if there are several connected devices, the system will automatically offer you a list to select the one you need.

Most modern motherboards work through a technology called UEFI. This is not just a more convenient graphical shell for the Bios firmware, but a new software, which has wider capabilities and flexible settings.

Motherboards that work with uefi have received many new capabilities, for example:

• control temperature different devices and in connection with this, increase or decrease the speed of the fans;
• adjust the acceleration frequency of the central and GPU on those motherboards where this is provided by the developer;
• work with many Bios settings from special software running the Windows operating system.

Video: select boot device in BIOS

Asrock H77M-ITX motherboard

The easiest way to boot the system from a flash drive is to use the Boot Menu. Every modern motherboard has this option. To find out which combination or key you can use to do this, most often it is enough to read system messages. As a last resort, you need to refer to the board documentation.

Asrock H77M-ITX allows you to select the startup option using the “F11” button. On the first try, you may not be able to get to the menu, so you need to press the key several times. If unsuccessful, simply restart your computer and try again.

As a result, you should see a blue background with the words Asrock UEFI setup utility. In the “Please select boot device” menu you need to select the required device to boot.

To configure the startup order of devices in the motherboard BIOS Asrock boards H77M-ITX, you need to do the following:

After restarting your computer, you should see the flash drive start to launch.

ASUS P8H77-I motherboard

Find yourself in the BIOS on computers with a motherboard ASUS board P8H77-I can be done in exactly the same way as described in the previous section, using the keys "Del" or "F2". You can get to the menu for selecting devices to boot using the “F8” button.

The firmware interface is very different from previous version. But the names of the various settings menus are almost identical.

To simplify operations, there is an initial setup mode and an additional one. In the initial setup function, that is, in the main window that you get to when loading Bios, it is possible to select the launch priority. In the USB picture it is indicated as with uefi.

If, after restarting the system, booting from the flash drive does not start, you need to switch to “Advanced mode”. This can be done using the "Advanced" button or by pressing the "F7" key.

To set the priority, you must perform the following steps:

The computer will reboot, after which startup from USB should begin. If this does not happen, try changing the port and repeating the operation.

How to boot from a bootable USB flash drive into Award Bios

New motherboards that work with uefi are much easier to configure. However, the need to boot from a flash drive may also arise on older systems. Settings to use bootable usb drives may differ slightly, although the principle of operation discussed earlier is the same.

One of the most known versions Bios is Award. There is no way to call up a menu to select a launch priority. Therefore, we immediately move on to setting up the BIOS.

In order to boot the system from a flash drive on a computer with motherboard running under Award control, you need to perform the following steps:

If the launch from the required drive was not performed, you need to check one more parameter: the USB controller must be enabled in the “Integrated Peripherals” menu.

AMI BIOS

This firmware management system is more modern, so there is already a menu for selecting the startup order. It is activated by the “F11” button. You can get into the BIOS settings using the “Del” or “F2” buttons.

To select the download priority:

Phoenix-Award Bios

Phoenix-Award Bios is quite rare, and its firmware is a bit unusual. There is support for displaying menus quick selection boot drive, it is called by the “F11” key.

Interestingly, you won’t find a USB-HDD in the Phoenix-Award menu. But you can choose from other gadgets that can be connected in this way, for example Zip, CDROM and Floppy. To run from a flash drive, you need to select Hard Disk, and then the required USB-HDD will appear in the list.

As for managing priorities through Bios, this is done almost identically to AMI.

The difference is that in the “Boot” menu you need to select the following options:

• Using the “+” and “-” keys we change the order. The first one should be the Removable Device;
• by activating Removable Device and pressing the “Enter” button, select the flash drive from the drop-down list.

Almost any Bios microsystem allows you to boot the system from a flash drive. Knowing the key combinations and the necessary menu items, you can quickly change startup priorities.

More modern motherboards with uefi give you much more control over your system. If necessary, you can run different operating systems from different flash drives to manage any software.

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Most often we think about BIOS ( Basic System Input/Output) only when we need to reinstall the operating system and need to somehow set it to boot from a disk or flash drive. I often wrote about this in articles such as:, and others. Now I want to put it together and refer only to this article when necessary. This article will be useful for all BIOS versions and for different companies. A kind of single reference book

The first thing you need to know is that BIOS is divided by manufacturer and version.

To change boot method in BIOS- You must first enter it.
You can, of course, find out what version and manufacturer of your BIOS is from the manual that came with your computer.
You can also find out by looking at the line at the top of the black screen when loading (the manufacturer will be indicated there).
Well, then enter the BIOS, knowing what it is for you.

Some BIOS versions do not have such a screen showing lines. There’s just a logo there and at the bottom it says something like “Press F2 to enter SETUP,” which means press F2. If there is just a logo and there are no inscriptions, press ESC, and then del or f2

Here is a small list of manufacturers and keyboard shortcuts for entering BIOS:

AMI BIOS -> DEL or F2

AWARD BIOS -> DEL

AWARD BIOS (old versions) -> Ctrl+Alt+Esc

Phoenix BIOS -> F1 or F2

DELL BIOS -> F2

Microid Research Bios -> ESC

IBM -> F1

IBM Lenovo ThikPad -> Press and hold the blue ThinkVantage key

Toshiba (laptops) -> ESC then F1

HP/Compaq -> F10

Also at the bottom of the black screen there are keys for entering the BIOS and for displaying a list containing available devices to download and so that you can boot from it. But more about him at the end of the article.

As you can see, most often you need to press the key F2 or Del.

Now you need to load a flash drive or disk.
Let's look at a few examples that differ from the BIOS manufacturer.

Setting up Award Bios to boot from a flash drive or disk:
The main window looks like this, in which we need the second item:

Further depends on the firmware version. In one case, you will need to go to an item similar to “Boot Seq & Floppy Setup”

in another case, you don’t need to go anywhere - everything will be right before your eyes

Clicks on First Boot Device(First boot device), click Enter and a window like this will appear

in which you need to select the disk or flash drive that will launch first. You can specify a Second boot device, for example, but usually the BIOS itself fills in this data.

On a note:

First Boot Device - the device from which the computer will boot first

Second Boot Device – the second device from which the computer will boot if the “First Boot Device” turns out to be non-bootable or inoperable.

Third Boot Device – the third device from which the computer will boot if the “Second Boot Device” is not bootable

If you select a flash drive, then, among other things, you also need to go to the “Hard Disk Boot Priority” item and move our flash drive to the very top using the “+” and “-” or “PageUp” and “PageDown” buttons:

It is also worth remembering that In order for the BIOS to see the flash drive, it must be connected before turning it on or before rebooting

Then press “F10” (see the exact key in the hint at the bottom of the screen called “Save”, “Exit”) or go to the main BIOS menu and select “Save and Exit Setup”. In the red window, select “Yes” using the “Y” button on the keyboard and press “Enter”

The computer will reboot and when booting from installation disk With Windows, you may receive this request for a few seconds: “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD...”

Which translates to “Press any button to boot from a CD or DVD.”
This means that if you do not press any button on the keyboard at this moment, the computer will continue to boot from the next device on the list.

Another version of this BIOS:

I've only seen this on old computers from ten years ago, before 2003. The main menu looks like this:

To configure the boot order, you need to go to the menu BIOS FEATURES SETUP:

At this point, use the PageUp and PageDown buttons (or Enter and arrows) to select what to put first - CDROM or flash drive. DO NOT forget about the second and third device

And further:

How to choose what to boot from in AMI BIOS
If, after entering the Bios, you see such a screen, it means you have AMI BIOS:

Use the right arrow button on the keyboard to move to the Boot tab:

Go to "Hard Disk Drives" and in the line "1st Drive" (may be called "First Drive") select a disk or flash drive:

Next, go to "Boot Device Priority", go to "1st Boot Device" and select from the list what you selected in the previous tab (i.e. if you selected a flash drive in Hard Disk Drives, then you need to specify it here too. This is important! )

To boot from a CD/DVD disk, you need to select “ATAPI CD-ROM” (or simply “CDROM”) in this menu; there is no need to go to the previous “Hard Disk Drives” menu.
Now we save the results with the “F10” button or go to the BIOS “Exit” section and select “Exit Saving Changes”.

Another AMI BIOS, but everything is clear here:

Setting up Phoenix-Award Bios to boot from a flash drive
If, after entering the Bios, you see a screen like this, then you have a Phoenix-Award BIOS:

Go to the “Advanced” tab and opposite “First Boot Device” set what you need (flash drive or disk):

Save with F10 key

Setting up EFI (UEFI) Bios with graphical interface to boot from a flash drive
Now this won’t surprise anyone. Almost all new computers are equipped with a similar shell. You can read more about it in the article.
When loading, at the bottom of the screen there is a “Boot Priority” section, where you can use the mouse (by dragging) the pictures to set the desired boot order.
You can also click the “Exit/Advanced mode” button in the upper right corner and select Advanced mode in the window that appears.

Next, go to the “Boot” tab and in the section Boot Option Priorities in the “Boot Option #1” field, set the default boot device to be a flash drive, DVD-ROM, HDD or other available device.

How to boot from a flash drive or disk without entering BIOS
This is what I wrote about almost at the very beginning of the article.
This is when you need to press a key once and a window will appear with a boot selection. This method does not change the BIOS settings.
Usually Award BIOS prompts you to press "F9" to bring up the boot menu, and AMI asks you to press "F8". On laptops this may be the “F12” key.
In general, look at the bottom line and look for items like “Press F8 for BBS POPUP” or “Press F9 to Select Booting Device after POST”.

Why can't I boot from a flash drive into the BIOS?

Possible reasons:

On older computers there is no way to boot from USB flash drives at all. If a newer BIOS does not exist, then the project may help.
1) Download the latest version of "Plop Boot Manager" from the link above and unpack it.
2) The archive contains the following files: plpbt.img – an image for a floppy disk, and plpbt.iso – an image for a CD.
3) Write the image to disk and boot from it (or from a floppy disk).
4) A menu will appear in which we select our flash drive and boot from it.

A small explanation of disk designations when selecting:

USB HDD is a flash drive or external hard drive

ATAPI CD is a CD or DVD-ROM

ATA HDD or simply HDD is a hard drive

USB FDD is an external floppy disk drive

USB CD is an external disk drive

Do not forget, after you have done what you wanted (namely, why you changed the boot in the BIOS) - return the boot settings back so that the computer boots from the hard drive.

Quite often, owners or users of laptops have to boot into the BIOS from a flash drive. Especially if the device does not have a CD/DVD drive, but you need to install a new operating system (OS) or install fresh drivers and anti-virus software. Therefore, in this article we will tell you in detail how to set boot from a flash drive in the BIOS on laptops from a variety of manufacturers (HP, msi, sony, dell, acer, etc.).

So, to enable booting from a flash drive in the bios on a laptop, you need to:

Do not forget that in the BIOS we can navigate through sections, tabs and lines only using the buttons on the keyboard. The mouse won't help you.

However, BIOS versions are different for all laptop manufacturers and models. Therefore, the algorithm of actions listed above is not suitable for all devices. For example, if you go to the BIOS and see a similar interface, then you have Award Bios.

Then run bootable USB flash drive it's best like this:

1. Go to the “Integrated Peripherals” section.
2. Approximately in the middle of the screen, use the arrows on the keyboard to find the “USB Controller” item.
3. Press Enter. In the window, select the “Enable” value.
4. Please note that the “USB Controller 2.0” line also contains “Enable”.
5. Press Esc. Let's leave this section. Then we go to “Advanced BIOS Features”. The name translates as additional or advanced settings. Here we need the “Hard Disk Boot Priority” item.
6. Let's go in and see what's in first place. It must be a flash drive, not a hard drive. Therefore, select the USB card and use the “+” button to lift it up.
7. Press Esc. Select the line “First Boot Device” and set the value to “USB-HDD” (or USB-FDD, if the first option fails to boot from a flash drive into the bios on the laptop).
8. Click Esc again. Select “Save & Exit Setup”, then press the Y key.

There are also other BIOS versions. These are both Phoenix-Award BIOS and AMI Bios. True, all of them are found only on old laptops with not the most “fresh” motherboards. How to configure boot from a flash drive for such devices? All the same. Only the names of the sections and items in the BIOS menu differ. The algorithm of actions and settings is as similar as possible.

For reference! As we have already noted, in order to install booting from a flash drive in the BIOS, you need to “disable” the Secure Boot protocol. At the same time, on many lenovo laptops This is not enough. You may also need to enable compatibility mode. It is called differently. Therefore, look for CSM/CSM Boot, UEFI and Legacy OS, Legacy BIOS, Legacy Support, etc.

How to boot a laptop from a flash drive via UEFI?

Many modern computer devices (especially those with latest versions Windows) are equipped with a new interface for initial loading. It's called UEFI. Working with this “option” of BIOS is a little easier. In addition, you can use the mouse here. However, despite the fact that new interface more understandable, not all users know how to work with it. Therefore, we will briefly describe the entire procedure.

For example, to boot from a flash drive on an HP laptop to UEFI, you need to:

1. When booting the device, press the ESC key several times. Then F10 to get into Bios Setup.
2. Now at the very bottom of the window find the Boot Priority section.
3. Just drag the icon in the form of a flash drive to the first place with your mouse.
4. Another option is to click on “Exit/Advanced mode”, then confirm the transition to advanced mode by selecting Advanced Mode. Next, complete the setup.

However, there are also quite a few versions of UEFI. There are also Russified versions. As a rule, it’s even easier to set boot from a flash drive here:

1. First you need to go to the “Download” section. Sometimes it is made in the form of a subsection. Then you should look for it in additional settings.
2. Just select “Disk loading order”.
3. In boot priority, put the flash drive first.
4. Press F10. Save changes, .

We'll also tell you how to boot from a flash drive on devices with motherboards. Gigabyte boards(they are preferred by many popular manufacturers - Acer, Lenovo, Samsung, etc.), on which UEFI BIOS is quite common.

1. Let's go to BIOS. You already know how this is done. The easiest way is to press “Delete”, “F2” or “Esc” at the initial boot stage.
2. Next, visit the “BIOS Features” tab.
3. At the very bottom of the window, click on “Hard Drive BBS Priorities”.
4. In the line “Boot Option 1” you need to put our flash drive instead of the hard drive. Therefore, in “Boot Option 2” the hard drive – HDD – will have to appear.
5. We save and exit.

How else can you boot from a flash drive on a laptop?

Through the computer's BIOS is not the only option. For example, it is possible to boot from a flash drive to asus laptop, toshiba, samsung, etc. and through a special boot menu. It's called the Boot Menu (by the way, it's also part of the BIOS). You can enter it during the initial loading phase. You just need to press Esc, F8, F11 or F12 quite often. Which key exactly depends on the manufacturer of the motherboard and the BIOS version used in it.

Once in the Boot Menu, you need to select and enable boot from a flash drive using the arrows on the keyboard. Then all you have to do is press Enter. Agree, it’s quite convenient and simple. However, it is not always possible to go to the boot menu. The fact is that on some laptop models the Boot Menu option is deactivated in the BIOS. Therefore, additional steps are required to enable it.

It is worth paying attention to one more point. The Boot Menu does not have a unified design. It can also be called differently: “MultiBoot Menu”, “BBS Popup”, “Boot Agent”, etc. However, any boot menu contains a list of devices from which booting can be done.

Possible problems

At first glance, booting a laptop from a flash drive is not difficult. However, some problems can always arise. Therefore, we decided to describe the most frequent of them. In addition, we will tell you how to eliminate them.

Please note that very old laptops may not be able to boot from USB flash drives at all. Then you need to either upgrade the device by installing a new motherboard and software, or think about purchasing a new computer.