Let's look at how to boot from a flash drive to install Windows or restore the system.

Insert the bootable USB flash drive into the USB port and restart your computer. Your main task at this stage is to change the boot priority so that the flash drive starts first, not the hard drive. This is done in two ways:

1. Selecting a device through the Boot Menu (called by pressing the F8, F11, F2 or Esc key pressed immediately after starting the computer).
2. Changing the boot priority in BIOS BIOS is a program built into the motherboard that allows you to change some hardware parameters (for example, disk boot priority) at the hardware level..

The first method is much more convenient, since it does not require subsequent rebooting from the hard drive. You only need to select a device (DVD or USB) from the list to start loading it and press Enter. It looks something like this:

Press F10 and get to the boot menu:

However, on some older computers the Boot Menu does not start, so just in case, let's take a closer look at how to change the boot priority through the BIOS. Open the Start menu and restart your computer. When the logo appears, you must press a certain key.

On some models of motherboards, to enter the BIOS, not Delete is used, but another key - F1, Esc, F10, Ctrl + Alt + S. A reasonable question arises - how to find out the right button? There are several ways:

• Find information on the Internet about entering the BIOS for your motherboard.
• Read the instructions from the motherboard manufacturer.
• Pay attention to the message that appears immediately after turning on the computer. This message looks like “Press…. to run setup". Instead of an ellipsis, a specific key (Del, F1, Esc) will be indicated, pressing which launches the BIOS.

Keys to enter BIOS

Here is a table of keys to enter the BIOS for most motherboard manufacturers:

By the way, you need to press the button many times until the BIOS window appears, otherwise you may skip the stage of launching it.

Examples

Attention!

Depending on the manufacturer, the BIOS interface differs significantly. However, this should not scare you: the procedure remains the same in all versions.

Unfortunately, the mouse does not work in the BIOS, so navigation is carried out only using the keyboard: arrows are used to move, and the Enter key is used to select a specific option. To better understand how the BIOS works, let's see how to change the boot priority in two different interfaces.

If you have an old BIOS interface, then to change the boot priority you need to go to the section "Advanced BIOS Features".

1. Find the line "Hard Disk Boot Priority" or "First Boot Device".
2. Press Enter and use the arrows to select a value "USB-Flash"(“Removable”, “USB-HDD0”, “Name of flash drive”).
3. To save settings click "Safe and exit SETUP" in the main menu.

After successfully installing Windows, you will need to repeat this operation, returning the HDD (boot from hard disk) to first place.

Newer computers have a BIOS version from AMI installed (although more and more often motherboard manufacturers are installing BIOSes of their own design).

The operating principle remains the same:

1. Go to the tab "Boot" on the top panel.
2. Open section "Boot Device Priority".
3. Get on the line "1st Boot Device" and press Enter.
4. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to set the value "USB"(or "CDROM", if you are installing from disk. There is no CD/DVD-ROM in the picture above because it is not on that computer at all).
5. Click F10 and select an option "OK" to save changes and exit BIOS.

Do not be alarmed if you have a BIOS with a different interface and do not have the names of tabs and sections described above. Just find a tab that has the word "Boot" in its name. Inside it, you will definitely find the boot priority, which can be changed by installing a USB flash device with a Windows distribution in first place.

In order to install the operating system on your computer, you need to configure it to boot from a flash drive or disk. Therefore, in today’s article we will look at how to enable booting from a flash drive in the BIOS. This must be done to begin installing Windows. Because if you just insert a bootable USB flash drive with the system, nothing will happen. Your old OS will start loading. If you have not yet downloaded the latest version of the operating system, then read the article - How. Let's now proceed directly to the setup process itself.

We use the Boot Menu to boot from a flash drive.

After restarting the computer, it is not always necessary to go into the motherboard BIOS for configuration. First, let's try to use the Boot Menu. To do this, before the system starts to boot, you must press the “F8” key, thereby a special window should appear with a list (boot menu) of connected drives. In this menu you need to select our flash drive with the OS recorded on it.

After this, it should begin, namely copying the installation files to the hard drive. After the computer reboots itself, Windows installation will begin from the hard drive.

If for some reason you are unable to open the boot menu, then let’s start figuring out how to set the BIOS to boot from a flash drive. But first, I want to briefly tell you what a BIOS is.

BIOS (basic input/output system - “basic input/output system”)- a special set of embedded software that implements the application programming interface necessary for working with computer components and devices connected to it.

In order to get into the BIOS settings, you need to have time to press the “Delete” or “F2” button or any other button, depending on when the computer is initially booting. At this point in time, the monitor will display the logo of the motherboard manufacturer or information about the processor, memory and hard drives. In this case, something like this will be written at the bottom of the screen:

• "Press Del to enter Setup"
• “Press F2 for Settings” or similar.

After clicking one of the buttons, you will be taken to the BIOS settings. Depending on the board, the software of the basic I/O system may vary. I propose to consider the most popular options, and also configure them to boot from a flash drive.

If your board has an AMI BIOS installed, then in order to set the disk loading order, you and I need to perform the following steps:

Note! The flash drive must be connected before you enter the BIOS, otherwise it will not be detected for you.

If your motherboard has an AWARD or Phoenix BIOS, then to configure Windows boot from a flash drive, take the following steps:

Many modern laptops have the InsydeH2O BIOS installed, and many are faced with the problem of setting the disk boot order. Let's look at this problem together. We will carry out everything point by point so as not to make mistakes.

Note! If you need to install booting from a CD or DVD, then you need to put “Internal Optic Disc Drive” in the first place.

1. After the settings have been made, go to the “Exit” menu section and select the “Save and Exit Setup” item, thereby we will save the changes made and exit the BIOS.

Currently, many motherboard manufacturers install, instead of the usual BIOS, UEFI software, which has a graphical interface, as well as support for mouse control and a Russified menu. This makes it easier for us to solve the problem of how to set the BIOS to boot from a flash drive.

If you are lucky, and when you go into the BIOS you see that the graphical interface has loaded in front of you, then you need to go to additional settings by pressing the “F7” key or the corresponding button in the main window. In the menu that appears, you need to go to the “Loading” tab and in the “Disk loading order” item, put our bootable USB flash drive in first place.

After the changes have been made, press the “F10” key and select “Save settings and restart the computer.”

Let's summarize.

In today's article, we looked at how to set the BIOS to boot from a flash drive. At the same time, I tried to show in as much detail as possible how this is done in different BIOS versions. As a rule, all settings boil down to placing the bootable USB flash drive or disk with the system first in the queue. Many users have difficulties with this, since the interface is in English. But as you can see, developers are doing everything possible to adapt the BIOS for all users. This is clearly visible in the new UEFI software.

Most often, we think about the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) 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 that contains available devices for booting 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 the Windows installation disk, the following request may appear 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 a graphical interface for booting 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, hard drive 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 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.

Reinstalling the operating system from a flash card is practiced in connection with the abandonment of optical drives. A fairly large number of devices, ranging from netbooks to budget models of system units, do not have a DVD-ROM included in their assembly.

In addition, external drives are used for a number of specific, but not often performed tasks:

1. Resetting or changing the administrator password in the Windows operating system.
2. Loading a mini operating system (to clean your computer from viruses or registry errors).
3. Installation/reinstallation of the system.
4. Launching specific utilities (for testing hardware, working with a hard drive).

You can boot from a flash drive in the following ways:

This menu becomes available during the POST procedure, when starting/restarting the computer. Login methods differ for different motherboard models. The main methods and key combinations are shown in the table.

Some manufacturers, such as Lenovo, create a special button to enter the BIOS, or bootloader. It is usually located next to the device's power button.

After entering the bootloader, you must select the primary device. In the figure, this device is a Kingston flash card.

Important! Depending on the bootloader menu, it may change and acquire new features, such as: control with the mouse, booting via a network card, etc. You should be guided by the name of your flash drive.

Changing boot order in UEFI

UEFI (from English Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, unified extensible firmware interface) is the successor to BIOS. Essentially, this is the same non-volatile memory firmware, adapted for modern operating systems. This software most often has a graphical user interface. UEFI is aimed at the average user who is unfamiliar with the working methods of programmers and system administrators. Logging into UEFI is the same as entering BIOS.

Step 1. Launch the UEFI interface.

Step 2. Select the device that should have the highest boot priority and designate it as the primary startup device.

Important! Most common boot orderUEFI is changed by dragging the mouse, that is, you need to hover the pointer over the icon (or line) corresponding to the flash card, and, holding down the left mouse button, move it to the far left (or top - depending on the firmware version and the manufacturer of the computer's motherboard) position.

The basic I/O system in Russia is represented by three developers:

To enter, the “F2” or “Delete” keys are usually used, however, by analogy with the “Boot” menu, there may be other options - “Esc”, or a special button.

Important! Methods for starting the basic input/output system are displayed on the screen when the computer boots. Refer to the “Setup” or “Settings” markings.

Changing AMI BIOS boot priority

Step 1. Enter BIOS.

Important! The flash card must be inserted intoUSB connector before starting the computer, otherwise the BIOS will not be able to recognize it, since the functionPlug&Play (insert and play) is not provided in it.

Step 2. Using the “right” and “left” keys, switch to the “Boot” menu (from English - download).

Step 3. Go to the “Hard Disk Drives” submenu. Highlight the first line (“1st Drive”) and press Enter. In the window that opens, using the “up” and “down” buttons, highlight the line corresponding to your flash card and press “Enter”.

Step 4. Return to the “Boot” tab and enter the “Boot Device Priority” submenu (from English - boot device priority). As in the previous step, you should specify the flash card as the device with the highest priority.

Step 5. To save changes to non-volatile memory, use the “F10” key and confirm saving the changes.

Changing AWARD/Phoenix BIOS boot priority

Step 1. Enter BIOS.

Step 2. Using the “up” and “down” keys, switch to the “Advanced BIOS Features” menu (from English - advanced BIOS settings). In the “First Boot Device” line, select the flash card you need, similar to the AMI BIOS method.

On a note! Depending on the firmware version, either the name of the flash card or simply its symbol (USB-HDD or USB-Flash) can be displayed.

Step 3. To write changes to non-volatile memory, use the “F10” key (or select the “Save & Exit Setup” line on the first BIOS screen) and confirm saving the changes made.

Conclusion

The article discussed several options for booting a computer from a flash drive. These methods can be used for a whole range of tasks - from installing an operating system to working with an already installed system, or individual hardware parts. After completing the work, do not forget to set the normal (default) priority of boot devices to avoid problems with turning on your computer.

Video - How to boot a computer from a flash 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 it’s best to launch a bootable USB flash drive 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. However, 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 the latest versions of Windows) are equipped with a new boot interface. 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 the new interface is 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 will also tell you how to boot from a flash drive on devices with Gigabyte motherboards (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 on an Asus, Toshiba, Samsung, etc. laptop 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.