How to Boot From a USB Device (Flash Drive or Ext HDD)There are lots of reasons you might want to boot from a USB device, like an external hard drive or a flash drive, but it's usually so you can run special kinds of software. When you boot from a USB device, what you're actually doing is running your computer with the operating system that's installed on the USB device. When you start your computer normally, you're running it with the operating system installed on your internal hard drive - Windows, Linux, etc.
Follow these easy steps to boot from a flash drive, an external hard drive, or some other bootable USB device: How to Boot From a USB Device. Time Required: Booting from a USB device usually takes 1. Change the BIOS boot order so the USB device option is listed first. The BIOS is rarely setup this way by default.
If the USB boot option is not first in the boot order, your PC will start . Leaving your computer configured this way shouldn't cause problems unless you plan on leaving the bootable USB device attached all the time. Attach the USB device to your computer via any available USB port. Note: Creating a bootable flash drive or configuring an external hard drive as bootable is a task in itself. Chances are you made it to my instructions here because you know whatever USB device you have should be bootable after properly configuring BIOS. See my How to Burn an ISO File to a USB Drive tutorial for general instructions on doing exactly that, which tends to be the reason most people need to figure out how to boot from one. Restart your computer.
Watch for a Press any key to boot from external device.. The USB boot process usually starts immediately. Your computer should now boot from the flash drive or USB based external hard drive. Note: What happens now depends on what the bootable USB device was intended for.
If you're booting from Windows 1. Windows 8 installation files on a flash drive, the operating system setup will begin. If you're booting from a DBAN flash drive you created, it will start. You get the idea.
What to Do When the USB Device Won't Boot. If you tried the above steps but your computer did not boot from the USB device, check out some of the tips below. There are several places that this process can get hung up at.
Recheck the boot order in BIOS (Step 1). The number one reason a bootable flash drive or another USB device won't boot is because BIOS is not configured to check the USB port first. Didn't find a ? If your computer was manufactured around 2. If your computer is newer, check for some other ways that the USB option might be worded. In some BIOS versions, it's called . Other connected USB devices, like printers, external media card readers, etc., could be consuming too much power or causing some other problem, which is preventing the computer from booting from a flash drive or another device. Unplug all other USB devices and try again.
Switch to another USB port. The BIOS on some motherboards only check the first few USB ports. Switch to another USB port and restart your computer.
Copy the files to the USB device again. If you created the bootable flash drive or external hard drive yourself, which you probably did, repeat whatever steps you took again. You may have made a mistake during the process. See How to Burn an ISO File to USB if you started with an ISO image. Getting an ISO file onto a USB drive, like a flash drive, isn't as easy as just expanding or copying the file there.
How To Boot From A USB Flash Drive. For starters this is still a developing science and most people have had good luck with at least one of these methods. Learn how to create XP USB installer using Komku-SP-USB.exe software and then install Windows XP from USB flash drive. Easy to follow guide.
Multiple partitions on a USB Flash drive. A useful feature in both BootIce and RMPrepUSB is that they can re-arrange the Master Boot Record partition table entries. A Bootable USB: Freeware to Create Bootable USB Drive to Install Windows Vista and Later. Imagine a situation where you need to install Windows Vista, Windows 7 or. Create a Bootable USB Flash Drive for Hiren's Boot CD - diagnostic and recovery tool-set - ERD Commander replacement. Recover data, fix a damaged PC etc.
Open your Windows Explorer, you should see the USB storage drive in the inventory. Right click and select Format. Select NTFS from the drop down bar.
Note: This operating system may be installed over previous versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista by completing a clean installation, or Windows 7, and Windows 8.1. How to Install Knoppix to a USB Flash Drive using Windows and our third party Universal USB Installer. Knoppix Linux Trying out Linux should be easy; with the help of Linux Live USB Creator it is. Quickly get any Linux distribution to boot from your USB key, complete with a.