Solved Boot from USB

Can anyone help with this one.
I thought I had my boot order set to boot from usb first. I went into uefi settings to check and I could not find it in any of the settings even under boot.
My laptop is an Alienware Area 51m R2 and the motherboard is American Megatrends, this pc is still on Windows 10. I have recently updated the bios, any help gratefully received.. thanks

Is there a specific key which can be clicked as soon as you see the PC manufacturer’s logo for the temporary boot menu- say F7 or F12?
Is the boot USB connected when you change the boot order? It shouldn’t be needed to do this though.
The answers here may help:

Bastet said:

Is there a specific key which can be clicked as soon as you see the PC manufacturer’s logo for the temporary boot menu- say F7 or F12?
Is the boot USB connected when you change the boot order? It shouldn’t be needed to do this though.
The answers here may help:

New Alienware 17 - How do I change the boot order in BIOS?

Hey everyone, just got the new alienware 17 yesterday and I've been trying for ages to get it to boot from the ssd. I cloned the original hard drive using samsungs software, but when I go into bios there isn't any option to change the boot drive. I've...

uk.alienwarearena.com

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Yes, the normal F keys. I can get to the EUFI menu but cannot find the boot order. no I have not connect the recovery drive because I haven't created yet. I am just checking everything is in order. I am not having any problems, I am just getting this machine ready to swap it to Win 11 as well

Does clicking F7 or F12 allow you reach the temp boot menu? This key may be F2.
The link I posted suggests that in order to see the boot options you must use Legacy boot.
Are you using fast startup? If so please disable this & restart.

The-Hive said:

I can get to the EUFI menu but cannot find the boot order. no I have not connect the recovery drive because I haven't created yet. I am just checking everything is in order.

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You don't need to change the boot order in order to boot from a USB, you can use the one time boot menu.

To get to the UEFI bios you pressed F2 at start up, didn't you? In addition to entering Diagnostics or System Setup, you should also see a one time boot menu listing all available boot devices. If a bootable USB is plugged in before you power up, then it will appear in this list. Just select it to boot from it.

Only bootable devices that are present at power up will be listed, so you need to make a bootable USB before you can test this.

Dell said:

To enter one time boot menu, turn on your computer, and then press F2 immediately.

The one-time boot menu displays the devices that you can boot from including the diagnostic option. The boot menu options are:

• Removable Drive (if available)
• STXXXX Drive (if available)
  NOTE: XXX denotes the SATA drive number.
• Optical Drive (if available)
• SATA Hard Drive (if available)
• Diagnostics

The boot sequence screen also displays the option to access the System Setup screen.

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Bastet said:

Does clicking F7 or F12 allow you reach the temp boot menu? This key may be F2.
The link I posted suggests that in order to see the boot options you must use Legacy boot.
Are you using fast startup? If so please disable this & restart.

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Just checked. The manual says f2 or f12 but neither work, and I do have fast startup enabled. Thanks so much I will try that

Bree said:

You don't need to change the boot order in order to boot from a USB, you can use the one time boot menu.

To get to the UEFI bios you pressed F2 at start up, didn't you? In addition to entering Diagnostics or System Setup, you should also see a one time boot menu listing all available boot devices. If a bootable USB is plugged in before you power up, then it will appear in this list. Just select it to boot from it.

Only bootable devices that are present at power up will be listed, so you need to make a bootable USB before you can test this.

Alienware Area-51m R2 Service Manual | Dell UK

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Thanks for reply, I did try f2, f12, and esc nothing worked. the only way I can get to bios is via the advanced boot, but there are no options. I take on board what you said and will try that. Dell seem to have many different options depending what bios/uefi and motherboard you have. I guess If i create a bootable usb with Macrium reflect it will bring up a menu at startup. Many thanks.... Rod

F2 gets the bios menu on my Dell, F12 gets the boot menu

Are you able to test the USB drive on another PC at least until the first setup screen? It's important because in some BIOSes, maybe in your too, non-bootable drives will not be shown in the boot menu. And you should use the same type of bootable drive: MBR drive will not boot in UEFI, at least if the BIOS doesn't support the compatibility mode.

The-Hive said:

Just checked. The manual says f2 or f12 but neither work, and I do have fast startup enabled. Thanks so much I will try that

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Ok.. did you try that via a restart or shutdown/cold boot? I've found the shutdown works while the restart may not.

Works on both restart and cold start

CornishRattler said:

Works on both restart and cold start

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I've notice doesn't in every situation.

BunnyJ said:

I've notice doesn't in every situation.

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Hmm.....It's never failed to on mine every time I've required it

CornishRattler said:

Hmm.....It's never failed to on mine every time I've required it

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That was called a suggestion. It can't hurt to try.

Instead of pressing and holding the F2 key have you tried switching on the computer and then immediately keep tapping the F2 key? Worth a try.

Does this help: Accessing the BIOS on your Alienware System

'People' can't seem to escape from using the term "BIOS" even though UEFI is not the same as BIOS.

Starting with all but the essential devices -monitor, keyboard, & mouse - connected

1. Load the USB drive into an available port
2. Boot up your device
3. As soon as the Dell logo appears, KEEP tapping the F12 key
4. If the USB drive is 'bootable', a purple line will appear below the Dell logo and you will then be presented with a temporary boot menu
5. Select the USB boot drive and hit enter.
6. If you then can't boot from the USB drive, shut down your device, move the USB drive to another port & repeat steps 1 to 5.
7. If after you've tried all your USB ports, this points to the USB drive not being bootable

I have a Dell Inspiron 3670 and I found out by 'trial & error' that it will only boot from one particular USB port

You don't need to set up your boot priority. Just find out what F key will give the boot menu screen and select the USB drive from there.

One of these links may be useful:

According to Dell, F12 is indeed used to access the one time boot menu on that Alienware model. one time boot Not sure why "The-Hive" isn't getting that.