Solved Does my Bios supports booting from an USB?

camelia · Mar 18, 2023

Hello,

Win 10 v22H2 (OS Build 19045.2728)

Does this computer supports booting from an USB stick?
If yes what is the option USB-?
Thanks
Camelia

badrobot · Mar 18, 2023

Plug in your USB, restart your computer and keep pressing F12 until you get to boot menu and look for your USB and select it.

Ghot · Mar 18, 2023

@camelia

Those three USB items are NOT USB sticks.
In order top to bottom, they are...
USB floppy drive
USB Zip drive
USB Optical drive

I see a scroll bar on the right... what's below those three USB items?

And as @badrobot mentioned... the Boot Menu is the best option...

I don't know "which" computer we are talking about, but here are the keys to access the Boot Menu for any comp...
If it's the Gigabyte board in your specs, then as mentioned it's the F12 key.

This is my Boot Menu.
If I had a USB stick plugged in, you'd see two of them on this list.
One would be: UEFI-USB... and the other would be just plain USB...
The one with the UEFI prefix is for a GPT disk, and the plain one is for an MBR disk.

/edit And he's not really a "bad" robot.

badrobot · Mar 18, 2023

NavyLCDR · Mar 18, 2023

badrobot said:
View attachment 55719

That is not universal, though.

badrobot · Mar 18, 2023

NavyLCDR said:
That is not universal, though.

I am sure you know that I know because my Fkey is F11 and I looked up the OP's mobo and this is not a universal post.

NavyLCDR · Mar 18, 2023

badrobot said:
I am sure you know that I know because I my Fkey is F11 and I looked up the OP's mobo and this is not a universal post.

I apologize. I did not click the My Computer arrow on the OP to see the make/model listed. My mistake!

badrobot · Mar 18, 2023

NavyLCDR said:
I apologize. I did not click the My Computer arrow on the OP to see the make/model listed. My mistake!

No worries.

Dru2 · Mar 18, 2023

Hmmm.... I'd of been argued down. No matter the proof.

Anyway, yes, the OP's board supports booting from USB device a seen by the USB options in the BIOS. Add that I also have a Gigabyte X-58 board (GA-X58A-UD5).

bobkn · Mar 18, 2023

Are you really running Windows 11 on the X58 system?

(Its most recent BIOS update was in 2011.)

camelia · Mar 19, 2023

Ghot said:
@camelia

Those three USB items are NOT USB sticks.
In order top to bottom, they are...
USB floppy drive
USB Zip drive
USB Optical drive

I see a scroll bar on the right... what's below those three USB items?

Here is the rest options...

camelia · Mar 19, 2023

bobkn said:
Are you really running Windows 11 on the X58 system?

(Its most recent BIOS update was in 2011.)

My System can not run Windows 11

MoKiChU · Mar 19, 2023

camelia said:
Hello,

Win 10 v22H2 (OS Build 19045.2728)

Does this computer supports booting from an USB stick?
If yes what is the option USB-?
Thanks
Camelia
View attachment 55714

Hi,

Yes, it's USB-HDD.

NavyLCDR · Mar 19, 2023

MoKiChU said:
Hi,

Yes, it's USB-HDD.

Agreed!

Dru2 · Mar 19, 2023

MoKiChU said:
Hi,

Yes, it's USB-HDD.

I don't think it matters as long as it's "USB" but to be "safe" USB-HDD is a good choice. It's been ages since I touched my X-58 build.

Winuser · Mar 19, 2023

camelia said:
Here is the rest options...

View attachment 55767

Those options bring back some good memories. I have a question for anyone that might know. Why is there a Disabled option? I would think that would make the computer unbootable.

TechnoMage2021 · Mar 19, 2023

camelia said:
My System can not run Windows 11

Wanna bet?
It just depends on where you get your Win-11 ISO from.
I'm happily running Win-11 on a PC with a BIOS date of 2008. (actually, several PC's of comparable age)
The only REAL hurdle for installing Win-11 is that the CPU MUST be 64 bit capable.

Now, as for the question about the Flash Drive booting up a PC. It only demands that the USB device be set up to be a "Bootable" drive.
That takes a little doing. They don't come out of the box, "Bootable".
I have many bootable Flash Drives, and even one SD card that is bootable. Some of my USB's will boot to DOS and some to Windows.

Cheers!
TM

Ghot · Mar 19, 2023

Winuser said:
Why is there a Disabled option? I would think that would make the computer unbootable.

It's there if you need to make that specific "device" unbootable.
Like I have Win 10 on one drive and Win 11 on another identical drive.

With the disable option, I can... in the BIOS, disable one or the other, and just take it out of the boot sequence.
Then no one could boot from that device. It wouldn't even show on the F# Boot Menu.

Like if you didn't want your kid, or someone in the office, to be able to boot from the optical drive, you could just "disable" it.

Maybe an IT tech would have his own Linux drive, for troubleshooting, but doesn't want anyone else to access it,
so he disables it.
Without a BIOS password... they couldn't get into the BIOS to change that, and it won't show on the Boot Menu,
which they could access.

Winuser · Mar 19, 2023

Ghot said:
It's there if you need to make that specific "device" unbootable.
Like I have Win 10 on one drive and Win 11 on another identical drive.

With the disable option, I can... in the BIOS, disable one or the other, and just take it out of the boot sequence.

Then no one could boot from that device. It wouldn't even show on the F# Boot Menu.

Like if you didn't want your kid, or someone in the office, to be able to boot from the optical drive, you could just "disable" it.

Maybe an IT tech would have his own Linux drive, for troubleshooting, but doesn't want anyone else to access it,
so he disables it.
Without a BIOS password... they couldn't get into the BIOS to change that, and it won't show on the Boot Menu, which thecould access... even without the BIOS password.

That does make sense. I was thinking of the computer not being bootable and not selected devices.

Ghot · Mar 19, 2023

Winuser said:
That does make sense. I was thinking of the computer not being bootable and not selected devices.

Someone at American Megatrends, probably had some seriously clever kids at home.
He probably thought: "Hey, with a BIOS password and a disable switch for certain bootable devices, I can stop the kids cold".

With that and the parental controls in Windows... they'll NEVER be able to install Limewire.

For a few years in the early 2000's I got a lot of calls from parents... "My kid installed something called Limewire and now my computer won't do what I tell it!"

And then sometimes... it wasn't the kids fault. ^^