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How to boot from an “installation” DVD or flash drive - BIOS setup in pictures

Today we will look at how you can boot from a flash drive on laptops from various manufacturers. The article was written for users who have difficulties downloading using a USB Flash card. Examples of how to make a USB Flash out of yours will not be considered here. bootable USB flash drive.

Booting from an Acer laptop flash drive

Note: Friends, keep in mind that we have a separate article on our website: How to boot a new Acer laptop with UEFI BIOS from a flash drive and install Windows 7.
Let's start with an Acer laptop, first of all we connect our Corsair Voyager flash drive to the laptop, then press F12 when loading,
then you need to select our flash drive in the boot menu that appears and press Enter, it will boot from the flash drive.
If you are unable to log in boot menu Acer laptop using the F12 key when booting, which means the Boot Menu option is disabled in the BIOS and needs to be enabled.
When loading, press F2, the initial Information tab, go to the Main tab, see the F12 Boot Menu parameter, set it to Enabled,
then press F10 to save the settings, reboot, press F12 when loading and our boot menu appears, select our flash drive in it and press Enter, booting from the flash drive occurs.
If the boot menu of the Acer laptop still does not appear, then go to the BIOS again (when loading F2), the Boot tab. We select our flash drive and put it in the first position using the F6 key, then press F10 to save the settings, reboot and boot from the flash drive.

Booting from a Toshiba laptop flash drive

To enter the boot menu of a Toshiba laptop, first of all we connect our flash drive to the laptop. Next, to get into the boot menu of this laptop, we need to press F12 when loading, as we can see, the laptop itself tells us this, displaying this message when turned on: press F2 go to setup utility, F12 go to boot manager (press F2 to enter in the BIOS, and F12 to enter the boot menu).
When loading the laptop, press F12 and get into the boot menu, select our flash drive here, if you connected a flash drive to the laptop, its name will be here. Press Enter and if your flash drive is bootable, it will boot from the flash drive.
If for some reason you cannot boot your laptop from a flash drive using the boot menu, then you can enter the BIOS and change the boot device priority there. We often press F2 when booting a Toshiba laptop and get into the BIOS of this laptop. The initial Main tab, go to the Boot tab (responsible for loading the laptop) and see our Corsair Voyager flash drive in sixth position. We select it using the keyboard and press F6, thus moving our flash drive to the first position, then press F10 to save the settings we changed, the reboot occurs and the laptop boots from the flash drive.

Booting from a Samsung laptop flash drive

Friends, if you have a new Samsung laptop, for example 2012-2013, then read this article “Downloading Samsung laptop from a flash drive”, for all others, these instructions are also suitable.
When loading, press Esc or F10, go to the boot menu and select our flash drive. If the boot menu does not appear, then go to the BIOS and press F2 or DEL when loading. In the BIOS Boot tab, select the first option Boot Device Priority and enter it, here we select our flash drive and use the F6 key to put it in the first position. Next, press F10 to save the settings and reboot, reboot, then boot from our flash drive.

Booting from an HP laptop flash drive

I have never had any problems with this laptop, but if you have a new HP Pavillion laptop and it has a UEFI BIOS, then these instructions may not help you, read our other article How to boot an HP Pavillion laptop from a flash drive. For all other HP laptops, these instructions are suitable. We connect our flash drive to the laptop. When you turn on the laptop, a message appears on the screen: “Press ESC to load the start menu,” click.
Next, click F-9 Boot Device Options (change boot settings)
and we get to the boot menu. The first device is now the disk drive, if your flash drive is connected to the laptop, then its name will also be present here, select our flash drive here and press Enter or F10, it will reboot and then boot from the flash drive.
If you cannot enter the boot menu of an HP laptop, then go to the BIOS, press ESC when loading, then F-10, get into the BIOS, go to the System Configuration tab, then Boot Options, press Enter

As we see the parameter secure boot Secure Boot is enabled in the BIOS, disable it, set it to the “Disabled” position, and set the “Legacy support” option to the “Enabled” position, a warning appears, select Yes, then press F-10 and confirm by pressing Yes that the settings are saved and rebooted. After rebooting, a message window appears

A change to the operating system secure boot mode is pending. Please enter the pass code displayed below to complete the change. If you did not initiate this request, press the ESC key

This message translates as follows:
To change Safe Boot Mode, please enter the code below to complete the change. If you did not send this request (for a change), then press ESC to exit without changing, I think you already understand that the message asks us to enter a code on the laptop keyboard and press Enter 8721, after which your changes in the UEFI BIOS settings will be saved and the laptop will reboot, and after the reboot, press ESC, get to the “start menu”, press F-9, select Boot Device Options (change boot settings), get to the boot menu and your flash drive is already present here, select it and press Enter. That's all, your laptop will boot from the flash drive.

For safety, I advise you to turn everything back on, since this option was invented specifically for ak additional remedy protection against rootkits malware applied on HP laptops.

Booting from an MSI laptop flash drive

When loading the laptop, press the F11 key and get into the boot menu, then select our Corsair Voyager flash drive and Enter, it boots from the flash drive.
If the boot menu is not available, press the DEL key during boot and enter the BIOS, then go to the Boot tab, select our flash drive and, without releasing Shift, press +, thereby moving our flash drive to the first position. Press F10 to save the settings, the settings are saved and the laptop boots from the flash drive.

Booting from a Sony laptop flash drive

When loading, press F11; if we don’t get into the boot menu, then press F2 when loading and enter the BIOS, go to the Boot tab. First, we set the External Device Boot: parameter to Enabled, this allows us to boot the laptop from a flash drive, but that’s not all. We see that the first boot device is set to the disk drive, select it using the keyboard and press Enter, in the menu that opens, select External Device (this is our flash drive), press Enter. Now the first boot device is our flash drive. Press F4, this saves the settings and reboots, then boots from the flash drive.

Booting from an Asus laptop flash drive

When booting, press the delete key and enter the laptop’s Bios, go to the Security tab and set the “Secure Boot” option to Disabled.
Then go to the Boot tab and select the Fast Boot option ( fast loading) to Disabled.
Next, press the F10 key (save the changes we made to the laptop BIOS) and the laptop reboots.
Once again we enter the BIOS and go to the Boot tab, set the Launch CSM (advanced boot) option to Enabled,
We go down to the Boot Option Priorities and Boot Option #1 option and enter it by pressing Enter, in the menu that appears, using the arrows on the keyboard, select the name of our flash drive and press Enter. Here we also put our Corsair Voyager flash drive in first place.
We press F10 to save the settings, reboot and our Asus laptop boots from the flash drive.
You can also use the boot menu of the Asus laptop; to do this, in the initial phase of booting the laptop, often press the Esc key, you will get to the boot menu, use the arrows on the keyboard to select your bootable USB flash drive in it and press Enter.

How to boot a Packard Bell laptop from a flash drive

When loading, press the F2 key, or less often F6, and get into the UEFI BIOS of the laptop, here we go to the Boot tab.
If you connected a flash drive to it before turning on the laptop, it may not be detected immediately in this menu.
Set the option Boot Mode to Legacy BIOS position.
And set the Secure Boot option to Disabled.
Next, press the F10 key, this saves the settings we made in the laptop BIOS Packard Bell, then reboot, press the F2 key when loading and enter the BIOS again.
Now the flash drive should be detected. Place the flash drive in the first position, save the settings and reboot. If the bootable flash drive is made according to our articles, then the download will be successful.

If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.

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Let's say you have a boot disk with Windows in your hands. Or antivirus disk Dr.Web LiveCD. Or maybe you want to install Linux. You insert the disk into the computer, but suddenly the question arises: “What to do next?” If you are an inexperienced (yet) computer user, this question will be one of the first to arise. For experienced users also sometimes you need to know the boot order in different versions BIOS. So my instructions are suitable for everyone.

So, we are faced with a task: we need to tell the computer which disk it should boot from first. To do this you need to go into the BIOS settings. How to do this - read on.

Which button should I press?

The very first question that arises for an unprepared user. How to boot from a boot disk or flash drive?
Two solutions:

  1. Open the boot menu with a list of connected boot devices and select the one you need from the list.
  2. Set up BIOS motherboard so that the operating system is loaded primarily from the desired device, and not from hard drive.

Option 1 simple, but not all BIOS support such a menu. In any case, it's worth a try. Typically, the boot menu appears when you press F11 or F12 immediately after turning on the computer. Less often - Esc, F8 or other buttons. Sometimes it is supported but disabled. In this case, read the instructions for your computer's motherboard.

Option 2 It always works - there are boot settings in almost every BIOS. I will tell you about the setup.

We need to get into the BIOS settings. BIOS (or its improved UEFI equivalent) - special system, which loads immediately after turning on the computer. The BIOS does not depend on Windows or anything else because it is located on a memory chip soldered into the motherboard. You can read more about terminology.
Typically, to enter the BIOS settings you need to press Delete button, F2 or Esc 1-3 seconds after turning on the computer. How to find out which button to press: after turning on the PC, look for the line Press Del to enter Setup on the screen (where instead of Del there may be F2 or another key). This will be the inscription about which button to press. Example:

Another example:

Instead of a black screen with diagnostic text, the logo of the laptop or motherboard manufacturer may be displayed, then the prompt will look like this:

By the way, in the last two screenshots there are hints for the boot menu button (which is called easier) - on the first it is Esc, on the second F12. Let me remind you that this option is preferable, but is not always available.

On loading screens some laptops do not have an inscription, then look at the key table
Press the desired button and get into the BIOS. If you press the wrong button, nothing bad will happen, because... the computer will simply ignore your actions or show some other BIOS add-on that will not contain what you need. Then you need to press Reset (reboot button on the system unit) or Ctrl Alt Del to restart the computer.

After clicking the desired button and the appearance of the BIOS screen, an ambush awaits us - there are many versions of BIOS, their settings look different. There is good news - they all most often have the same points, so you can figure out what's what. There are two BIOS versions that are very different from each other, we will look at them below.

Please note that similar tips can be found in the instructions for your laptop or desktop computer motherboard. If you do not have instructions in paper form, you can always download it from the model page on the manufacturer’s official website.

After reading this article and looking at the explanatory illustrations, you will be able to configure booting from the Windows installation disk on any computer.

Popular BIOS version. It is, in particular, on many Acer laptops:

We need to get to the Boot section. Press the right arrow three times:

Here is a list of devices from which you can boot. The names of the lines are different on each computer, but the first two words always tell what kind of device it is:

  • IDE CD – CD/DVD drive
  • IDE HDD - hard drive
  • USB HDD – portable hard drive
  • USB KEY – flash drive.

To set the disk drive first (line starting with IDE CD), i.e. change the boot priority, use the up/down arrows to highlight this item, then press F5/F6(on some versions of this BIOS you need to press – or), put it first in the list. It will be something like this:

To save settings made, click right arrow to get to the menu Exit(Exit), select menu item Exit Saving Changes(Exit and save changes) and press Enter twice in a row.

Note: The Exit Discarding Changes menu option allows you to exit the BIOS without saving the settings you have made.

The computer will restart and instead of loading Windows, it should start booting from the selected drive. That is, for example, the installation of Windows will begin. Mission Complete!

The main menu of this BIOS looks like this:

To change the boot order on AWARD BIOS, go to the menu Advanced BIOS Features :

Select a menu item First Boot Device(First boot device), click Enter and put a dot opposite CDROM (Removable, if you need to boot from a flash drive or portable hard drive):

Press Enter and return to previous page settings, go to Second Boot Device(Second boot device) and set it there Hard Disk – this will allow your computer to boot normally when the DVD or flash drive is removed.

Press Y on the keyboard, then Enter - the settings will be saved and the computer will restart.

Ready! Now, when a boot disk is inserted, the computer will boot from it first, and not from the hard drive. If the disk is not inserted, it will boot from the next device in the list.

Old version of AWARD BIOS

I've only seen this on old computers before 2003. The main menu looks like this:

To configure the boot order, you need to go to BIOS menu FEATURES SETUP:
Paragraph Boot Sequence is responsible for the loading order. Buttons PageUp And PageDown(or Enter and arrows - unfortunately, I have no way to check) you need to set CDROM first, C second (this is the hard drive), third is not important - set any.

Similar to the aforementioned AWARD BIOS. It most often contains the inscription BIOS Setup Utility without any explanatory names.
Use the “right arrow” button on the keyboard to move to the tab Boot:

On the Boot page you need to go to Boot Device Priority:

There are points here 1st Drive, 2nd Drive– “First boot device”, “Second boot device”. You need to open 1st Drive and specify CDROM (for a disk drive) or USB (for booting from a flash drive) there; in 2nd Drive specify SATA or IDE, depending on what kind of hard drive you have and which item will be available in the menu.

Another AMI BIOS

Everything is clear here, look at the picture:

Buttons and – You can cycle through menu items by pressing a button F10 will call up the option to save settings.

Questions and answers

IN: I can't get into the BIOS settings. What to do?

ABOUT: Make sure you're doing everything right. 99% of problems are due to inattentive reading of the instructions. Everything can be solved if you ask the almighty Google the right question: “motherboard/laptop model, boot settings.”

IN: I configured it as it should, but the error “NTLDR is missing” appears or the cursor blinks at the top left of the screen.

ABOUT: You wrote the boot disk or flash drive incorrectly.

IN: How to boot from a flash drive (or portable hard drive) rather than from a DVD?

O1: You must specify USB-HDD, USB-ZIP or Removable in the boot settings. The item name may vary. In case of problems, read the instructions for the motherboard.

O2: If the BIOS does not support booting from USB devices, you can do bootable DVD with Plop Boot Manager and when booting from it, select the “USB” item in the menu that appears. The advantage of this method is that even on old computers, where USB operates in the slow USB 1.1 mode when booting, the speed will be fast - USB 2.0 mode will turn on. Minus - again, it is not always supported by some motherboards. Read more about Plop

IN:How to make a bootable USB flash drive?

ABOUT: If you need a flash drive with installation of Windows 7 or 8, then go to the section

IN:The article does not contain instructions for setting up my BIOS. Please write!!111

ABOUT: With the advent of motherboards that use UEFI instead of BIOS, arose a large number of different in appearance, but essentially identical screens with settings. Since the settings need to be the same everywhere, either read the article above carefully and find similar items in your BIOS, or read the instructions for your motherboard/laptop.

IN: I configured the BIOS, now nothing loads at all. Help!

ABOUT: In 10 cases out of 10, the problem is inattention or an incorrectly made bootable flash drive/disk. Reset the BIOS settings either by removing the battery for half an hour from turned off computer, or the Load Default Settings menu item. Then do everything again, carefully reading all instructions.

IN: When booting from a flash drive, a blue screen appears.

ABOUT: You made a mistake somewhere when creating a bootable USB flash drive. Read the instructions more carefully or look for another one - there are many ways to create bootable flash drives.

IN: I made a boot disk/flash drive, configured the BIOS, but it still boots from the hard drive.

ABOUT: Either you prepared the boot disk/flash drive incorrectly, or you configured the boot incorrectly. If you are unable to read the instructions carefully, consider whether you will do everything else correctly? Maybe it’s better to contact experienced people (service center)?

Conclusion

Using the information from this article, you can launch bootable disks on any computer or laptop - any LiveCD, installation disk with Windows or Linux, any bootable USB flash drive (if the BIOS supports booting from USB devices).

On modern computers, there are versions of the BIOS (or UEFI) with mouse support, beautiful menu and other, other things. Despite the other appearance, everything is configured according to the same principle as I gave above.

Don't forget after installation (or why else are you setting up the BIOS) to return the boot settings back so that the computer boots normally from the hard drive!

Flash drives have now become an indispensable tool for storing and transferring information to a PC. Most users personal computers use flash drives for Windows installations or Ubuntu. This is due to the fact that you do not need to burn the image to disk, but rather install it directly from a flash drive.

In addition, now most laptop and computer manufacturers, such as Acer and Lenovo, produce desktop and laptop computers without optical drives, which further popularizes installing Windows from a bootable USB flash drive. When installed in this way, many users of laptops and desktop computers experience situations where the BIOS does not see the bootable USB flash drive. In this article we will try to understand in detail how to write an image to a flash drive, and also understand the BIOS settings for correct installation Windows and Ubuntu.

If you are faced with the fact that your flash drive is not detected when you restart your PC, then the first thing you need to do is make sure that The flash drive is really bootable. The fact is that simply copying files to it is not enough.

Moreover, if you have an “absolutely working” bootable flash drive, since you have already installed the system from it many times, then we have to disappoint you: currently there are several types of boot systems and A flash drive that works on one PC will not work on another. To succeed in this case, the system must be rewritten differently.

Therefore, the main part of the article contains detailed instructions on how to properly burn a bootable USB flash drive using various software. The following article contains recommendations for setting up different types BIOS.

Correctly creating a bootable USB flash drive for Windows

First of all, to create a boot disk with Windows, you will need a flash drive with a capacity of 8 GB or higher. You may ask why such a volume is needed. The answer is simple, now setup files Modern operating systems have a capacity of more than 2–4 GB. In these examples, we will look at creating a bootable flash drive on the following popular operating systems:

  • Windows 7;
  • Windows 8.1;
  • Windows 10;

To create a bootable USB flash drive for Windows 7, you need to download a licensed image. You can download it at official page www.microsoft.com/ru-ru/software-download/windows7. To write an image to a flash drive, you will need a proprietary utility. Microsoft Windows USB/DVD Download Tool, which can be downloaded from www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool. After installing the utility, you can begin creating a bootable USB flash drive. After launching the utility, a window will appear in which you need to indicate where the image is located.

After clicking the Next button, you will be taken to the device selection window for recording the image.

In this window you need to click USB button device , after which you will proceed to selecting a flash drive.

By selecting the necessary flash drive, click the Begin copying button. The process of copying the installation files to the USB flash drive will begin. Also be careful, as all previously stored files on the USB drive will be erased.

The inscription in the last window “ Status: Backup completed" will mean that your bootable USB flash drive is ready.

To install Windows 8.1 you need to download official utility MediaCreationTool at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media. After launching the utility, you will be taken to the OS version selection window, where you need to select the language, version and bitness of the operating system.

In the next step, you need to select a device to record Windows. In our case it is “ USB flash memory device»

The next step will give you the opportunity to select a flash drive.

After this, the next step is to download and write files to the drive. Just like with the previous example, all data on the flash drive will be erased.

The last window will notify you that the installation drive is ready.

To make a bootable flash drive for Windows 10, you need to download the utility MediaCreationTool from this page: www.microsoft.com/ru-ru/software-download/windows10. If you run the utility on Windows 7 or 8, the program will offer you two options: update or create installation media. You need to choose the second option.

Creation stage boot drive will be similar to the example for Windows 8.1.

Correctly creating a bootable USB flash drive for Ubuntu 15

For Ubuntu 15, you need to download the UNetbootin utility from https://unetbootin.github.io. After launching the program, you need to select the options as in the figure below and click OK.

The final window will ask you to restart your computer or laptop and boot from the flash drive.

Setting up BIOS to boot from a USB drive

Let's look at an example UEFI boot BIOS from USB drive. For example, we will use the mother MSI board- A58M-E33, which has the latter UEFI version BIOS. To go to UEFI settings BIOS of the A58M-E33 motherboard, you must press the F11 key when starting your laptop or desktop computer. A boot menu will open in front of you, in which you need to select a flash drive, in in this case this is "KingstonDataTraveler 2.0PMAP".

You can also set it in the options so that the flash drive boots immediately from the BIOS. To do this, press the Delete key when loading. You will be taken to the UEFI BIOS main menu.

Then go to the menu " Settings\boot" and place the flash drive in the first place as shown in the picture below.

Now your system will boot from the selected flash device. But if your PC or laptop UEFI and the system does not see the bootable USB flash drive, which means the image was written incorrectly, or “Safe boot” mode is enabled(how to fix it, see the section below “How to configure UEFI to...”).

Booting from a USB drive on older computers

On older BIOS versions, you can also boot from a USB drive. For example, to boot from an old Acer laptop, you need to press the F2 key at startup. Once in the BIOS of your Acer laptop, go to the " BOOT».

Now after saving, your Acer laptop will boot from the flash device. This configuration of the old BIOS is installed on most Acer laptops. Therefore, with other outdated laptop models Acer setup will be similar.

USB drive for UEFI computer

If you buy now new computer or laptop, then it will definitely support UEFI BIOS. There are many benefits to using the new UEFI BIOS, so the bootable flash drive must support UEFI systems.

If you create a bootable USB drive for Windows 7, 8.1 using MediaCreationTool, then the UEFI system will support it. And with the utility Windows USB/DVD Download Tool This option will not work for Windows 7.

Consider the option of creating installation flash drive with support for UEFI systems for Windows 7. To do this, download the program from https://rufus.akeo.ie Rufus. Before starting the program, insert the USB drive. After launch Rufus utilities select Windows image 7. You can do this by clicking on the icon with DVD disc. The program window will look like this.

If all the points match, as shown in the figure, then feel free to press the Start button, after which file recording will begin.

After recording the files, you can use the flash drive to install Windows on the UEFI system. Rufus can also be used for systems with a regular BIOS. Notable feature Rufus programs is fast speed writing the image to the drive.

After reading this material, you will be able to create bootable flash drives for Windows and Linux-like operating systems. And you won’t have questions like: why is my flash drive not in the BIOS or why Windows doesn’t support the UEFI system.

How to configure UEFI so that the computer sees a bootable USB flash drive

There are some considerations for installing Windows 7 or XP on a PC running Windows 8 or 10. Latest versions(8 and 10) configured for UEFI and table GPT partitions, while the previous ones used MBR disk partition.

Appeared in UEFI new feature « Safe boot", ensuring the safety of system booting. New level security blocks booting from external devices such as USB flash drives and CD drives.

Therefore, even if you make an exclusively correct bootable USB flash drive, it still will not appear in the boot menu when you restart your PC or laptop.

To eliminate similar reason you can do the following:

  1. Make sure your USB bootable The flash drive is configured to work with UEFI (how to properly make such a flash drive was described above).
  2. Disable “Safe boot”, and change “Boot Mode” to “CSM/Legacy BIOS Mode”.

Working with bootloader settings requires experience; we do not recommend beginners to perform such actions. We also recommend that you save all important data first, as it may be lost.

To disable "Safe boot" follow these steps:

  1. Restart your computer or laptop and go into BIOS.
  2. Go to the page " BIOS Settings».
  3. In the BIOS security settings, set the option " Safe boot" to the meaning " Disable».
  4. Option " Boot Mode"translate to " CSM(Compability Support Mode)/Legacy BIOS" or " CSM Boot"- possible different options.
  5. Make sure USB is first in the boot sequence settings " Boot Order».
  6. Exit BIOS and save changes " Save and exit".

Video on the topic

Installation using Rufus

8 reasons why the computer does not see the flash drive

How to reinstall Windows or attempt to revive the operating system using Live disks if the laptop does not boot from a flash drive? This does not mean rare devices, which in principle do not support booting from USB drives, but modern laptops, which provide for loading from a flash drive, but do not offer a clear mechanism for setting boot priority from the start. Using the example of one of the tested Asus models Below we will understand the specifics of booting modern laptops from a flash drive and consider common reasons why problems may arise with this matter.

1. Setting boot priority in the hard drive selection menu

The inability to prioritize booting a BIOS flash drive is a problem not only for laptops, but also for PCs, and it is usually due to the fact that many programs for writing bootable media create a bootable flash drive based on the principle of a hard drive. In such cases, the flash drive is not included in the general list of boot device priorities; it must be looked for in a separate menu, where the priority hard drive is determined. In this menu, connected USB media are listed as hard disks along with the laptop’s internal storage devices – HDD or SSD. But even users who have previously encountered this nuance may not remember it, since they may be misled by the fact that in the BIOS UEFI flash drive is listed as a UEFI boot device (with the addition “UEFI” in front). It appears, but in fact the laptop does not boot from such a flash drive. If the bootable flash drive is not UEFI or we are dealing with a laptop based on a regular BIOS, the flash drive needs to be set in the hard drive priority menu. For example, in the Asus laptop we are testing, you need to go to the “Boot” section and install the hard drive in the “Boot Option #1” column.

Then go down to the “Hard Drive BBS Priorities” column.

And choose a flash drive.

3

In the general list of boot devices, the flash drive will not be listed as a UEFI device, and boot will take place from it.

4

But it will come true provided active mode Compatible with Legacy.

2. Enabling support for USB storage devices in BIOS Legacy mode

4. Switching the flash drive to a USB 2.0 port

Many modern laptops have a USB 3.0 port (with a blue tab). This wonderful advantage, If we're talking about about working with USB devices inside Windows, but when booting computers from flash drives whose distribution does not have drivers supporting USB 3.0, problems may arise. These distributions include official ISO installation images of Windows 7 (and versions below), as well as builds of some, usually older, Live disks. The hard way The solution to this problem is to integrate USB 3.0 drivers into the distribution and repackage the ISO image. Simple and recommended - connect a flash drive to a USB 2.0 port on a laptop. Only the USB port on the laptop matters; the fact that the flash drive itself supports USB 3.0 does not play any role. Learn more about the differences between USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports.

Have a great day!

Good day!

The whole process, conditionally, can be divided into 3 stages: this is the preparation of a bootable flash drive; Bios setting; and the installation itself. In principle, this is how this article will be structured...

Before installation: save everything and documents to other media (flash drives, hard drives). If your hard drive is divided into 2 partitions, then you can system partition C copy files to local disk D (during installation, usually only the system partition C is formatted, on which the OS was previously installed).

Experimental laptop for installing Windows 8.1.

The principle of creating a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 8.1 is no different from creating a flash drive with Windows 7 (we talked about this earlier).

What do you need: image with Windows 8.1 OS (more details), flash drive from 8 GB (the image may simply not fit on a smaller one), recording utility.

The flash drive used is Kingston Data Traveler 8Gb. It's been lying on the shelf for a long time, idle...

As for the recording utility, it is best to use one of two: UltraIso. In this article we will look at how to create a bootable USB flash drive using the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool.

2) Run the utility and select the ISO disk image with Windows 8 that you are going to install. Then the utility will ask you to specify the flash drive and confirm the entry (by the way, the data from the flash drive will be deleted).


3) In general, wait for a message to appear stating that the bootable USB flash drive has been successfully created (Status: Backup completed - see screenshot below). It takes approximately 10-15 minutes.


2. Configuring the bios of an Acer Aspire laptop to boot from a flash drive

By default, usually in many versions of Bios, booting from a flash drive in “boot priority” is in the penultimate place. Therefore, the laptop first tries to boot from the hard drive and simply does not get to check the boot records of the flash drive. We need to change the boot priority and make sure that the laptop first checks the flash drive and tries to boot from it, and then only gets to the hard drive. How to do it?

To do this, take a close look at the laptop's welcome window when you turn it on. The first “black” screen always shows the button to enter the settings. Usually this button is "F2" (or "Delete").

By the way, before turning on (or rebooting) the laptop, it is advisable to already insert the flash drive into the USB connector (so you can clearly see which line needs to be moved).


To enter the Bios settings, you need to press the F2 button - see lower left corner.

2) Go to the Boot section and change the priority.

By default, the Boot section looks like this:


Boot section, laptop Acer Aspire.

We need the line with our flash drive (USB HDD: Kingston Data Traveler 2.0) to be in first place (see screenshot below). To move a line in the menu, there are buttons on the right (in my case F5 and F6).


The settings made to the Boot section.

After that, simply save the settings you made and exit Bios (look for the Save and Exit sign at the bottom of the window). The laptop will reboot, after which the installation of Windows 8.1 will begin...

3. Install Windows 8.1

If loading from the flash drive was successful, then the first thing you will see is most likely Windows greeting 8.1 and a proposal to start the installation process (depending on your installation image disk).


In general, you agree with everything, select the installation language “Russian” and click next until the “installation type” window appears in front of you.

It is important to select the second item here" Custom - Windows installation for advanced users".


1. If you have new hard disk and there is no data on it yet - create 2 partitions on it: one system 50-100 GB, and the second local for various data (music, games, documents, etc.). In the case of problems and reinstallations of Windows, you will lose information only from the system partition C - and on the local drive D - everything will remain safe and sound.

2. If you have old disk and it was divided into 2 parts (drive C with the system and drive D - local) - then format (as I do in the picture below) the system partition and select it as the installation of Windows 8.1. Attention - all data on it will be deleted! Save all the necessary information from it in advance.

3. If you have one partition on which Windows was previously installed and all your files are located on it, you might want to think about formatting and splitting the disk into 2 partitions ( the data will be deleted, you need to save it first). Or - create another partition without formatting on the disk (some utilities can do this).


Formatting the system partition of the hard drive.

After selecting a partition for installation, the Windows installation process itself occurs - copying files, unpacking them and preparing to set up the laptop.


The fact is that after a reboot, the laptop will again start booting from the flash drive, and not from the hard drive where the installation files were copied. Those. the installation process will begin from the very beginning - again you will need to select the installation language, disk partition, etc., and we do not need a new installation, but its continuation...


Remove the flash drive from the USB port.

After the reboot, Windows 8.1 will continue installation and begin configuring the laptop for you. As a rule, problems never arise here - you will need to enter the computer name, select which network you want to connect to, set up an account, etc. You can skip some steps and proceed to setting them up after the installation process.


In general, in 10-15 minutes, after Windows 8.1 is configured, you will see the usual “desktop”, “my computer”, etc. ...


"My PC" in Windows 8.1 is now called "This PC".

4. Finding and installing drivers for a laptop

There are no drivers for the Acer Aspire 5552G laptop for Windows 8.1 on the official website. But in reality this is not a big problem...

How to use this package:

1. Download and install the program (or a similar one for opening ISO images);

2. Download the disk image with the Driver Pack Solution drivers (the package weighs a lot - 7-8 GB, but download it once and it will always be at hand);

3. Open the image in Daemon Tools (or any other);

4. Run the program from the disk image - it scans your laptop and offers to install a list of missing drivers and important programs. For example, I just click green button - update all drivers and programs(see screenshot below).


Installing drivers from the Driver Pack Solution.

What Windows advantage 8.1 before Windows 7? Personally, I didn’t notice a single advantage - except for higher system requirements...

Previous articles described in detail how you can get into. But for what purpose is this needed? In most situations, entering the BIOS is required to change the default boot disk. This text explains how to boot from a disk or flash drive on several types of computers. The same principle applies to different devices. Moreover, its observance requires only a minimum of logic and care.

Two methods to boot from a disk or flash drive

In the first option it is proposed to put in SETUP(aka BIOS) the desired default boot device. In practice, it will look like this: whenever you turn on the computer, it will start with the specified equipment. If the device is inaccessible or not suitable for booting, the system will try to do so from the next one on the list, which can also be designated. If that doesn't work, the computer will move on to the third device, and so on.

The following method is supported by almost all modern laptops or desktop solutions. It is enough to turn on the menu to select the boot when the computer starts. In this way, the device is determined from which the system will start only once. This is a more convenient method in a situation where you need to boot the system from a flash drive one time.

When using the first method to select a boot device in the BIOS, you should go into it and see the available interface. If you are greeted by blue windows, then in front of you is Award, different in gray AMI, and the graphic design indicates UEFI. There are others. To decide, just study the screenshots and compare with your interface.

If you have an Award

Enter SETUP, go to " Advanced BIOS Features" As a standard, this item is placed second or third, starting from the top.



There are several options below. In one case, you need to find an item called something similar to “ Boot Seq & Floppy Setup».



In another situation, the required partitions can be seen immediately.



Now let's decide on the necessary items on the menu.



First Boot Device means the hardware from which the computer will first start.
Second Boot Device used by the system if the first device is not suitable for booting.
TO Third Boot Device the computer will switch if problems also arise with the second equipment on the list.

Any item like “X Boot Device” corresponds to a hard drive, flash drive, CD/DVD or other boot device.

If none of the options are suitable and Boot Other Device is set to Enabled, then the operating system will be searched for on other drives.

When you select next to any “X Boot Device” Hard Drive, i.e. hard drive, item Hard Disk Boot Priority allows you to specify in more detail which specific disk to use. This point also applies to flash drives, since this type of boot device is defined by the computer as an external hard drive.

Therefore, to start from either a CD, you need to assign “ATAPI CD” or “CDROM” in the “First Boot Device” item and select nothing else. However, to boot from a flash drive you need to not only click on “Hard Drive”, but also go to the “Hard Disk” section Boot Priority" There, using the “PageUp” and “PageDown” or “+” and “-” buttons, move the flash drive up to the very beginning of the list.



Please note! The flash drive is connected to the computer until it is rebooted or turned on. Otherwise, it is far from certain that the BIOS will see it.

The name of the flash drive may look different. Usually it starts with “USB...”, “Generic USB...”, and sometimes “External Device”. The result of all actions performed must be saved. Just press the " F10"(to clarify, look down the screen at the prompts: there should be the words "Save" and "Exit") or even return to the main menu and select " Save and Exit Setup" In the red window that appears, use the “Y” button to agree to “Yes” and press “Enter.”



The reboot will begin. When starting from a disk, the message “” may appear for a couple of seconds. Press any key to boot from CD or DVD…».



The literal translation of the phrase: “Press any key to load a CD or DVD...”. This means that you can press any button and the computer starts from the disks. If you do nothing, it will boot from the next equipment in the list.

Boot selection process in AMI BIOS

Such BIOSes have a completely different look compared to the Award version. First, go to SETUP and look for the section “ Boot» button to the right. There are two necessary points here, they can be clearly seen in the screenshot.



To boot from a hard drive or flash drive you need a tab Hard Disk Drives. Let's select it and put our flash drive (USB device) in the line “First Drive” (sometimes called “1st Drive”). After this, you should return to the previous section. Press the “ESC” button.



Then we go to Boot Device Priority. Select 1st Boot Device and again from the list - a flash drive.



Be careful, the selected devices must match! If in the first step you assign a hard drive, then you need to put it in the list not the flash drive, but it.

When you need to boot from a CD/DVD, you should select “CDROM” (sometimes “ATAPI CD-ROM”) in the same menu. Moreover, in this case, the “Hard Disk Drives” section is no longer needed. Save the settings with the " F10"or you can simply go to the "Exit" item and click " Exit Saving Changes».



A request appears, answer “OK”.

Everything is quite similar to laptops and computers. For example, on standard laptop from Lenovo, the “Boot” section includes all equipment at once, which is very convenient for users. No confusion with additional subsections and priority. To set the loading order of the equipment, you just need to use the “ F5/F6" Therefore, to start from a flash drive, simply move it to the very top.



Some users will find a detailed transcript useful.
  • USB HDD means an external hard drive or flash drive.
  • How ATAPI CD is defined is a CD or DVD-ROM.
  • HDD (sometimes ATA HDD) – hard drive.
  • USB FDD – external device for floppy disks.
  • USB CD – drive for external disks.
  • PCI LAN stands for Local Area Network Boot.
On Lenovo models belonging to the G500 line, you should press the OneKey Recovery button when the laptop is turned off.

Below you can clearly see the EFI BIOS (UEFI), which differs not only in its graphical interface, but also in its working mouse. If you have a computer with EFI, then when you enter the BIOS you will be greeted by this image.



There is a menu at the bottom of the screen Boot Priority. Here you can directly drag and drop the mouse to create the required loading order. In addition, by clicking the “Exit/Advanced mode” button located in the top right, you can go to the advanced version. To do this, select Advanced mode in the window that appears. Then find the “Boot” section and in the Boot Option Priorities tab, in the “Boot Option #1” field, put the required boot device: DVD-ROM, flash drive, hard drive or other available equipment.



But the computer owners Hewlett-Packard Usually the following picture awaits you when you go to the BIOS.



In the menu section “Storage –> Boot order” find required device and press "Enter". Move it up and when it is at the beginning, also press “Enter”. To save the settings, select “File -> Save and Exit”.

Methods for booting from a disk or flash drive without entering the BIOS

It was already mentioned above that almost any modern laptops and computers are designed for one-time booting from the required device and for this there is no need to access the BIOS. You only need to press a certain button when you start your computer. For example, in this Award BIOS it is suggested to select “ F12"and call the boot menu.



Usually something like “Press F12 Boot Menu” is written. This means: press "F12" to select boot hardware. We do this and see the image as in the screenshot below.



The list shows the found devices. Select a CD/DVD disk, flash drive or something else and press “Enter”. However, other options are possible in the AMI BIOS.



The inscription “Press F8 for BBS POPUP” requires pressing “F8” to display a menu with a choice. On laptops, you sometimes need the “F12” button to call it. The boot menu looks like the screenshot.



Just select what you need and wait for it to load from the CD or flash drive.

Possible difficulties when booting from USB devices

Problems sometimes arise and the computer does not boot. Let's look at common difficulties. To start, make sure that USB controller not disabled in BIOS. In Award, this information is checked in the “Integrated Peripherals” or “Advanced Chipset Features” item. You need to see the “USB Controller” and “USB Controller 2” functions; their status should be “Enabled”.



In the case of AMI, you need to find “USB 2.0 Controller” in the “Advanced” menu. The position should be “Enabled”. The "USB 2.0 Controller Mode" option requires the "HiSpeed" status.



In addition, the reason may lie in the sockets located on the front of the panel system unit. It's worth trying to connect a USB flash drive to the rear inputs of the computer.

If your SETUP resembles this photo, then in the “Startup” section, change the “UEFI/Legacy Boot” parameter to the “Legacy Only” position.



In addition, the problem may be with the disk or flash drive. Bootloaders are required! You can check this on another working computer.

For fairly old computers in general. If there is no newer BIOS version, then the PLOP solution may help. Download the latest version, unpack the archive. You will see the files, of which plpbt.iso is the image for the CD, and plpbt.img is for the floppy disk.

It is clear that if there is a floppy disk, then the corresponding image is written to it, and the image for the disk is placed on the CD-R/RW disk. You won’t be able to simply write the file to the media: there is special software for the image. This topic was described in the OS installation instructions. Then you start from a CD or floppy disk and select the device in the window. The method helps to boot from flash drives on the most ancient computers.

Summarize

You have studied booting from a disk or flash drive in a variety of cases. If you need this just for once, then it is better to use a menu that does not require going to the BIOS. For constant downloads or if there is simply no such selection menu, then just fine-tune the BIOS. Don't forget to return everything later.

Almost always, when reinstalling Windows OS, you have to edit the BIOS boot menu. If you do not do this, then the bootable USB flash drive or other media (from which you want to install the OS) simply will not be visible.

let's consider in detail, what exactly is the BIOS setup for booting from a flash drive (the article will look at several BIOS versions). By the way, all operations can be performed by a user with any training (i.e. even the most beginner can handle it)...

So, let's get started.

Setting up a laptop's BIOS (using ACER as an example)

The first thing you do is turn on the laptop (or restart it).

It is important to pay attention to home screens greetings - a button to enter Bios is always displayed there. Most often these are buttons F2 or Delete(sometimes both buttons work).

Initial welcome screen - ACER laptop.

If everything was done correctly, you should see the main BIOS window of the laptop (Main), or a window with information (Information). In this article, we are most interested in the download section (Boot) - this is where we go.

By the way, the mouse does not work in Bios and all operations must be performed using the arrows on the keyboard and Enter keys(the mouse works in Bios only in new versions). May also be involved function keys, their work is usually reported in a left/right column.

Information window in Bios.

In the Boot section, you need to pay attention to the boot order. The screenshot below shows the check queue for boot records, i.e. first the laptop will check if there is anything to load from the WDC WD5000BEVT-22A0RT0 hard drive, and only then check the USB HDD (i.e. flash drive). Naturally, if there is already at least one OS on the hard drive, then the boot queue simply won’t reach the flash drive!

Therefore, you need to do two things: put the flash drive in the check queue for boot records higher than the hard drive and save the settings.

Laptop boot order.

To raise/lower certain lines, you can use the function keys F5 and F6 (by the way, on the right side of the window we are told about this, albeit in English).

After the lines have been swapped (see screenshot below), go to the Exit section.

In the Exit section there are several options, select Exit Saving Changes (exit with saving the settings made). The laptop will reboot. If the bootable flash drive was made correctly and inserted into the USB, then the laptop will start booting from it first. Then, usually, the OS installation proceeds without any problems or delays.

AMI BIOS

Enough popular version BIOS (by the way, AWARD BIOS will not be much different in terms of boot settings).

Use the same keys to enter settings F2 or Del.

Main window (Main). Ami Bios.

As you can see, by default, the first thing the PC does is check the hard drive (SATA: 5M-WDS WD5000) for boot records. We need to put the third line (USB: Generic USB SD) in first place (see screenshot below).

After the queue (load priority) is changed, you need to save the settings. To do this, go to the Exit section.

With such a queue, it will be possible to boot from a flash drive.

In the Exit section, select Save Changes and Exit (translation: save settings and exit) and press Enter. The computer goes into reboot, and after that it starts seeing all the bootable flash drives.

Setting up UEFI in new laptops (for loading flash drives with Windows 7 OS).

The settings will be shown on the example of an ASUS laptop*

In new laptops, when installing old OSs (and Windows7 can already be called “old,” relatively speaking), one problem arises: the flash drive becomes invisible and you can no longer boot from it. To fix this, you need to do several operations.

And so, first go to the BIOS (F2 button after turning on the laptop) and go to the Boot section.