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Cannot boot desktop from Flash Drive

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I have a Samsung laptop that, when I wish to restore an image from an external HDD, I just press F10 at start up and I have a choice of boot devices.

I have tried the same on my desktop but with no joy, when it reboots it just stays on the black screen with DEL or F2 displayed, this last time I rebooted it just went straight through and went into Windows.  

My desktop is five years old running the latest Windows 10 with an Asus UEFI BIOS, I have tried to alter the boot order but can find no reference to the Corsair 16GB USB 3 formatted with FAT 32 and even if I found a reference to it I still have no idea how to change the boot order. The flash drive displays in the file manager.

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Peter,

The best way to boot to a flash drive on a UEFI booted Win 10 machine is to plug in the flash drive while Windows is running.  Click the Windows button then the Power button.  Now depress and hold the Shift key and click Restart.  Now be patient and wait as Windows closes all running processes and enters the Recovery mode.  When Recovery screen appears choose Boot from device then select your UEFI flash drive from the choices displayed.

This is the safest method as it avoids entering the bios and insures you boot in the right mode.  It also works with Secure boot enabled.

In reply to by truwrikodrorow…

Thank you Enchantech. Unfortunately the advice you offered arrived on the third Sat of the month which I have reserved as my 'Slow on the uptake day'. Do you mean Click or hold down for the Windows key, either way I then press the on/off button on my PC and it just turns off so I'm afraid I cannot understand what I am supposed to be doing. Apologies for being so dumb. 

Peter...the power button is the button in the lower left of the screen, which brings up the option to sleep, shutdown, or restart.  Then hold the shift key down and click on restart.  I just tried this on my laptop, and it worked.  My personal thanks to Enchantech.

See image below:

 

PowerButton.png

 

 

Peter,

No apology needed.  I did not mean the Windows key at all.  I think you might know it as the Start button.  The Windows banner looking icon at the bottom left side of screen.  Click that and select the Power option. You will see options like Sleep, Shutdown  Restart, etc..  Once you have those options showing, press and hold down the Shift key and then click on the Restart option.

Here's what happens on my Asus Laptop running Windows 10...UEFI Secure.

After holding the shift key down and clicking on Restart I get the following screen:

Screen1.jpg

I then select use a device and get:

Screen2.jpg

 

If I select the Kingston Data Traveler, my laptop boots to Windows.

 

I have to select Troubleshoot:

Screen3.jpg

 

Then Advanced Options:

Screen4.jpg

 

Then UEFI Firmware Settings:

Screen5.jpg

 

Then Restart:

Screen6.jpg

 

Which takes me to UEFI settings (BIOS).  From there, I have to set boot option 1 to the Kingston traveler.

Screen8.jpg

 

Then set boot option 2 to disabled.  If I don't disable boot option 2, my laptop boots to Windows.

Screen9.jpg

 

Then save & exit:

Screen11.jpg

 

This is how I boot to the ATI recovery USB.

 

 

Some UEFI bios when having Secure boot enabled still insist on disabling that feature to boot.  Often an updated version of the bios will remedy that issue.  This issue is most common among early UEFI bios, the current crop seems to not have this problem.

Thanks Enchantech...I will see if my laptop has a bios update.

In reply to by truwrikodrorow…

I'm grateful for the explanation, unfortunately it doesn't work, just boots straight through to Windows.

Peter,

Your machine being 5 years old might be the issue.  Your option is to set the boot order to the flash drive in the bios manually.  Asus boards can be a bit problematic in this area but usually you can get it to work.

Once in your bios look for an advanced mode, sometimes this can be accessed by pressing the F7 key.  In the advanced mode look for a Boot tab at the top of the screen.  Open that tab and scroll down if you have to to find the Boot Order section.  In the first boot order entry expand it a look for your flash drive.  Make your flash drive the device that shows in the first order position then save and exit the bios.  The machine should boot into the media at this point.

In reply to by truwrikodrorow…

At last, created bootable Flash Drive by going to Advanced-Linux Based Media: It takes some time but eventually boots in TI.

Thank you all for advice.

Peter,

Glad to hear you got it working.  Persistence pays off!