Windows 10: Booting from USB

I had never had my computer set to boot from USB but I created a bootable flash drive with Win 10 on it and wanted to try it. I set the BIOS boot options to try the CD drive first, then USB, and then the Hard drive. It booted fine but I have a question now.

If I have a non-bootable USB storage device plugged in and either start up or restart my computer, after the BIOS post I get the message, "Missing Operating System" and the whole boot process stops and will not proceed to the Hard Drive. I had assumed it would work the same as the CD-ROM boot where if the media is not bootable, it just skips it and goes to the next option in the list. Now I have found that the same thing happens on my Win 7 machine. Is this normal? If it is, I will turn off USB boot again and just go back to burning disks.

:)

 

boot from usb

Try resetting the UEFI BIOS firmware to the defaults, then try again.

Also review:

BIOS/UEFI Setup Guide: Boot from a CD, DVD, USB Drive or SD Card

 

boot from usb

Hi,

Thank you for your quick reply.

But this didn't solve my issue. Could you please suggest something else?

Thank you,

 

I'm not familiar with the problem with booting when a non-bootable flash drive is left in one of the USB ports.

However, one of the reasons I haven't seen it is that I don't usually set the boot order in the BIOS. A hotkey allows me to choose a boot device during POST (power on self test). On your motherboard, it's F12.

 

It sounds like it only skips that option if no drive is plugged in. Weird that it stops there though, I would have thought it would just move on to the next option if the thumb drive isn't bootable? You may have to go back and set the hard drive as first boot option. It will speed up the boot process too as it won't be looking for an optical disk of USB drive to boot from on every boot up. I set my hard drive as the first boot option. As mentioned above, when I want to boot from a thumb drive I press my key to access my one time boot BIOS quick boot option. It will boot from what I select for that one boot up then go back to the default after that.

 

Yes mine is the same and was the same in windows 7 you need to unplug it before boot or just simply take it out of the boot order, I have mine set to boot from the hard disk and if I need to boot from CD or USB I change it accordingly.

 

Normal operation if you enable USB boot. Same as it was when we used floppies.

 

If I understand the problem correctly, this issue should stop once you set the Boot order to Hard Drive (or DVD) first.
I understand that you were hoping that as with a DVD that is not bootable it would just skip to the next bootable device.
As far as I know, this has never been the case (Although I agree that it would be very logical *Smile)

I think that nobody really ever gave it a thought *Smile
normally you boot from Hard drive or when installing a new OS, up until very recent, from DVD
Booting from USB penn drive or such was only done by system admins to speed up the process of installing multiple computers with the same settings. For most people, creating a bootable flash drive from a DVD would have been a lot more work than just inserting the DVD and boot from DVD.
Most system integrators / admins block the bios afterwards with a password, to avoid users trying to start the hardware with a different OS (like Linux)

I guess that might be the reason that no BIOS manufacturer ever thought about it *Smile
Maybe this information should be relayed to them. It would be very easy to implement in a new bios update *Smile *Smile

 

Correct and if you set it to only hard disk it will stop the option for DVD also and go to directly booting from the hard disk giving a swifter boot.

 

Same happens here. In the mornings, when i boot up my pc (and have forgotten to unplug the usb with movies from last night) it says An operating system was not found press ctrl alt and delete.

I think it has to do with boot priorities

 

I guess there is no solution other than making sure you have the latest Bios version *Smile
And even that gives no guarantees.

I don't think it's that much complex to just change the boot order in the Bios
The USB fist in the Bios is normally used maybe once a year with us, cyber idiots.
Most users never ever start their PC from USB / DVD etc.
They are happy if the thing starts at all *Smile *Smile

cheers....

 

Just go to the BIOS and change the order... set it to Hard Drive as your first.
There is no need to put the boot order to USB first unless you want to install a new OS.
and even than you won't really need it..... pressing F12 during system init will most likely give you an option to change the boot order for that boot. You put it for ONCE on USB and it boots from USB.

The next boot up will again be from HD....
I hardly ever change the boot order, just press F12 (easier)

 

Every Bios I have used over the years has always acted in this way so it;s not a problem that needs a cure, it's there by design so that users can choose what to boot from, like another operating system on another hard disk, it's only a 10 second job to set your boot priories to what you want at any given time.

 

I have a Boot Options popup that I have to use to choose the USB drive, if I let the Boot Order try to handle it, I get the same error. But when I choose the Boot Menu Popup, I can choose the flash drive and it always works. It does this on my two main machines, both are variations of Asus M2N motherboards. Most new machines at least have a Boot Options key. it's F8 in this machine, F9 in my other M2N.

I don't know why it fails if I try to use the Boot Order and setting Flash after CD/DVB rom. Maybe set the USB drives first.

 

That's why I set mine to only what I want to boot to at any given time it takes all other options out of the equation set to hard disk it only looks for hard disk and gives a faster boot time. I press del on mine set the boot device then F10 sorted.