Windows 10: Cannot boot from USB drives anymore since "fixing" hard drives.

It had been over a year since I made a clone of my Windows 10 SSD drive, so I decided to update the backup. The backup is another SSD that's sitting on the shelf. I can unplug my current one, plug in the backup, and boot up with everything matching (installed programs, persinalization, etc).

However, before updating the backup I was in DISK MANAGEMENT and noticed the hidden System Reserved partition was "Active". Being completely ignorant, I thought "that doesn't sound right; my C: drive has Windows 10 on it. That should be active!" Being a complete idiot, I right-clicked the C: partition, made it Active, and rebooted.

Drive won't boot!

I plugged in the backup and it worked fine. Searching the issue online, I discover this is a common, stupid mistake, and read a support thread that said to use a Macrium USB boot drive to 1-click fix all the MBR issues. I did, and it worked! The drive loaded Windows, and all was good. Back to normal:





Plugged in:

• SSD Drive (Windows and Games partition)
• Windows 10 Installer USB drive

But since this incident, suddenly I can no longer boot from USB drives just by sticking them in and restarting!

They still work and I can see them when I plug them in. I just can't boot the PC from them. The computer always loads Windows 10 on the SSD drive first!

Part of fixing the drive involved sticking in the original Windows 10 installer USB drive, booting from it, and clicking the REPAIR WINDOWS button to try to fix the drive (it didn't work). Next I plugged in and booted from the Macrium USB drive, and that one did work. Now, no USB drives boot because the BIOS (or UEFI, as they're apparantly called now) keeps putting the Windows Boot Manager first in priority, no matter how many times I move it down the priority list. It never saves!

The only way I can boot from USB is going into the BIOS and clicking the Boot Override option. Photos from my Asus Maximus VIII Hero motherboard:













I've tried googling a fix for this, but nothing suggested has worked. It's most commonly "set to Legacy/CSM mode" or whatnot, but the BIOS is already set to that.

Any idea what I can do? I bought this motherboard years ago, and from day #1 I could boot from USB just by sticking it in and restarting. The USB always took first priority, no matter what. Now, it's always last, and I have to force load it by clicking the Boot Override option. The only times the USB drive boots first is if I take the Windows 10 SSD drive out. it seems there's something, somewhere, that's telling the BIOS "If Windows Boot Manager is detected, PUT IT FIRST NO MATTER WHAT."

Any thoughts?

:)

 

Boot linux on USB drive

it might just be that your bios doesn't support it, but it should anyway.

make sure you go into the bios and make sure "boot other device" is enabled and try seeing if the usb is listed as an hdd.. as bootable flash drives are usually picked up as usb hdd's and check if your bios detects the flash drive.

 

Maxtor Hard Drive Beep

Maxtor drive beeps

Have a similiar situation using a DiamondMax Plus 8, 20GB Mfg Date 4/15/03. Drive used as a second system drive. Drive is recognized in boot menu but not in drive list. Drive is always connected. Computer started locking up for several seconds at a time. Chkdsk on drives and couldn't find that drive. Removed drive from bay to make sure connections were ok and heard the beeping. Shutdown and restart and never got to windows screen. Restarted several times then saw drive in boot menu and Windows loaded but Maxtor not in drive menu. When recognized in boot menu, computer will start but beeps and is not found.

Tried kicking it real hard but no improvement. Any suggestions?

 

USB Hard Drives break boot

Hello Eric,

One possible reason why this issue occurs is when your BIOS boot sequence is set to boot from USB instead of hard drive. We suggest that you get in touch with your computer manufacturer for assistance on how to reconfigure your BIOS settings.

Thank you.