How To Boot From a USBDevice
This is part 2 of the tutorial on downloading Linux to a flash drive.
From “How To Boot From a USBDevice” byTim Fisher, About.com Guide
When you boot from a USB device, what you’re actually doing is running your computer with theoperating systemthat’s installed on the USB device. When you start your computer normally, you’re running with the operating system installed on your hard drive – usually Windows.
Follow these easy steps to boot from a flash drive, an external hard drive, or some other bootable USB deviceto which you have previously installed an operating system.
1)Change the BIOS boot order so the USB device option is listed first. TheBIOSis rarely setup this way by default.
a)Changing theboot orderof the “bootable” devices on your computer like yourhard drive,floppy drive,optical drive, etc. is very easy. TheBIOSsetup utility is where you change boot order settings.
b)Turn on or restart your computer and watch for a message during thePOSTabout a particular key, usually the“Del”or“F2″ key, which you’ll need to press to…enter SETUP.Press this key as soon as you see the message.
c)If you don’t see the SETUP message or can’t press the key fast enough, see:
d)Note: The boot order is a BIOS setting so it’soperating systemindependent. In other words, it doesn’t matter if you have Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, or any other PC operating system on your hard drive or other bootable device, these boot sequence change instructions will still apply.
2)Once in the BIOS, your screen will look something like this:
a)BIOS utilities are a little different, depending on the manufacturer of the PC, so yours may look like this or it may look completely different. No matter how your BIOS setup utility appears, they are all basically a set of menus containing many different settings for your computer’s hardware.
b)In this particular BIOS, the menu options are listed horizontally at the top of the screen, the hardware options are listed in the middle of the screen (grey area), and the instructions for how to move around the BIOS and make changes are listed at the bottom of the screen.
c)Using the instructions (see menu across bottom of BIOS screen in the above example) given for navigating around your BIOS utility, locate the option for changing the boot order.
d)Note: Since every BIOS setup utility is different, the specifics on where the boot order options are located varies from computer to computer. The menu option or configuration item might be called Boot Options, Boot, Boot Order, etc. The boot order option may even be located within a general menu option like Advanced Options, Advanced BIOS Features, or Other Options.
e)In the example BIOS above, the boot order changes are made under the Boot menu.
3)Locate and Navigate to the Boot Order Options in BIOS
a)The boot order options in most BIOS setup utilities will look something like the screenshot above.
b) Any hardware connected to your motherboard that is able to be booted from – like your hard drive, floppy drive, and optical drive – will be listed here. Some newer computers even let you boot from devices like flash drives, network resources, and other sources.
c)The order in which the devices are listed is the order in which your computer will look for operating system information – in other words, the “boot order.”
d)With the boot order shown above, BIOS will first try to boot from any removable devices – like floppy drives or flash drives. If no removable devices are bootable, BIOS will next try the hard drive, followed by the CD-ROM drive, and finally the network.
e)To change which device to boot from first, follow the directions (usually at the bottom of the BIOS setup utility screen) to change the boot order. In this example BIOS, the boot order can be changed by selecting the device you wan to move, then move it up or down in the boot order using the + and – keys. Remember, your BIOS may have different instructions. For example, my Samsung laptop uses the “F6″ and “F5″ keys to move items up or down in the boot order.
f)Once you’ve moved the USB drive into which you plan to insert your Linux OS flash drive, then follow the menu instructions to “Save and Exit” –usually this is by clicking the “F10″ key”
4)Confirm Boot Order Changes and Exit BIOSConfirm BIOS changes
a)Choose Yes when prompted to save your BIOS configuration changes and exit.
b)NOTE: This Setup Confirmation message can sometimes be unclear. The example above is pretty clear but I’ve seen many BIOS change confirmation questions that are so “wordy” that they’re often difficult to understand. Read the message carefully to be sure that you’re actually saving your changes and not exiting without saving changes.
c)Your boot order changes, and any other changes you may have made while in BIOS, are now saved and your computer will restart automatically.
d)Before the computer restarts, insert your Linux bootable flash drive in the USB slot.
i)IMPORTANT:Be sure that no other USB slots are occupied.
(1) If you’re using a laptop, try using the slot on the right side of the laptop first.
e)If all goes well, you should see the Ubuntu opening screen instead of the Windows opening screen. If not, wait for windows to finish booting up, then shut it down and try another USB slot.
f)IMPORTANT: After Ubuntu Linux boots up, you will see a pop-up window asking if you want to “Instal Ubuntu” on your computer or “Try Ubuntu”. Choose “Try Ubuntu” –otherwise, Ubuntu Linux will be installed on your computer.