How to set boot from a flash drive in different BIOS versions. Methods for loading OS from a flash drive Installing windows 7 from a BIOS flash drive

Increasingly, PC users install the operating system not from optical discs, but from a flash drive. But in order to boot from a bootable flash card, you need to indicate it to the computer as a priority when choosing a boot device.

This can be done in several ways depending on. Most laptops and computer motherboards have a so-called “Boot Menu” or “Boot Menu”, which is called up by pressing one of the following keys: F8, F11, F12, ESC, less often F9 or F10.

This menu looks like this:

How to boot from a flash drive without entering the BIOS through the boot menu - View 3

How to boot from a flash drive without entering the BIOS through the boot menu - View 2

How to boot from a flash drive without entering the BIOS through the boot menu - View 1

To determine which key calls up this menu in your case, you need to pay attention to the initial screen when you turn on your computer or laptop.

Entering the boot menu with the f12 key

Entering the boot menu with the ESC key

Entering the boot menu with the f11 key

If such windows do not open when you turn on your computer or laptop, then you can simply go through all the above keys one by one.

Here is a list of keys to enter the boot menu for laptops:

entering the boot menu for laptops

If for some reason you were unable to boot from a flash drive using the above method, you will have to set the boot priority settings.

After you have inserted the flash drive into the USB connector, enter the BIOS and go to the “BOOT” tab.

Boot tab in bios settings

Here we select Hard Disk Drives and then we see the hard drives and flash drives installed in the system. We put our flash drive in first place. Its name will begin with the words “USB”.

In the window that opens, put our flash drive in first place.

Installing the main flash drive as boot priority

After that, press F10 to save the settings. The computer will restart and boot from the flash drive if it is bootable.

On modern versions, the boot setup from a flash drive looks like this:

Main BIOS window:

Entering the UEFI BIOS

Select “boot menu” in the lower right corner of the screen to view available boot devices

BOOT Menu with boot source selection

If there is no “boot menu”, then go to the advanced settings “Advanced mode” tab “boot”.

advanced UEFI BIOS settings - BOOT tab

And in the “Hard Drive Priorities” menu item, select your bootable USB flash drive.

Press the F10 button to save the settings and boot from the flash drive.

In order to follow the instructions below, you will need the bootable USB flash drive itself. The process of creating it is quite simple. You will need the flash device itself, software and data that you want to use when starting your personal computer.

The UltraISO program will be used during the preparation process.

Preparation steps:

  1. Download the program to your computer using any browser convenient for you.
  2. After the download is complete, start the installation process and follow the instructions provided by the Wizard window.

  3. Next, when the software installation is complete, you should open the program and insert your flash drive into the port of the system unit.

  4. In the program window, select the “File” tab, where using the “Open” item you open the data you need to record.

  5. In the “Boot” tab, left-click on the “Burn Hard Disk Image” item.

  6. In the window that appears, find the “Disk Drive” selection line, where the name of the flash device should be.
  7. To complete the procedure for creating a bootable USB flash drive, you need to left-click on the “Burn” button.

Working through the selection window

After you have created a bootable USB flash drive, connect it to a free port on the system unit and restart. When it starts, you need to methodically press the “F11” key; if nothing happens, then perhaps you have a different BIOS version, and you can try using the “F8”, “F10” or “F12” keys.

A window should appear to select how to boot an external device, where you will need to use the arrows on the keyboard to select the name of the flash drive.

Work throughBIOS

If you have problems with the previous method, then there is a reliable option - working through.

On a note! BIOS versions are different and each of them requires a special series of actions, but the operating principle remains the same. In order to understand which version of BOIS you have on your PC, you must first call up the main menu and look at the similarities with the versions presented below.

To get started, you need to insert the flash drive into any free port in the system unit, restart the computer and frequently press the “Del” or “F2” key when the computer starts. If nothing happened and the operating system started up, then restart the computer and look at the prompts, which should contain the names of the keys, for example “Tab” or “F1”. This already depends on the BIOS version and manufacturer.

VersionAMI BIOS

If, after manipulating the keys, this image appears on your monitor, then, undoubtedly, the BIOS version is installed on your personal computer - AMI.

Important! Before setting launch priority, you need to verify the functionality of the two functions.


Now it’s time to set boot priorities:


VersionAWARD BIOS

Enter the BIOS using the steps described earlier. If this picture is on your screen, then follow the following plan:

  1. Go to the “Integrated Peripherals” line using the arrow keys on your keyboard. The “USB Controller” and “USB 2.0 Controller” functions must be set to “Enable”.

  2. Next, go back up a level by pressing the “Esc” button once and select “Advanced BIOS Features.”

  3. After entering the menu from the list of available functions, you will need the “Hard Disk Boot Priority” item, where you will set your flash memory as a priority for loading. This is done in a simple way. Using the arrows, select the name of the flash drive and by pressing the “+” key, raise this name to the first position.

  4. You need to press "Esc" to perform the last action. Find the “First Boot Device” item in the “Advanced BIOS Features” section, and change the previous value to “USB-HDD”.

  5. Then it remains to exit the BIOS, while saving the settings.

VersionPhoenix-Award Bios

After entering the BIOS, you should have the following picture if the BIOS version is Phoenix-Award.

The procedure is almost the same as in the previous version:


Video - How to set boot from a flash drive in BIOS

Every user sooner or later is faced with the need to reinstall the operating system. This can be done either from a disk or a flash drive. This process is not as complicated as it might seem at first glance. This article will introduce you to all its nuances.

Creating a bootable USB flash drive

The first “stop” on the way to the new OS will be recording it onto a flash drive from which the installation will be carried out. For this we need the Ultra ISO program (or similar). Let's look at this process step by step:

Preparing for installation

Working with BIOS often seems confusing to users, but this is not the case at all. So, how to install windows via bios?

Important! Before running the installer, you need to make sure you have drivers for the new OS. They can be downloaded from the official websites of devices and other specialized resources.

Windows installation

After the reboot, the startup will start from the inserted flash drive, which will allow you to reinstall the system. Step by step it will look like this:

The installation process has started. During this process, the OS files will be transferred from the flash drive to the corresponding partition of the hard drive. This may take some time (15-30 minutes). Do not turn off the power or remove the flash drive from the port.

Note! During installation, the computer will reboot itself several times - this is normal during the process.

At the end, the system will prompt you to specify a username and password to protect your PC, as well as a hint word to restore them. You can skip this step if you wish. This completes the installation. As you can see, reinstalling Windows from a flash drive is not at all difficult. All you have to do is follow the instructions in this article. Professionals recommend reinstalling the OS about once every six months to avoid problems with its operation, so be sure to bookmark this page.

You can also create it using the very famous and simple program UltraISO. How to do this is described in our article on updating the OS on a laptop.

Now you need to make sure that the computer boots from it. This is done through the BIOS.

Step #2. BIOS setup

Before the installation itself begins, it is important to configure the computer to boot from a flash drive. This procedure will look different depending on the BIOS/UEFI version.

To initially get into the BIOS, you need to press a certain key during boot, most often Delete or F2. Usually on the loading screen, among other inscriptions, it is also written which button should be pressed.

How this might look is shown in Figure 5.


  • AMI BIOS. In this case, you need to use the “Up”, “Down”, “Right”, “Left” and “Enter” keys to go to the “Boot” tab at the top. Next, go to the “Hard Disk Drives” section and click on “1st Drive”. There, put the flash drive in first place - you can recognize it by its name. Do the same in the “Boot device priority” section, only there the desired item will be called “1st boot device”. Press "Esc" to exit and restart your computer if it doesn't do so automatically.




  • AWARD or Phoenix BIOS. Go to the “Advanced BIOS Features” section and find the “First Boot Device” item there. Press “Enter” on it and in the window that appears, select the option “USB-HDD” or “USB-Flash”. Press "Esc" to exit.


  • H2O BIOS. Everything here is almost the same as in the AMI BIOS. First you need to go to the “Boot” tab, but then you should click on the “External Device Boot” item and select the “Enabled” option. Then in the “Boot Priority” section you should put “External Device” in first place. This is done using the “F5” and “F6” buttons. Again, exit this menu using the "Esc" button.


If you are already using UEFI rather than BIOS, then everything is much simpler.

In this case, the procedure is to go to the “Boot Sequense” or “BIOS Features” section and then “Boot Options”. After this, you can simply drag the flash drive with your mouse cursor to the first boot location. It also happens that the required menu item is called “Download Queue” or something like that.



Although users of Windows 8 and younger with UEFI do not even need to go to the system menu. Here it is enough to do the following:

  • use the search to find the “Update and Recovery” window;
  • go to the “Recovery” tab on the left;
  • click on the “Restart now” button;


  • then click on the “Use device” button;
  • select your flash drive in the list that appears.


As you can see, everything is extremely simple. If something doesn’t work out for you, it’s better to refer to the instructions for your computer or the Microsoft Help page. But we have listed most of the currently available options above.

Step #3. Direct installation

Actually, now you need to use the created bootable drive to install Windows 10. If you did it in the same way as described in step No. 1, then The installation process will look like this:

  • After the computer boots, a window will appear in which you need to select the language you will use, the time format and the input method, that is, the keyboard layout. If you previously used the Russian language, all these parameters will be set to Russia by default. All this can be changed by simply clicking on the appropriate item. Once the parameters are specified, click Next.


  • On the next screen, simply click the “Install” button. She is the only one there and it is impossible to confuse her with something else.
  • Next, a window will appear to enter the product license key. If you have it, enter it and click “Next”. If not, click on the words “I don’t have a product key.” You will still be redirected to the next Windows installation screen.

Important! If you created an image of your system, enter the key for it. This is also true for cases when you install the OS on another computer.


  • If you entered the key, the operating system version will be detected automatically. And if you clicked on an option where you do not have a product key, you will have to select it yourself. It is advisable, of course, to choose the same version that is already used on the computer, but you can click on another one. Finally, click “Next”.


  • Next you will have to agree to the license agreement. If you wish, you can even read it, although very few people around the world do this. In any case, check the box next to “I accept the license terms” at the bottom and click “Next”.


  • If you just want to update an existing system and save all files and settings, in the next window click on the first option, that is, “Update: install Windows while saving...”. But if you want to remove everything and install a completely clean OS on your computer without files and settings (which, by the way, may have caused any breakdowns on your computer), choose the second option - “Custom: Windows installation only...”. If you wish, by the way, you can read in more detail about these options. To do this, click on the inscription “Help in making a decision” a little lower.


  • One of the operations that is performed during a custom installation is partitioning the hard drive. You can read how this procedure works and what its principles are in our article on disk partitioning (method No. 3). Perform all operations required for custom installation and click “Next”.
  • Then you can simply watch the installation progress step by step. Typically, the necessary files are copied first, then they are prepared for installation, and finally components and updates are installed. Here you just have to wait.


  • Actually, this completes the installation. But you will still need to perform the initial system setup. As part of this stage, you will again select your location, keyboard layout, create an account with Microsoft, or simply log in if you already have one. You can also optionally set a login code, connect cloud storage and configure privacy.

Advice: After installation, check all drivers. The easiest way to do this is to use the DriverPack Solution program. It allows you not only to check, but also to update drivers if necessary.

This completes the entire installation process and you can freely use Windows 10.

Installing Windows is a simple process, and every user can do it themselves. The whole process boils down to downloading the installation image and writing it to a removable drive. Then you need to start the computer from the flash drive, using the BIOS capabilities, and follow the instructions offered by the installer until the procedure is completed. It seems like nothing special, but a significant number of beginners encounter difficulties at virtually every step. Let's look at the whole process step by step, focusing in detail on the formation of a bootable flash drive. Next, we’ll learn how to boot a computer from it using the BIOS capabilities.

Boot drive

Simply copying files to a removable device for use as a boot one is not suitable - the computer will not find the bootloader through the BIOS system, which is why installation will be impossible. Before writing files, you need to create a boot sector and place a bootloader in it, which will read the BIOS and boot the computer using the instructions in the found bootloader. There are many applications available to perform these functions. Let's pay attention to two of them: the most functional and the simplest.

To record a Windows image and then load the OS through the BIOS, a 4 GB flash drive is enough.

Rufus program

A free software product designed as a tool for creating bootable flash drives. It supports the Russian language and contains a single-window interface, not loaded with graphic elements. There is no need to configure and install Rufus on your computer - after downloading, you can run the application and perform the tasks assigned to it in order to get a bootable device with the Windows distribution.

In addition to ease of use, Rufus is characterized by support for BIOS and UEFI, and works with both the MBR file table and its successor used in Windows 8/10, called GPT. The application supports the Linux bootloader, which expands its functionality and allows you to use it when creating a flash drive with installation files of any of the free operating system distributions.

  • Having launched the program, select the language of its interface by clicking on the icon with the globe.
  • Select the drive from the list that we use as the storage medium for the installation files.

Please note: the device will be formatted, erasing all data and then writing Windows installation files to it. Be sure to copy important information to your hard drive before performing operations.

  • We select the scheme of your system in order to be able to boot via BIOS from a flash drive. If you are using an old computer and/or Windows 7, this is MBR and BIOS or UEFI. For owners of new motherboards and installing “eight” or “ten” and beyond, this option will be the third.
  • We leave the file system as default, as well as the cluster size. For the user and the BIOS, these parameters are not particularly important.
  • Set any volume label or leave the field unchanged.
  • It is mandatory to check the box next to the “Quick format” option if you do not want to wait a long time for the system utility to check the memory chips for the presence of non-working ones.
  • Check “Create bootable…”, select the image type (usually ISO format) and click on the drive icon to specify the path to the Windows distribution.
  • Click “Start” and confirm deleting existing data from the flash drive before recording the image.

In a few minutes the operation will be completed.

WinSetupFromUSB

A powerful software product that turns flash drives into bootable and multi-boot drives with installation files for several operating systems (different) and/or LiveCD or WinPE. Having launched the application, beginners often close it and look for a simpler solution in Russian. But the lack of translation into Russian and the presence of several options that are incomprehensible at first glance should not become an obstacle during the installation of Windows.

To boot from the BIOS, follow the suggested instructions.

  • After launching the utility, select the required flash drive from the list. The application works without installation .
  • Check the option to format the device.

When installing “ten” on a computer and having an updated BIOS called UEFI, the drive must be formatted in FAT32. If the flash drive is bootable and you are adding a new distribution to it, skip this step.

  • To record Windows, starting with the Vista version, place the trigger switch next to the second option.
  • Click “GO” and confirm formatting the device in the dialog box to install the boot record and copy files from the image.

In 3-5 minutes the flash drive will be ready for use.

A significant number of users stumble at this step, on their own for the first time. One of the reasons is the advice of experienced people who suggest going into the BIOS and changing the priority of boot devices, indicating the USB disk first. After the first reboot of the computer, the entire setup is repeated, returning the boot device priority settings to their original state. We will go a different way, using this BIOS feature as a boot menu. This is a window called up by one of the keys of the keyboard function block, where all connected devices are displayed that can act as bootloader media or OS installation files.

It is recommended that you study the manual for your laptop or motherboard, or take a close look at the information posted on the boot screen when the computer turns on (immediately after the BIOS hardware is initialized). You will definitely see information about which key is responsible for calling the boot menu. Usually this is F11, F12 or F9.

In the window that appears asking you to select a boot device from those currently connected, stop the selection on the line with the phrase “USB” if you cannot find your flash drive.

When using Windows 8/10, you may have to deactivate the quick launch function, through the activity of which you cannot call up the BIOS boot device selection menu. The setup is performed in the Control Panel: launch the “Power Options” item, and in the option responsible for the actions of the power buttons, uncheck the box next to “Enable Fast Startup”. After restarting the computer, you can open the BIOS boot menu using the corresponding key. No additional BIOS settings are required.

After this, you can install Windows of the required bitness on the specified disk. Due to availability, we will not dwell in detail on the installation process.

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