Flash Drive Booting Fundamentals - Bootable Thumb Drives
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Before we begin, we presume a sound understanding of the concept of BIOS. By this I mean what it does, what it has to do with what we are talking about here, and most importantly, the strategy of specifying the "boot order." At the beginning of one of my earlier articles, Why and How to Flash Your BIOS, most of these are thoroughly explained. If you aren't familiar with BIOS, then it's strongly suggested that you read the article before continuing with this one..
Boot order, or any other option of that nature, allows us to specify the "order" of devices that should be tried each time the computer is powered on (after the POST). This order is followed linearly, meaning that if and only if the first option fails, then and only then is the second option tried. Should that also fail, then the third option gets its chance. And so on. If none of the options are valid, the booting up process cannot be done.
You see, based on our past experience and the things we already knew, it makes sense that you should specify your UFD device-USB Flash drive-in that boot order. But to do that, you also need to find it within the list. This is where this option can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and apparently, even from model to model. Certain BIOS makers such as AMI and Phoenix tend to use their "own" fashion regardless of the models.
This consistency helps, because you can get the hang of them quite easily. However, the first time requires the most patience, because chances are you won't find it right away. Or if you do, then you are lucky. Motherboards made within the past few years are almost guaranteed to include support for flash drive booting.
The trouble begins with the actual name of this option. Fortunately, if you know exactly what you are looking for, and if you navigate "deeply" into each and every option that the BIOS has (those main menu categories, sub-menu fields, tabs, etc.), then you'll surely find it in a few moments.
A lot of motherboards require an "extra" function to be enabled before you are able to find the USB Flash drive within the boot order list. This means that without the option, you won't be able to set your thumb drive as the first device in the boot order. You shouldn't be surprised if there are more of these options. Basically, anything that sounds (or looks) like it has anything to do with USB support should be enabled.
Here are a few examples gathered from various motherboards over the years: "USB Function Support," "Thumb-Drive for DOS," "USB Function for DOS," "Bootable USB Function Support," "USB-ZIP for DOS," and the like. In short, as you can see, they are all quite self-explanatory. Now, this is where the fun begins. As soon as you enable one or more of these functions, then the boot order list should change.
Some motherboards automatically set the USB Flash Drive option as first priority within the list. However, you should always check this list. The list should be populated with USB-related devices since you enabled the support. These names can also vary a lot from model to model. So here are a few examples: "USB-Stick," "USB Flash Drive," "USB RMD-FDD," "Boot USB devices first," "USB-ZIP," "USB HDD," and so forth.
Furthermore, you can (and should) refer to the official manual and user guide that came with your motherboard. In that slim guide you can always find a detailed and thorough explanation of each and every BIOS option. As we already said, every semi-decent "modern" (2004+) motherboard should have this feature. So don't give up, and if more than one USB device appears in the boot order list, try them all!
Additionally, some motherboards also support an extra "emulation" option. If USB emulation is possible, then you should try out all of its available options until you find the one that works. These are usually some of the following: Hard Disk, Floppy, Forced HDD, USB ZIP, etc. This feature enables emulation.
It should also be said that certain Phoenix BIOS versions classify USB devices under the same main category as hard drives. Therefore, in the "boot order" list you need to select hard drive, and right after that option, another list will appear, which is going to contain, along with your HDDs, the USB thumb drive, too. This step may also require the stick to be already inserted. So you may want to try this trick, which may work with the aforementioned emulation option. It depends on what is emulated.
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