Booting your PC or laptop from a USB device sounds dramatic, merely it's a necessary process in several situations.

These include installing Windows 10 or using a cloning utility that doesn't natively run within Windows. Before you lot begin, there are three things y'all'll demand for the procedure to piece of work:

  • a bootable USB stick.
  • a laptop or PC prepare to kick from USB devices
  • Software that will run from a USB drive

How practice I brand my USB device bootable?

A PC or laptop won't exist able to start from a USB drive unless it is formatted correctly and has the advisable files and software on it which enable it to boot.

A common mistake is to re-create an ISO file (containing an operating system) to a USB drive and presume this is all that'south needed for information technology to boot and install Windows, Ubuntu or another operating organization. You need to use software which tin can write the files to the drive and besides make it bootable.

Several utilities can do this, including Rufus (which supports many operating systems) and Microsoft'due south own Media Creation Tool which you can use to legally download Windows and put information technology on a USB stick.

How to boot from USB

With Rufus, yous need to be a trivial careful almost the settings y'all use, but for the near part, you lot just click the CD drive icon, choose an ISO file and make sure that 'Create a bootable deejay using' box is checked.

These tools will warn y'all that they'll delete everything off your USB bulldoze, so make sure you've copied off any files you don't want to lose earlier starting. You'll besides need to take downloaded whatever software it is you're planning to boot from, exist it Windows, Linux or something else.

How do I kicking from USB in the BIOS?

Many PCs and laptops are set up to bank check for a USB drive beginning earlier trying to boot from a CD, DVD or the internal hard bulldoze. But not all are configured this fashion. Y'all might find that plugging in your flash drive earlier pressing your estimator's power push button doesn't work: it just boots into Windows every bit normal or does nil if you've no operating system installed all the same.

In this case, you need to:

  1. Turn on your figurer and pressDelete, F2, F10 or F11
  2. The BIOS should announced
  3. Use the cursor keys to navigate
  4. Detect the Boot menu
  5. Alter the order so USB is at the top of the list

If none of those keys work to enter the BIOS, look out for a message on your monitor later on pressing the figurer's power push. The message is usually at the bottom of the screen and says something like 'Press F11 for boot options'.

Some PCs and laptops don't show this, and so yous'll have to bank check your manufacturer'due south website to find out which key to printing or even your motherboard manual.

In one case in the BIOS, await for a menu or an pick that lets y'all see and change the kick devices or boot priority. This will vary from BIOS to BIOS, just information technology'southward unremarkably adequately obvious.

Make sure you modify the first (#1) boot selection, every bit whatever is set there volition be the device that is tried commencement.

How to boot from USB

 A tiny minority of former PCs may lack the ability to kicking from USB, but anything within the last decade should have the option. If you're still having problems, check that USB ports haven't been disabled in the BIOS. Different BIOSes work in different means, but apply the information on screen to work out how to make a USB drive the first boot device.

Comport in mind that the USB stick may need to exist plugged into a USB port for information technology to appear in the list of boot options.

Once you've set everything correctly, use the 'Save & Exit' option in the BIOS to save your changes and reboot the system (oft this is the F10 cardinal). Then your PC or laptop should boot from the USB drive when it restarts.

You might similar to read our guide which explains how to build a PC