No USB boot support?

Question

Hey there, I own a Dimension 4550 series dell with windows XP home SP2 dell dimension bios revision A08. I want to work with linux and boot it off of a USB drive. My problem is that my boot sequence says nothing about booting off of USB. It only has the usual Hard disk, CD or IDE device, floppy. On my friends new dell the boot sequence options include USB device. Is my problem the bios doesn't even support USB boot or am i missing some sort of drive. Thanks ahead of time Jamie

jamiejrg · Answer

Thanks i'll give it a try.

PETER345 · Answer

I've never booted a 4550 from a USB HD, but I have boot from a USB flash drive. Generally, the option to boot a device only shows up when a bootable device is detected (i.e. I don't see an option to boot a USB flash drive until I have a bootable flash drive attached).

Peter

jamiejrg · Answer

Does the file system of my device matter, and do i have to have a bootable image on it for it to show in the bios.

mombodog · Answer

Make sure USB emulation is turned on in the bios, with the usb drive connected see if it shows up in the F12 boot menu. If it does not, then you cannot boot from it.   You might see if there is a bios update for that model also.

mombodog · Answer

Not sure what you are trying to boot to, an OS ? I do believe it has to be bootable to be recognized.

http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176 this may explain some of your questions

Message Edited by mombodog on 08-30-2007 02:20 PM

PETER345 · Answer

The file system should not matter (because the file system is not accessed during initial boot). However, the MBR does. It needs to be bootable as recognized by the BIOS. You will not see the option to boot it (with the F12) menu unless it appears to be bootable. Flash drives can be a bit tricky to make bootable if that is what you are trying to do.

Peter

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