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BIOS - USB
I have decided to start to use some of my old hardware kicking around the house for installing Linux (in this case Ubuntu). Everything appears to be fine with regards creating a USB flash drive, however I am having issues with the BIOS as there never appears to be the option to boot from the USB drive.
The machine a Precision M50 (so a far few years old), has the latest A12 Bios upgrade, however there never appears to be an option to boot from a USB drive.
Is there a way to add a USB drive to the list of bootable devices ? If yes, how ?
ejn63
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July 18th, 2016 10:00
This is part of the old C-series Dell systems -- it did have an external optical drive that could boot the system but attached to the parallel port. None of these can boot a USB CD or DVD drive (CD/DVD/Flash/Hard drive), though.
If you can find one of the old external C-port drives and the parallel port cable, those will work as boot devices.
Harrko
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August 12th, 2016 10:00
Thanks for the information - however finding hardware like this is pretty difficult.
For those interested there is an easier solution -
Downloaded the 'Plop Boot Manager' (Freeware) and burn onto a CD
plug in the USB I wanted to boot from, and place the CD into drive.
Amended the BIOS to boot from the CD.
Start the Laptop
Result - It started by booting up off the CD - ie. the Plop Boot Manager - which essentially asked whether I wanted to boot off Floppy / Hard Drive OR the USB. Select the USB - and I have managed to install Lubuntu onto the Laptop.