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689514
can dell inspiron 3531 boot from USB?
Just bought dell inspiron 3531 and it doesnt have an optical drive though... i cant stand windows 8 so I have the microsoft usb boot tool, windows 764x and created the usb flash drive successfully, insert it into the usb slot, press f12 and there is no option in the boot setup to change from the toshiba hard drive.
is this not possible? i have never done a usb boot before but have searched and have came up with nothing other than mother moards created after vista should be able to boot from usb.
thanks
VinOth_VingO
285 Posts
2
October 3rd, 2014 13:00
Hi,
Try installing in MBR mode.
1. First create the bootable operating system
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool
2. Make sure to disable "SecureBoot" in BIOS and also enable "Leagacy" support. Probably you will find them in the "Boot" tab. If i recall correctly, "SecureBoot State" and "Boot Mode" are the settings to be changed.
3. Turn on your laptop and press F12 while when Dell logo window appear, and then select your bootable usb stick
4. It will lead the fresh copy of your new operating system.
ejn63
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October 3rd, 2014 14:00
Also make sure the system has been updated to BIOS A02. The initial BIOS release of this model had trouble booting USB and installing Windows 7.
http://www.dell.com/support/home/aw/en/awdhs1/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=CCMCC
theflash1932
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16.3K Posts
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October 3rd, 2014 10:00
Yes, it should boot to USB.
Systems started with hit/miss support for bootable USB well before Vista came out ... around 2004/2005.
modularfox
3 Posts
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October 3rd, 2014 13:00
Thanks THEFLASH1932, appreciate taking the time to help me out with this. I did follow the diskpart instructions and then antother with the microsoft usb boot tool. I did not know about the ueif to bios/legacy setting. I will try that when I get home tonight. Is there a way to verify the status of a bootable USB? I believe I went into manage disk drives and for the C drive, it shows a few partitions (maybe they are called something else) but it has a boot block/section, healthy block/section and a few others. The usb didnt have a Boot section/block
theflash1932
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October 3rd, 2014 13:00
The only way to verify a bootable USB drive is to boot it on a system :)
Do this:
Open a Command Prompt, then type the following:
diskpart
select disk x
clean
create partition primary
active
format fs=fat32 quick
assign
exit
xcopy v:\ /s/e/f e:\
exit
(with "select disk x" make sure to do a list disk first to make sure you get the right disk; with "xcopy" this assumes v:\ is your Windows DVD and e:\ is your USB flash drive prepared in diskpart above)
modularfox
3 Posts
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October 4th, 2014 20:00
I just wanted to take a minute to say thanks to everyone for your help. All of the above allowed my usb flash with windows loaded on it to function properly. I am up and running.
DipeshChavda
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January 27th, 2016 20:00
excellent
Klawdek
11 Posts
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April 23rd, 2016 22:00
I tried all of that using bootable USBs made with pendrive, unetbootin and rufus. The USBs boot in other systems. This bad choice of a Dell seems to be the only system that cannot handle it.