You cannot with the UEFI system setup - it'll only show the flash drive as bootable if it's connected to the system and has a bootable UEFI (GPT) partition on it.

Sorry, maybe I didn't explain clearly:

I have bootable recovery usbs (including my Dell recovery usb). I can choose F12 at startup and boot from these.

However, what I want to do is to be able to boot STRAIGHT from a usb without needing to use F12.

My current boot setup is:

UEFI BOOT:

USB Entry for Windows to Go (no device)

Windows Boot Manager

UEFI onboard LAN ipv4

UEFI onboard LAN ipv6 

From what I understand (from a tutorial I have followed on www.eightforums.com) that first entry should mean that the system now searches first for a bootable usb. But even with a bootable usb connected I get (no device). And I have tried different usb ports and different recovery usbs (all of which work fine if I use F12 at startup).

So my question is:

Is it possible to set up my Dell laptop so that it will look for a bootable usb BEFORE it uses Windows Boot Manager?

And if the answer to the above question is 'Yes'; how do I do this?

it is standard for anything using a UEFI BIOS.  Unless the device you want to boot has a GPT partition on it, UEFI cannot boot from it.  If it does, it can be added to the boot menu and used to boot the system.

Thank you for this. I've had a week of refreshing and restoring so I'm not prepared to do yet another. And I'm not sure I want to change from UEFI boot either.  I'll just have to hope that F12 never lets me down if I need it :emotion-1:

Is this standard for Dell laptops? I like the Dell product but I know that there are other products out there that do offer the option to make this change in the bios. And this could influence future purchases for me.

Is it possible to create a GPT partition on the usb drive or do I need a particular type of usb that already has this partition?

If it is possible to create the partition, can you please explain how I would do this (or direct me to a tutorial somewhere).

Thank you.

www.nextofwindows.com/how-to-make-uefi-bootable-usb-flash-drive-to-install-windows-8