Selecting a disk to boot the operating system. Hotkeys (buttons): BIOS boot menu, Boot Menu, Boot Agent, BIOS Setup
In the previous article I showed how to log in from BIOS to different computers and laptops. But why do they go there? In 90% of cases, in order to change boot disk default and boot into a portable operating system or start a new one Windows installation. In fact, the principle is the same everywhere, all you need is a little care and logic. And to better understand this, I will show you several videos shot on different computers.
Two ways to boot your computer
There are two options. The first is to set the default boot device in the BIOS (aka SETUP). This will mean that every time you turn on the computer will boot from the specified device. If it turns out to be inaccessible or not bootable, then it will try to boot from the second device in the list, which you can also specify. If it doesn’t work, then the computer will move further down the list.
Almost everyone supports the second method modern computers and laptops. When you start your computer, you need to call up the boot device selection menu. This way you can choose what to boot from one time, it’s very convenient.
To select a boot device in the BIOS, the first way is to go into it and look at its interface. If these are blue windows, then most likely it’s an Award, if they’re gray, then it’s AMI, if it’s a graphical interface, then it’s UEFI. There are other options. In general, just look at the screenshots or videos and compare it with what you see.
How to boot from a device without entering BIOS
To do this, just press a button when you start your computer or laptop. For example, this BIOS Award suggests pressing "F9" to bring up the boot menu:
It will say something similar to “Press F9 to Select Booting Device after POST”, i.e. press "F9" to select boot device. Click and see the following:
This is a list of discovered devices. Select a flash drive, CD/DVD disk or something else and press “Enter”. IN AMI BIOS it might be different:
It says "Press F8 for BBS POPUP". This means that you need to press “F8” so that the selection menu appears. On laptops this may be the “F12” key, and the menu will be like this:
We just choose what we want and wait for it to load. Here's a video of that moment:
Booting into UEFI BIOS
And this clear example BIOS EFI (UEFI) with graphical interface and even a working mouse! If you have a computer with UEFI, then when you get into the BIOS you will see the following picture:
At the bottom of the screen there is a section Boot Priority, where you can use the mouse (by dragging) to set the desired boot order. You can also:
- click on the right top corner"Exit/Advanced mode" button
- select in the appeared Advanced window mode (advanced mode)
- go to the “Boot” tab
- V Boot section Set Option Priorities in the “Boot Option #1” field boot device by default a flash drive, DVD-ROM, hard drive or other available device.
Owners of Hewlett-Packard computers will probably find the following picture in the BIOS:
In the menu “Storage -> Boot order» select required device, press "Enter", then move it to the very top and press "Enter" again. Save the settings in the menu “File -> Save and Exit”.
Consider the option with Award BIOS
How to choose what to boot from in AMI BIOS
AMI BIOSes look different than Award ones. After entering SETUP, go to the “Boot” section using the “right” button. There you will find two important points:
Hard Disk Drives - will be needed to boot from a flash drive or hard drive. We go there and select our USB device (flash drive) in the line “1st Drive” (may be called “First Drive”) and go to the previous menu with the “ESC” button
Please note that if we had selected a hard drive in the previous step, then in this list instead of a flash drive there would only be a hard drive!
To boot from a CD/DVD disk, you need to select “ATAPI CD-ROM” (or simply “CDROM”) in this menu; there is no need to go to the “Hard Disk Drives” menu. Now we save the results with the “F10” button or go to the BIOS “Exit” section and select “Exit Saving Changes”
We answer the question “OK.” And here is an example of an AMI BIOS that looks like Award. Here everything is the same by analogy, you need to go to the “Hard Disk Drives” submenu
and select your flash drive in the “1st Drive” item, and then select it in the “1st Drive” line Boot Device"in the previous screenshot instead of the hard drive
On computers and laptops everything is approximately the same. For example, on normal Lenovo laptop in the “Boot” section all devices are listed at once, which is very convenient. No confusion with priority and additional items menu. You just need to set the boot order of the devices using the “F5/F6” buttons. That is, to boot from USB you just need to move the flash drive to the very top:
Just in case, I'll give you the transcript:
- USB HDD: flash drive or external hard drive
- ATAPI CD: this is a CD or DVD-ROM
- ATA HDD or simply HDD: hard drive
- USB FDD: external drive for floppy disks
- USB CD: external drive for disks
Watch the video on how to enter the AMI BIOS and set the boot device https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WojKPDi6a74
On some laptop models, such as the Lenovo G500, you need to press the OneKey Recovery key when the laptop is turned off.
Problems booting from USB devices
Where would we be without them? What to do if the computer does not boot from a flash drive? Let's look at the main problems. First check if it is disabled USB controller in BIOS. In Award, you can check this in the “Advanced Chipset Features” or “Integrated Peripherals” section. Look for the “USB Controller” option, it should be in the “Enabled” state
In AMI, in the “Advanced” section, the “USB 2.0 Controller” option should be “Enabled” and “USB 2.0 Controller Mode” should be in the “HiSpeed” state
There may also be problems with the sockets on the front panel system unit– try connecting to the USB at the back of the computer.
If you have SETUP as in the photo, then on the “Startup” tab switch the “UEFI/Legacy Boot” value to the “Legacy Only” position
Then the reason may be in the flash drive itself or in the disk. They must definitely be bootable! You can check this on another computer where everything works.
On very old computers there is no way to boot from USB flash drives at all. If there is no newer BIOS available, then the PLOP project will help you. Need to download latest version Plop Boot Manager and unpack the archive. There are files there: plpbt.img - an image for a floppy disk, and plpbt.iso - an image for a CD.
Accordingly, if you have a floppy disk, then write the image for the floppy disk onto it, and if you have a CD-R/RW disk, then write the image for the disk. You can’t just copy the file onto the media, you need to use special programs. Next, boot from this disk and in the menu that appears you need to select your USB device. This way you can boot from flash drives even on very old computers.
The computer does not boot, what should I do? In system operation, this is possible due to the action various viruses, your mistakes in using Windows or using the wrong drivers. But don’t despair, I suggest you learn to get out of such situations with dignity.
You can always try to fix such sudden problems using the F8 key and the Windows 7 additional boot options menu.
When starting the computer, after BIOS boot press F8 key, which will bring up the control menu additional options download windows 7.
About boot modes: " Safe Mode", "Safe Mode with Boot network drivers" and "Safe Mode with support command line"You can read the article
Let's consider the remaining parameters:
Load Logging- here Windows will log the loading of all drivers and services by writing it to the file ntbtlog.txt, which is located in the Windows folder. After a system startup fails, this mode will view the boot log from the system recovery console and find the driver or service that is responsible for the boot failure.
Enabling video mode from low resolution(640x480). Boots the computer with a screen resolution of 640 x 480. This eliminates incorrect setting monitor and video adapter, for example, if your monitor cannot support the set setting.
Last good configuration(additionally)- when loading in this mode, the saved computer state data is used after the last successful boot of the system, which cancels changes made in the settings after this save. This allows you to uninstall the installation of a driver or change the settings of services or operation installed equipment. Use this mode to cancel installed drivers or unsuccessful change of parameters in the operation of services.
Directory Services Restore Mode- this option works on server systems and restores the directory service on the domain controller.
Debug mode used by professional programmers to debug the system. When using this mode, sending debugging information to another computer via a serial port.
Disable automatic reboot on system failure- In default settings, when critical error During the boot process, the system automatically reboots. When you select this item, the mode automatic reboot will be turned off, which will help you examine the error message in detail.
Shutdown mandatory verification driver signatures- this option allows you to disable scanning at system boot digital signatures at the drivers. Sometimes this check can be the source of a download problem. This option will also allow you to install an unsigned driver. However, to use such drivers, you will need to constantly select this item when booting Windows.
Most often we think about BIOS ( Basic System Input/Output) only when we need to reinstall the operating system and need to somehow set it to boot from a disk or flash drive. I often wrote about this in articles such as:, and others. Now I want to put it together and refer only to this article when necessary. This article will be useful for all BIOS versions and for different companies. A kind of single reference book
The first thing you need to know is that BIOS is divided by manufacturer and version.
To change boot method in BIOS- You must first enter it.
You can, of course, find out what version and manufacturer of your BIOS is from the manual that came with your computer.
You can also find out by looking at the line at the top of the black screen when loading (the manufacturer will be indicated there).
Well, then enter the BIOS, knowing what it is like for you.
Some BIOS versions do not have such a screen showing lines. There’s just a logo there and at the bottom it says something like “Press F2 to enter SETUP,” which means press F2. If there is just a logo and there are no inscriptions, press ESC, and then del or f2
Here is a small list of manufacturers and keyboard shortcuts for entering BIOS:
Also at the bottom of the black screen there are keys for entering the BIOS and for displaying a list containing available devices to download and so that you can boot from it. But more about him at the end of the article.
As you can see, most often you need to press the key F2 or Del.
Now you need to load a flash drive or disk.
Let's look at a few examples that differ from the BIOS manufacturer.
Setting up Award Bios to boot from a flash drive or disk:
The main window looks like this, in which we need the second item:
Further depends on the firmware version. In one case, you will need to go to an item similar to “Boot Seq & Floppy Setup”
in another case, you don’t need to go anywhere - everything will be right before your eyes
Clicks on First Boot Device(First boot device), click Enter and a window like this will appear
in which you need to select the disk or flash drive that will launch first. You can specify a Second boot device, for example, but usually the BIOS itself fills in this data.
Note:
If you choose a flash drive, then, among other things, you also need to go to the “Hard Disk Boot Priority" and move our flash drive to the very top using the "+" and "-" or "PageUp" and "PageDown" buttons:
It is also worth remembering that In order for the BIOS to see the flash drive, it must be connected before turning it on or before rebooting
Then press “F10” (see the exact key in the hint at the bottom of the screen called “Save”, “Exit”) or go to the main BIOS menu and select “Save and Exit Setup”. In the red window, select “Yes” using the “Y” button on the keyboard and press “Enter”
The computer will reboot and when booting from installation disk With Windows, you may receive this request for a few seconds: “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD...”
Which translates to “Press any button to boot from a CD or DVD.”
This means that if you do not press any button on the keyboard at this moment, the computer will continue to boot from the next device on the list.
Another version of this BIOS:
I've only seen this on old computers from ten years ago, before 2003. The main menu looks like this:
To configure the boot order, you need to go to the menu BIOS FEATURES SETUP:
At this point, use the PageUp and PageDown buttons (or Enter and arrows) to select what to put first - CDROM or flash drive. DO NOT forget about the second and third device
And one more thing:
How to choose what to boot from in AMI BIOS
If, after entering the Bios, you see such a screen, it means you have AMI BIOS:
Use the right arrow button on the keyboard to move to the Boot tab:
Go to "Hard Disk Drives" and in the line "1st Drive" (may be called "First Drive") select a disk or flash drive:
Next, go to "Boot Device Priority", go to "1st Boot Device" and select from the list what you selected in the previous tab (i.e. if you selected a flash drive in Hard Disk Drives, then you need to specify it here too. This is important! )
To boot from a CD/DVD disk, you need to select “ATAPI CD-ROM” (or simply “CDROM”) in this menu; there is no need to go to the previous “Hard Disk Drives” menu.
Now we save the results with the “F10” button or go to the “Exit” section of the BIOS and select “Exit Saving Changes”.
Another AMI BIOS, but everything is clear here:
Settings Phoenix-Award Bios to boot from a flash drive
If, after entering the Bios, you see such a screen, then you have Phoenix- Award BIOS:
Go to the “Advanced” tab and opposite “First Boot Device” set what you need (flash drive or disk):
Save with F10 key
Setting up EFI (UEFI) Bios with a graphical interface for booting from a flash drive
Now this won’t surprise anyone. Almost all new computers are equipped with a similar shell. You can read more about it in the article.
When loading, at the bottom of the screen there is a “Boot Priority” section, where you can use the mouse (by dragging) the pictures to set the desired boot order.
You can also click the “Exit/Advanced mode” button in the upper right corner and select Advanced mode in the window that appears.
Next, go to the “Boot” tab and in the section Boot Option Priorities in the “Boot Option #1” field, set the default boot device to be a flash drive, DVD-ROM, hard drive or other available device.
How to boot from a flash drive or disk without entering BIOS
This is what I wrote about almost at the very beginning of the article.
This is when you need to press a key once and a window will appear with a boot selection. This method does not change the BIOS settings.
Usually Award BIOS prompts you to press "F9" to bring up the boot menu, and AMI asks you to press "F8". On laptops this may be the “F12” key.
In general, look at the bottom line and look for items like “Press F8 for BBS POPUP” or “Press F9 to Select Booting Device after POST”.
Why can't I boot from a flash drive into the BIOS?
Possible reasons: 
On older computers there is no way to boot from USB flash drives at all. If a newer BIOS does not exist, then the project may help.
1) Download the latest version of "Plop Boot Manager" from the link above and unpack it.
2) The archive contains the following files: plpbt.img – an image for a floppy disk, and plpbt.iso – an image for a CD.
3) Write the image to disk and boot from it (or from a floppy disk).
4) A menu will appear in which we select our flash drive and boot from it.
A small explanation of disk designations when selecting:
Do not forget, after you have done what you wanted (namely, why you changed the boot in the BIOS) - return the boot settings back so that the computer boots with hard drive.
Probably everyone knows that in order to boot from a disk drive or flash drive you need to set the order of devices to boot in the BIOS. For example, in order to start, you need to boot from this very disk. To do this, you need to set the disk drive as the first boot device in the BIOS.
However, you don’t have to go into the BIOS and change nothing there. All you need to do is press the key immediately after turning on the computer. call boot menu (boot menu) and in the list of devices that appears, select the one from which to boot. Selecting a boot device in the boot menu has no effect on BIOS settings. That is, this menu affects specifically a specific boot, and if you do not call it afterwards, the computer or laptop will boot as configured in the BIOS.
How to call the boot menu - keys for calling the BIOS boot menu
So, we figured out what the boot menu is in BIOS. Now I’ll tell you what hotkeys you use to call it. There is no standard here. It all depends on the manufacturer of the PC or laptop motherboard and on the version of the BIOS installed there. So, for example, calling the boot menu asus differs from how to call the boot menu on an acer or sony vaio laptop.
In most cases, the key to call up the boot device selection menu is F12 , but some manufacturers use their own key combinations. Particular attention can be paid to the boot menu Samsung and HP. To get to the boot menu of a Samsung laptop you need to press Esc (only once!). If you click on Esc at least twice, the boot menu will close before it can open. Therefore, you need to calculate and clearly hit the time by pressing hotkey calling boot menu. This can be quite difficult to do without some skill.
Calling the boot menu on HP laptops is also specific. To do this, you first need to click Esc , after which it will appear service menu laptop. In it we already choose desired item(by pressing a hotkey). To call the HP boot menu, press F9 .
For some manufacturers, the device to be loaded into the menu is selected using the cursor keys; for others, you need to press a key with a number indicating serial number devices in the list.
Below is a table that is easy to understand. This is a table of correspondence between hotkeys for calling up the menu for selecting the boot device, motherboard manufacturer and BIOS.
Yes, and one last clarification. In some cases, boot menu hotkeys are disabled by default in the BIOS. To be able to use the boot menu, you need to enable it in the BIOS settings. Typically this function is called F12 Boot Menu . To enable this feature, you must set its value to Enabled .
In addition to the keys for calling the boot menu, the table shows keys for entering the BIOS.
| Manufacturer/device | BIOS version | Boot menu key | Key to enter BIOS |
| Mat. MSI boards | AMI | F11 | Del |
| Mat. Gigabyte boards | Award | F12 | Del |
| Mat. Asus boards | AMI | F8 | Del |
| Mat. Intel boards | Phoenix Award | Esc | Del |
| Mat. AsRock boards | AMI | F11 | Del |
| Asus laptops | Esc | F2 | |
| Acer laptops | Inside H2O | F12 | F2 |
| Acer laptops | Phoenix | F12 | F2 |
| Dell laptops | Dell | F12 | F2 |
| HP laptops | Esc -> F9 | Esc -> F10 | |
| Lenovo laptops | AMI | F12 | F2 |
| Packard Bell laptops | Phoenix Secure Core | F12 | F2 |
| Samsung laptops | Phoenix Secure Core | Esc (once, pressing again exits the menu) |
F2 |
| Sony Vaio laptops | Inside H2O | F11 | F2 |
| Toshiba laptops | Phoenix | F12 | F2 |
| Toshiba laptops | Inside H2O | F12 | F2 |
Do you want to boot your computer from a flash drive or disk? To do this, you don’t have to go to BIOS settings. Especially if you don’t understand much about it. After all, there is an easier way. IN in this case Just enter the Boot Menu and change the device boot priority. This is done in about 10 seconds. And most importantly, there is no shamanism in the BIOS.
What do users usually do to reinstall Windows? As a rule, they record a licensed digital copy on, and then execute.
Boot Menu (or boot menu) is extremely useful option BIOS. With its help, you can quickly set the boot priority of devices. Simply put, launching the Boot Menu opens a small window in which you can immediately put the flash drive (or DVD) in first place, and hard drive- on the second. In this case, you do not need to enter the BIOS.
In addition, changing settings in the Boot Menu does not affect BIOS settings. That is, this option triggers once - for one switching on. And when you restart your PC, Windows will boot from the hard drive (as usual). If you need to run again Windows installation from a flash drive - call the Boot Menu again.
If you remember, when changing the settings in the BIOS, you had to go into it again and change the device boot priority back (i.e., put the hard drive in first place). But in the case of the Booth Menu, you don’t need to do this.
How to call Boot Menu
It's very simple - click one key when Windows boots. Which one exactly? It depends on:
- BIOS version;
- motherboard;
- laptop models.
That is, the situation is exactly the same as with the BIOS. For example, in order to, you need to press the Del or F2 button, and to open the Boot Menu you need to click another one.
Most often this is Esc or F12. Although, as mentioned above, the call button may differ on different PCs.
Therefore, below we will look at how to launch the Boot Menu on popular brands of laptops and personal computers.
How to enable Boot Menu on Lenovo laptops
Owners of Lenovo laptops should not have any difficulties. After all, the Boot Menu on Lenovo is launched very simply - by pressing the F12 key when loading Windows.
Plus on the body of many models there is special button with a curved arrow. You can press it if you want to select additional. download options.
Launch Boot Menu on PC with mat. Asus board couldn't be easier
You need to press the F8 key when it boots (at the same time that you would normally enter the BIOS).
And there is a little confusion with Asus laptops. It seems that the manufacturer is the same, but there are several buttons to launch the Boot Menu. After all, starting the Boot Menu on Asus laptops carried out using one of two keys:
Most often this is the Esc button, although it can also be F8. However, there are only 2 keys.
The boot menu on Acer opens by pressing the F12 button
But there is one small nuance here. The fact is that the Boot Menu is usually disabled on Acer laptops. And when you press F12, nothing will happen. To make it work, you need to do the following:
- Go to the BIOS (when booting the laptop, press the F2 button).
- Go to the “Main” tab.
- Look for the line “F12 Boot Menu” and change the value “Disabled” to “Enabled”.
- Save the changed settings and exit the BIOS.
The system will reboot and you can go to the boot menu on Acer laptop using F12.
How to enable Boot Menu on Samsung laptops
On Samsung you need to press Esc key. But owners of Samsung laptops need to know one feature. The fact is that to call the Boot Menu you need to click Esc button once! If you click twice, the window will simply close.
Therefore, you will have to get used to it in order to know exactly when to press the Esc key. Although there is nothing complicated here - just a couple of attempts.
HP also has its own specifics
Launching the Boot Menu on HP also has its own specifics. After all, opening the Boot Menu is done a little differently.
- At turning on Windows Immediately press the Esc key.
- The launch menu will be displayed - press the F9 button.
- Ready.
After this, the boot menu of the HP laptop will open, and you can set the priority for turning on devices (using the arrows).
Boot menu on Windows 10 or 8
If Windows 8 or Windows 10 is installed on your PC or laptop, then you most likely will not be able to enable the Boot Menu.
The fact is that these operating systems have a small feature - by default they have " Quick start", so they don't turn off completely. This is called hibernation (something like sleep mode). Therefore, when you boot your PC or laptop, you will not be able to open this menu on Windows 10.
There are three ways to fix this:
- Hold Shift when turning off your laptop or PC. After this, it will turn off normally (in the usual sense of the word). And then you can launch it on Windows 10 by pressing the desired key.
- Instead of turning off your PC, you can restart it. And at the moment of turning on, just press a specific key corresponding to your laptop brand or motherboard.
- Disable the Quick Start feature. To do this:
That’s it – now you can easily access the Boot Menu on Windows 10 or Windows 8.
For your convenience, below is a screenshot showing the keys to launch the Boot Menu for popular laptops and PCs
For example, for computers running on a mat. MSI board– this is the F11 button. And launch the Boot Menu on Sony laptops VAIO is done using F12. In general, you can figure it out for yourself - the table is simple and understandable.
Also, for convenience, buttons for entering the BIOS are written. If for some reason you are unable to open the Boot Menu, you can always change the device boot priority in a standard way- via BIOS.
