Windows 7: cant boot from USB

SO i created a bootable usb with windows 7 setup, on my laptop it works fine from selecting usb from the bios and then it quickly goes into windows setup.



Im having the problem with my desktop, i have a gigabyte P55-UD3R motherboard and all usb options are enabled(they were all enabled by default).

Ive tried booting from everything zip, usb-zip, usb-fdd, usb-hdd. The bios boots from the windows 7 setup CD fine.

Ive also tried putting the usb in difference slots on the motherboard and removing other external drives.

Also tried booting from a fat-32 and ntfs usb.

Its probably something simple but i cant seem to find out why it wont boot

Hi,

Firstly, what is your boot priority order in the BIOS? You would need to set it similar to the following...

1st, CD/DVD
2nd, USB
3rd, HDD
4th, anything else

Having the USB set as the second boot device will allow for conventionaly booting from the CD/DVD but if the drive is empty then it'll switch to USB as the next device.

Secondly, have a look at the following tutorial and see if there isn't anything you may have missed

USB Windows 7 Installation Key Drive - Create


OS

Duh! i can sympathize with you, some motherboards and bios can be darned finicky about booting from usb. There is no definitive solution but here are a few things you can try:

1) If you used a U3 drive, try using one without U3.

2) Try formatting the drive as FAT instead of FAT32.

3) Try using the HP format utility to create your bootable usb.

4) Tap F12 (in some computers F9) repeatedly at boot to invoke the boot menu and select usb there.

5) In the bios, make sure you have things like legacy usb detect enabled.

6) Check for a bios update for your mobo.

well the bios are 2009 so i dont think it is that,

tried every boot order there is, and usb is always first, although i have an option to choose first boot device from the bios although it changes after the next boot......tried fat32 and ntfs, i guess i could try fat but it would be strange that a relatively new motherboard couldnt fat32/ntfs from usb

i dont have a usb only option, have to choose between usb-zip , usb-fdd, usb-hdd, usb-cd-rom

USB-HDD is the option you should use, i've had it working fine using the tutorial I linked above

ive tried pretty much every method, from dos method to gui method and using a 3rd party app and while they work on other machines non seem to read on my desktop, well they do in windows but not from the bios.

im thinking ill just try every usb slot, ive tried 4, think ive got 6 to go lol

legacy is enabled, boot order is usb-hdd then usb-fdd then HDD, tried every usb slot still nothing, looked on google and someone had a similar issue he changed usb port and it worked....not for me though....sigh

hello, I stumbled upon this thread/forum while I was looking for answers to my problem exactly like yours.

My mobo is DFI, had options such as USB-FDD etc just like yours. My solution, look for a option called 'hard disk drive priority. Your usb drive should be in the list together with your other hdd. Move your usb drive up the list to the first.

Then, as some of them said, boot priority, I would set it to cd-rom first, followed by usb-fdd, then others, etc.

Before that, I've already formatted my usb with win98 dos files, in FAT32 system. Followed by putting my bios update files in the drive itself.

Hope it works, let me know!

yeh tried all those things straight away, the issue was with the bios, even though they were 2009 for some reason they couldn't read the usb, updated them and it read no problem

I know this is way late, but I have a GIGABYTE GA-890FXA-UD5 and was having the same problem. I followed the above advice also and nothing worked. Here's something that has. With the USB drive in the computer, start/reboot it and go to the BIOS settings.


Select the "Hard Disk Boot Priority". Your USB drive should be listed, if not try rebooting again. The USB will probably be the second priority, move it to be top priority. Save your settings and when the computer reboots it will reboot from the USB assuming your boot priorities are correct.


When I removed my USB drive and retried this process I wasn't given the option to select anything but my hard drive, so I'm thinking this may be something that has to be done every time you want to boot from a USB drive. That's my .02.