Recovery but no EMS

gregrocker said:

Is the listing only "removeable Devices" or does it register the exact device to chooe to boot?

Unless the exact flash stick model show up on the BIOS Boot Order or one-time BIOS Boot Menu, it may not be bootable and registering. In that case try another method to write to stick.

I believe F2 enters BIOS setup. What is your model so we can give you the one-time BIOS Boot Menu key.

Oh yeah, that is correct. F2 enters BIOS setup. I thought that's you were referring to before. I guess I'm not aware of one-time BIOS Boot Menu. I am running an Asus UL30A, the low power consumption 13.3" model.

In BIOS setup, there's a message at the right that reads (from memory):

"Any device in parentheses is disabled in the corresponding menu type"

Well, all boot options are in parentheses. Does that have any significance?

Bare Foot Kid said:

In the Windows start menu search box type msconfig click the entry and at the boot tab, if there is a "RAMDISK" entry it can be deleted to remove the boot menu entry but this won't remove the actual addition you made using the boyans info.

Thank you. I was able to get it removed. Funny, it was actually labeled Windows Recovery Environment like boyans said it should be on boot up, rather than Ramdisk. I wonder why the difference.

However, I still wasn't able to boot from USB, on any port. Hopefully I'll have some success from greg's latest offering.

Sorry about frustrating you guys so much

All boot options including HD are in parentheses? Or just the Removeable?

On that model, the bootable USB sticks is reported to register as a HD in the BIOS:

By pressing F2 when the ASUS logo is displayed, go to the BIOS and configure it to boot on the USB key. The magic trick: the USB key is seen as a hard drive! So you must go to the hard drive boot order sub-menu to put the USB key in first position, before the real hard drive. Save and exit from the BIOS through F10.
The machine then reboots and should boot on the USB key (or do a cold start by powering off then powering on the laptop).

Source: Installation of Linux Ubuntu Karmic Koala (9.10) on an ASUS UL30A-QX090V laptop - David Mentré's blog

The one-time BIOS Boot Menu key for most Asus' is F8, ESC or DEL. If stick doesn't show up on either Menu under HD's then try another writing method. Use the MS tool linked, or install UltraISO trial version: On File tab open ISO, on Bootable tab Write Disk Image, Format, Write. Or use Win2Flash: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srOoGhm-jcI

gregrocker said:

All boot options including HD are in parentheses? Or just the Removeable?

On that model, the bootable USB sticks is reported to register as a HD in the BIOS:

By pressing F2 when the ASUS logo is displayed, go to the BIOS and configure it to boot on the USB key. The magic trick: the USB key is seen as a hard drive! So you must go to the hard drive boot order sub-menu to put the USB key in first position, before the real hard drive. Save and exit from the BIOS through F10.
The machine then reboots and should boot on the USB key (or do a cold start by powering off then powering on the laptop).

YES! That was it!

A clean install of Windows 7 is now residing on my Asus laptop.

Thank you very much to everyone who selflessly donated their time and efforts to help me with this matter. It is truly and greatly appreciated

To sum up...

1. Computer was experiencing some sort of driver failure, which resulted in BSOD

2. Attempted to do System Recovery with the pre-installed Recovery Partition

3. Required menu options to do restore weren't being displayed at boot up

4. No optical drive so I attempted to write the included Recovery media to USB

5. Discovered that writing a Windows 7 Install to USB was the best option (although the Recovery media would have been option #2 if an Install disc wasn't available)

6. Changed boot order to USB through HDD sub menu in BIOS

7. Success! Clean install of Windows 7!