How to Boot from USB - By: Tauqeer Hassan

With the availability and facility of open-source software and high capacity disk drives and USB disks, one can have an entire system at the tip of the thumb. A bootable USB disk has all the functions of an entire operating system that can be configured according to the user preferences. The operating system can be used in most shared and public computers also. It is very easy to boot from USB. This article provides a step by step guide for making a computer boot from a bootable USB.

It should be remembered that not all computers can be booted from a USB drive. The motherboard and the computer’s BIOS or Basic Input and Basic Output system should be able to recognize the USB ports as part of the booting process. This is essential for a booting process to happen from a USB disk. Due to the advances and development in computer technology, most of the modern computers already feature capabilities of USB booting. However, the user still has to check the BIOS for ensuring if the USB port is part of the boot series of the machine.

Any USB or flash drive that has a complete operating system installed on it is considered to be a bootable USB drive. Memory space is not a cause of a problem for many computers because the USB disks that are available nowadays have large memory storage capacities that can accommodate the space needed for holding an entire working operating system. The preferred operating system is Linux. However there are also other options such as Windows if the storage capacity of the flash drive allows.

Following are the steps to boot from a USB drive
Step 1: The USB drive has to be checked on another computer to know if it contains a working operating system installed in it.
Step 2: Then, plug the bootable USB drive in to the empty USB port on the computer that is intended to use it with.
Step 3: The computer has to be restarted, enter the BIOS mode by pressing ‘delete’ during the BIOS startup.
Step 4: Navigate through the BIOS screen and when the option is seen which asks to use the USB drive as the primary booting device, it has to be enabled. Shift the hard drive to secondary boot.
Step 5: After that, save all the changes that have been made.
Step 6: Now, you the system can be made bootable from the USB drive.
Booting from a USB has its own advantages especially for and public computer terminals and shared computers. These fairly simple and easy steps can guide in a good way so one can boot on any supported computer. It can be done from any high capacity USB storage medium.

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Also learn how to boot from USB and how to add space to an iPod.

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