Booting A USB Recovery Drive with UEFI

This Dell computer says it uses Windows Boot Manager to determine what
it sees on booting.

How do I insure that the order is

1) USB flash drive
2) USB optical drive
3) SSD (if present); otw HD

Thanks.

On 26/07/2017 01:32, Alek wrote:
This Dell computer says it uses Windows Boot Manager to determine what
it sees on booting.

How do I insure that the order is

1) USB flash drive
2) USB optical drive
3) SSD (if present); otw HD

Thanks.

USe this as your starting point and adapt it for your own requirements:

http://www.dell.com/support/article/uk/en/ukbsdt1/sln142679/how-to-enable-boot-from-dvd-option-with-uefi-boot-mode-enabled--windows-8--81--10-?lang=en#Shortcut_2

If you are still having problems then post back.

One thing I'll mention that you can choose from within Windows 10 how
you want to reboot the machine but first try this article and then see
if it works for you.


--
With over 500 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

Alek wrote:
This Dell computer says it uses Windows Boot Manager to determine what
it sees on booting.

How do I insure that the order is

1) USB flash drive
2) USB optical drive
3) SSD (if present); otw HD

Thanks.

Legacy
UEFI with CSM
UEFI with Secure Boot enabled

There should be two BIOS keys. A key to enter
the BIOS. A key to cause the "popup boot menu"
to show.

The advantage of using "popup boot", is you don't
get to mess around with the main BIOS by doing so.
Using that, allows you to select and boot from
a USB flash key if you want.

F12 could be the "one-time" or "popup boot" option,
where you'll see an industry standard menu of devices
to choose from. Whereas F2 takes you into the Setup
screen instead (where monsters lurk if you make
a mistake, on more modern systems).

On my Acer laptop, the timing window to press the
popup boot key, is one second wide. I usually miss-time
it on my first attempt, and end up in Windows 10. And
on the second try, I can usually time it properly to
hit the tiny timing window. Modern machines are not
as generous with the timing window as the old ones were.

If the machine is set for Secure Boot, of course
there may not be signed files to boot from on
your USB key and the boot will fail.

And if you mess around in the more modern setup
screens, you can brick things. This is one of the
reasons for me continuing to support desktops as
opposed to throw-away tablets. The user still has a few
more options when setting up the machine. A tablet
is a lonely place to be.

There is a whole series of web pages providing background
on UEFI, Secure Boot, alternatives for signing keys and
so on. A tablet is probably locked down pretty good. Other
form factors, like laptops or desktops, there's still hope
for adjusting them to a more useful state.

By not mentioning the model number, that's a nice generic
answer for you.

Paul

Alek Wrote in message:
This Dell computer says it uses Windows Boot Manager to determine what
it sees on booting.

How do I insure that the order is

1) USB flash drive
2) USB optical drive
3) SSD (if present); otw HD

Thanks.


It's a Dell Inspiron 24 3464, an All-in-One desktop machine.

The keys are indeed F2 and F12. I start tapping as soon as
anything appears on the screen.

Thanks.

--

Paul wrote on 7/25/2017 9:59 PM:
Alek wrote:
This Dell computer says it uses Windows Boot Manager to determine what
it sees on booting.

How do I insure that the order is

1) USB flash drive
2) USB optical drive
3) SSD (if present); otw HD

Thanks.

Legacy
UEFI with CSM

What is CSM?

UEFI with Secure Boot enabled

There should be two BIOS keys. A key to enter
the BIOS. A key to cause the "popup boot menu"
to show.

I know how to get into the "BIOS". "Boot" does not give me choices such
as USB whatever, optical drive, hard drive, network, etc.

It offers "Windows Boot Manager".

I suppose if I boot into "Legacy", I will get some choices??

Thanks.

Alek wrote:
Paul wrote on 7/25/2017 9:59 PM:
Alek wrote:
This Dell computer says it uses Windows Boot Manager to determine what
it sees on booting.

How do I insure that the order is

1) USB flash drive
2) USB optical drive
3) SSD (if present); otw HD

Thanks.
Legacy
UEFI with CSM

What is CSM?

UEFI with Secure Boot enabled

There should be two BIOS keys. A key to enter
the BIOS. A key to cause the "popup boot menu"
to show.

I know how to get into the "BIOS". "Boot" does not give me choices such
as USB whatever, optical drive, hard drive, network, etc.

It offers "Windows Boot Manager".

I suppose if I boot into "Legacy", I will get some choices??

Thanks.

This thread has a couple pictures (not for your machine).
I hope this is illustrative (of something).

http://en.community.dell.com/support...2406?pi41097=5

In this picture, the "Load Legacy Option ROM" is CSM or Compatibility Support Module.
CSM provides the old style BIOS boot. As a result of CSM being enabled,
notice there is a list of Legacy Boot devices. Now, I don't understand
any more of what I'm seeing, than that.

http://en.community.dell.com/resized...44.Capture.JPG

The other picture, is with Legacy disabled, so we're dealing with only UEFI.
And to make things more interesting, Secure Boot is enabled. UEFI is a little
more clever than a traditional BIOS, and that's how it can display that
"Windows Boot Manager" entry. Presumably, this is something stamped
on one of the files in a boot partition on the hard drive. With Secure Boot,
you would not expect as many boot options.

http://en.community.dell.com/resized.../4807.boot.jpg

Now, if you disable Secure Boot, and just select the hard drive with
Win10 on it, what happens ? Dunno. I don't know if a Secure Boot partition
will boot in a non-secure mode or not.

And you can see later in the thread, they've managed to lose
their "Windows Boot Manager" entry. That's what concerns me
about messing around in there - how much messing around, is
too much ?

I hope the drive inside the unit is easy to remove. If
it was my machine, I'd pull it and make a backup. Confident
in the knowledge, that when I manage to brick it, I can always
try pulling the drive again, and restoring the drive using
another computer. If I couldn't get my Macrium emergency boot
media to boot, then I'd pretty well be forced to pull the
drive and work on it elsewhere.

It's a good thing the drive is not encrypted. Right ?

Eventually, computers will be no fun at all.

*******

Have a look at what mode you're in now, but think carefully
about which options would be "safe" to try.

Paul

Paul wrote on 7/26/2017 2:09 AM:
Alek wrote:
Paul wrote on 7/25/2017 9:59 PM:
Alek wrote:
This Dell computer says it uses Windows Boot Manager to determine what
it sees on booting.

How do I insure that the order is

1) USB flash drive
2) USB optical drive
3) SSD (if present); otw HD

Thanks.
Legacy
UEFI with CSM

What is CSM?

UEFI with Secure Boot enabled

There should be two BIOS keys. A key to enter
the BIOS. A key to cause the "popup boot menu"
to show.

I know how to get into the "BIOS". "Boot" does not give me choices such
as USB whatever, optical drive, hard drive, network, etc.

It offers "Windows Boot Manager".

I suppose if I boot into "Legacy", I will get some choices??

Thanks.

This thread has a couple pictures (not for your machine).
I hope this is illustrative (of something).

http://en.community.dell.com/support...2406?pi41097=5

In this picture, the "Load Legacy Option ROM" is CSM or Compatibility Support Module.
CSM provides the old style BIOS boot. As a result of CSM being enabled,
notice there is a list of Legacy Boot devices. Now, I don't understand
any more of what I'm seeing, than that.

http://en.community.dell.com/resized...44.Capture.JPG

The other picture, is with Legacy disabled, so we're dealing with only UEFI.
And to make things more interesting, Secure Boot is enabled. UEFI is a little
more clever than a traditional BIOS, and that's how it can display that
"Windows Boot Manager" entry. Presumably, this is something stamped
on one of the files in a boot partition on the hard drive. With Secure Boot,
you would not expect as many boot options.

http://en.community.dell.com/resized.../4807.boot.jpg

Thanks for the pictures. Right now it boots to UEFI but there I can
switch to Legacy for the next boot. I'll try that. HOWEVER, if Legacy
gives me what I want and I put the USB thumb drive first, will the next
boot go to that drive (a) if I keep Legacy? (b) if I go back to UEFI?

Now, if you disable Secure Boot, and just select the hard drive with
Win10 on it, what happens ? Dunno. I don't know if a Secure Boot partition
will boot in a non-secure mode or not.

I'm not sure on What Secure Boot does for me. I'll Google it

I hope the drive inside the unit is easy to remove. If
it was my machine, I'd pull it and make a backup. Confident
in the knowledge, that when I manage to brick it, I can always
try pulling the drive again, and restoring the drive using
another computer. If I couldn't get my Macrium emergency boot
media to boot, then I'd pretty well be forced to pull the
drive and work on it elsewhere.

:-) I guess I could write a clone to a spare HD and then install that
one for playing around.

Eventually, computers will be no fun at all.

This is fun? :-)

Have a look at what mode you're in now, but think carefully
about which options would be "safe" to try.

Thanks for your help.

Here are some pictures from my stepson's computer...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fyes57qmy6...-MAIN.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/edclk003h0...-BOOT.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pcn29h4nh9...0MODE.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2j14n0oiw5...E%202.jpg?dl=0

Is it in Legacy mode???

Thanks.

I apologize for the picture quality.

Alek wrote on 7/27/2017 4:55 PM:
Here are some pictures from my stepson's computer...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fyes57qmy6...-MAIN.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/edclk003h0...-BOOT.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pcn29h4nh9...0MODE.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2j14n0oiw5...E%202.jpg?dl=0

Is it in Legacy mode???

Thanks.

Alek wrote:
Here are some pictures from my stepson's computer...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fyes57qmy6...-MAIN.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/edclk003h0...-BOOT.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pcn29h4nh9...0MODE.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2j14n0oiw5...E%202.jpg?dl=0

Is it in Legacy mode???

Thanks.

It's set to UEFI with CSM enabled, and no Secure Boot.

Functionally, the options would be

1) UEFI with Secure Boot. --- Tablet mode, lockdown
2) UEFI without Secure Boot --- I.e. Let Linux in...
3) UEFI without Secure Boot and CSM enabled (allows Legacy or UEFI)

The last two pictures suggest the machine is (3).

And the legacy section, shows the storage devices

CD/DVD/CD-RW Drives
Hard Drive
Network

Normally, there would be a sub-menu to put all the
Hard Drives into an "order".

Hard Drive 1
Hard Drive 3
Hard Drive 2

If Hard Drive 1 was unplugged, then Hard Drive 3 could
be the boot choice. But only if a CD was not present
in the CD drive. Or if Hard Drive 1 had no OS partition,
then Hard Drive 3 could be checked.

And it's unclear in those pictures, what's happening to
USB. Is there a USB menu somewhere that needs some
adjustment ?

I usually pick up my USB boot sticks, using the popup
boot menu, rather than actually entering the BIOS
and trying to add things there. I think mine *will*
show USB sticks in the BIOS setup, but normally you
would not expect a USB stick to be plugged in for
very long, so it would be a waste of time making
a permanent entry for it.

I think my UEFI will also pick up the USB stick,
if no hard drive happens to be connected. I do
occasionally run that way. The test machine receives
many cabling changes per day, as I have more disks
(in trays) than I have bays to store them.

*******

A UEFI can be GUI based (and uses a mouse), or it
can be cursor based. Your example in the pictures,
appears to be cursor based.

My laptop uses a cursor based interface, and is by this company.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insyde_Software

My desktop has an Asus GUI based interface.

The ones with a GUI look a little more modern.

Paul

On 27/07/2017 21:58, Alek wrote:
I apologize for the picture quality.

Alek wrote on 7/27/2017 4:55 PM:
Here are some pictures from my stepson's computer...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fyes57qmy6...-MAIN.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/edclk003h0...-BOOT.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pcn29h4nh9...0MODE.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2j14n0oiw5...E%202.jpg?dl=0

Is it in Legacy mode???

Thanks.



Your machine is very old and the MOBO and/or BIOS is very old and so you
can't boot up from a USB drive so don't waste your time. The machine
was suitable for XP but anything above that is a complete waste of time
even for a jobless idiot or an old man like Rene Lamo.

Did you try to upgrade your BIOS to see if it can install features like
booting from the USB drive? I don't think it works but since you have
nothing better to do, you could spend some time investigate if there is
a latest BIOS for your machine. For old machine there aren't any but
hey try to search for them!!.



--
With over 500 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

"Good Guy" wrote in message news Your machine is very old and the MOBO and/or BIOS is very old


Wrong again. Based on the first BIOS/UEFI picture the device was built with Windows 10 x64
Ship date May 6, 2017 and under warranty until Aug 2018.



--
....winston
ms mvp windows 2007-2016, insider mvp 2016-2018

"Good Guy" wrote in message
news
Your machine is very old and the MOBO and/or BIOS is very old and so you
can't boot up
from a USB drive so don't waste your time.


Wrong.
Sometimes its best to look before leaping.
Based on the first BIOS/UEFI picture the device was built with Windows 10
x64
Ship date May 6, 2017 and under warranty until Aug 2018.


--
....winston
ms mvp windows 2007-2016, insider mvp 2016-2018