Boot from USB flash drive only with FAT32 and no multi-boot support?


  1. pstein
    Posts : 128
    Win10
       New #1

    Boot from USB flash drive only with FAT32 and no multi-boot support?


    I have a (new) Acer Swift notebook which does not allow to switch/enable Legacy BIOS mode.
    So I can only disable "Secure Boot" and use UEFI.

    However my bootable, GPT and NTFS formatted USB flash drive is NOT recognized or even bootable.
    It works on other computers.

    I read that FAT32 should be used.
    Is this really a requirement? No NTFS possible?

    Furthermore I read that the bootable USB flash drive MUST NOT contain two boot-variants for 64bit AND 32bit. Only stand-alone 64bit bootloader is allowed.

    Is this true?

    What about two-in-one bootable USB flash drives which allow booting Legacy-BIOS OR UEFI?
    are these devices accepted?

    Thank you
    Peter
      My Computer
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  3. NavyLCDR
    Posts : 18,432
    Windows 11 Pro
       New #2

    If your flash drive is MBR partitioned with a FAT32 partition marked as active, it will be bootable in both legacy BIOS (and CSM) and UEFI modes. I don't see any reason why the combination 32-bit/64-bit image created by the Microsoft Media Creation Tool would not boot.
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  4. Megahertz
    Posts : 6,358
    Windows 11 Pro - Windows 7 HP - Lubuntu
       New #3

    UEFI - GPT data disk can be used on 32 or 64 Bits OS.
    UEFI - GPT boot able disk can only have 64 Bits OS.

    To boot as UEFI the boot loader must be on a Fat32 partition.
    As Navy explained you can also make the USB Fat32 partition Active, that is, set the MBR so it can boot as Legacy (using the MBR) or UEFI (using the boot loader on the Fat32 partition).

    As your laptop can only boot as UEFI:
    - Format the USB disk as Fat32
    - Mount the iso file you downloaded and copy all files and folders to the USB disk. It will only boot as UEFI

    On BIOS disable Fast boot and Secure boot.
    Boot the Win 10 installation USB disk created as described above. It will only boot as UEFI
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