Boot from USB First Boot Blank SSD - Are Changes To the BIOS Necessary

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  1. Posts : 617
    windows 10 pro
       #1

    Boot from USB First Boot Blank SSD - Are Changes To the BIOS Necessary


    When notebook arrives I will be pulling the HDD platter before first boot and putting in a 2.5" SATA SSD and then booting from a USB stick that has the bootable? install OS media created using the media creation tool. The video below indicates that I need to make changes to the BIOS first before the USB stick will engage. I thought that I would be just good to go by hitting F12 to bring up the boot menu and choosing the USB. In the video he is booting a disc up from an external CD/DVD player and he already has an OS installed. I will have no OS installed upon first boot and I thought that the BIOS would just "find" the USB stick and I would be on my merry way. Insight appreciated. TIA. P.S. I know that I have secure boot disabled on my other notebook but I cannot recall if I also had gone ahead and enabled both UEFI and LEGACY and if I did it was for purposes of something else and at the moment I do not particularly feel like shutting down and going into the BIOS to check : )

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGTatuBJdEk
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  2. Posts : 30,120
    Windows 11 Pro x64 Version 23H2
       #2

    Hi phaedruspress

    If you created the boot media on a USB key using MCT it should boot just as you described. The MCT formats the the USB Fat32 which is necessary for UEFI. You may have to also disable Fast Boot in BIOS as recommended in this tutorial.

    Clean Install Windows 10

    I guess the question is what will you be booting Legacy?
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  3. Posts : 617
    windows 10 pro
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Caledon Ken said:
    Hi phaedruspress

    If you created the boot media on a USB key using MCT it should boot just as you described. The MCT formats the the USB Fat32 which is necessary for UEFI. You may have to also disable Fast Boot in BIOS as recommended in this tutorial.

    Clean Install Windows 10

    I guess the question is what will you be booting Legacy?
    Thanks for the info. So just to be clear with a blank drive and the USB stick which houses the fresh OS are you saying that I can not just hit power and bring up the boot menu and choose the USB stick and the installation will begin but the VERY FIRST thing I need to do is first go into the bios and disable fast boot BEFORE I attempt the install? If so I guess that surprises me. I was under the impression that all I needed to do was stick in the USB stick and the install would start. Also are fast boot and fast startup interchangeable terms. When I put "fast boot" into GOOGLE I got a whole bunch of returns for fast startup. Thanks.
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  4. Posts : 30,120
    Windows 11 Pro x64 Version 23H2
       #4

    You should shut off Fast Boot in BIOS first. You can always try without but Brink had a reason for the recommendation. Fast Boot reduces the machine processing time to get to Windows (the OS ) boot. It may not let you press the key to get boot menu with Fast Boot enabled.

    Fast Boot is a BIOS thing. Search BIOS Fast Boot.

    Windows Fast Startup is a windows process to reduce time to boot Windows (OS).

    Turn On or Off Fast Startup in Windows 10
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  5. Posts : 617
    windows 10 pro
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Caledon Ken said:
    You should shut off Fast Boot in BIOS first. You can always try without but Brink had a reason for the recommendation. Fast Boot reduces the machine processing time to get to Windows (the OS ) boot. It may not let you press the key to get boot menu with Fast Boot enabled.

    Fast Boot is a BIOS thing. Search BIOS Fast Boot.

    Windows Fast Startup is a windows process to reduce time to boot Windows (OS).

    Turn On or Off Fast Startup in Windows 10
    OK. Thanks.

    >Fast Boot reduces the machine processing time to get to Windows (the OS ) boot.

    I guess I was stuck on the fact that there is no OS to get to. The SSD is blank. The only bootable OS is on the USB stick and I thought that possibly since there was nothing else to boot other then the USB stick that that would engage without any other user intervention. I get why fast boot should be turned off under other scenarios. Thanks again.
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  6. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #6

    You should also go into UEFI setup (since it shouldn't have BIOS if it is a new UEFI computer) and make sure the SATA disk controller is set to AHCI mode. It's probably not much of a concern with new computers, but the vast majority of computers even just a couple years old have the SATA disk controller set to IDE mode by default.
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  7. Posts : 617
    windows 10 pro
    Thread Starter
       #7

    NavyLCDR said:
    You should also go into UEFI setup (since it shouldn't have BIOS if it is a new UEFI computer) and make sure the SATA disk controller is set to AHCI mode. It's probably not much of a concern with new computers, but the vast majority of computers even just a couple years old have the SATA disk controller set to IDE mode by default.
    >You should also go into UEFI setup (since it shouldn't have BIOS if it is a new UEFI computer) and make sure the SATA disk controller is set to AHCI mode

    That tip sounds very familiar. I think I came across it last year when I was first finding out "stuff" about win10 and on the verge of purchasing my first new computer (11/17) in 8 years : )

    Thanks

    @Caledon Ken

    @NavyLCDR


    It looks like I will be smacking F1 first to get into the BIOS before tapping F12 to access the boot menu and initiating setup from the USB drive.
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  8. Posts : 4,224
    Windows 10
       #8

    According to this Lenovo Support note, you should be able to press the F12 key while your system is booting and get an alternate boot menu. You can then select the drive from which you wish to boot -- your UFD obviously -- and go on your merry way from there. I have older Lenovos whice have a blue ThinkVantage key at the top of the keyboard. If you have one, you could press that instead and get a boot time menu that lets you select alternate boot as one of the runtime options.
    HTH,
    --Ed--
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  9. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #9

    phaedruspress said:
    It looks like I will be smacking F1 first to get into the BIOS before tapping F12 to access the boot menu and initiating setup from the USB drive.
    To make things easy, try F12 first, on newer computers there is an option to enter UEFI setup as part of the alternate boot menu. Just be easier to remember 1 key does it all - if that is the case with yours.

    You can also leave safe boot turned on, if you are not booting from some third party OS, safe boot will not interfere with booting a standard Windows 10 installation flash drive created with the MCT.

    I do recommend turning fast boot off in UEFI. Also on a computer with an SSD, I would turn fast startup off in Windows. If you are not going to use Hibernation, disable it and fast startup gets disabled too. To turn off Hibernation, in a command prompt (admin) or powershell (admin) run:
    powercfg -h off

    If you want hibernation, but turn off Windows fast startup:
    Turn On or Off Fast Startup in Windows 10 | Tutorials

    The advantage of turning off hibernation is that it removes the hiberfil.sys file from your SSD.
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  10. Posts : 617
    windows 10 pro
    Thread Starter
       #10

    EdTittel said:
    According to this Lenovo Support note, you should be able to press the F12 key while your system is booting and get an alternate boot menu. You can then select the drive from which you wish to boot -- your UFD obviously -- and go on your merry way from there. I have older Lenovos whice have a blue ThinkVantage key at the top of the keyboard. If you have one, you could press that instead and get a boot time menu that lets you select alternate boot as one of the runtime options.
    HTH,
    --Ed--
    >According to this Lenovo Support note, you should be able to press the F12 key while your system is booting and get an alternate boot menu

    Right. That's what I thought which is why I thought I was good to go just sticking the USB drive in the slot and booting off it and not having to do anything first in the bios. I currently own another Lenovo product and since it has two bootable drives in it F12 is the first thing I do in the morning after brushing my teeth. I probably can set the default OS or drive to boot from but frankly I like going through the routine of pressing F12. I guess we'll see. Notebook will be purchased this Wed or Thurs. Thanks.
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