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I installed Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy unto a USB stick using Pen Drive Linux's USB installer. It won't boot. Booting to a USB isn't in the BIOS boot order. My desktop computer is essentially a brand new i7-3770. Why won't it boot from USB?

Thanks.

Mark.

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  • 1
    It should boot from USB. What's the make and Model?
    – Mitch
    Sep 18, 2013 at 20:19
  • 3
    If it is brand new you might need to disable secure boot.
    – Panther
    Sep 18, 2013 at 20:24
  • adding your motherboard brand/model to your question will help improve answers to your question
    – damien
    Sep 18, 2013 at 22:21

5 Answers 5

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not entirely correct - usb-stick needs a boot-flag too !

You can create boot-flag with gparted. plug-in usb-stick and open gparted.

Then look for the drive there, which contains your usb-stick.

Select your usb-stick with one click.

In Menue goto 'partition' - and there 'edit mark' ---> set boot.

So the usb-stick has flag as 'boot' and can be recognized by BIOS.

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  • The boot flag does make a difference! I loaded Ubuntu 16.04.3 64-bit onto a USB drive and tried booting onto it via an old Acer Aspire 5000 laptop, but it would not work! Even when I went into the Bios (using F2 during boot) and set the boot order to be my USB drive FIRST (EVEN BEFORE THE HARD DRIVE) it still would not work...until I set the boot-flag as you mention above in your answer, via Gparted. Thanks! Now it works. Aug 27, 2017 at 21:51
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Some machines require you to set a supervisor password in the BIOS/UEFI settings before making available other boot options. If you really dont have a choice which boots the USB, try setting the supervisor password, and see if more choices, including a USB choice, are offered.

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you should be wrong about USB-drive isn't listed in the boot order. Maybe you can choose a boot device not by changing the boot order in BIOS but by changing boot device temporarily (F9, F11, ... depends on hardware). If all this fails you'll have to install a grub (or any other compatible Boot Loader onto a bootable hard drive, which recognizes your USB-Stick as a bootable media and will create an entry for the Ubuntu on the USB.

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Maybe the USB boot is under the harddisk; so connect the USB before entering BIOS, then check if there is a harddisk boot priority. If so the USB name and model will be listed.

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If your on windows check out LinuxLiveUSB maker! Its easy to use, and compadible with almost every popular distro out there :D

http://www.linuxliveusb.com/

Oh and also if you are having issues booting natively to USB you can try to burn a copy of PLOOP boat loader and try it like that. I do that when I work with machines with either the BIOS locked or incompatible boot from USB arises.

http://www.plop.at/en/ploplinux/livecd.html

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