Verifying BIOS and USB Storage Device Compatibility

  • Article

5/10/2007

USB boot may fail because the BIOS and USB storage device are not compatible.

To verify compatibility, begin by configuring the BIOS to boot only from the USB storage device. This will prevent the BIOS from proceeding to another boot device if USB boot fails.

Next, if the BIOS supports legacy emulation for USB devices, set the emulation to hard disk mode.

It is not necessary to put an image on the USB storage device to test compatibility; simply place NTDETECT.COM and the NTLDR boot loader there. Without an image, if the BIOS and storage device are compatible, NTLDR displays the message Failed to load boot.ini and find C:\WINDOWS.

If the BOOT FAILURE MESSAGE is displayed, then the BIOS is not executing NTLDR. Confirm that the BIOS legacy emulation is set to hard disk mode (if applicable) and try another USB storage device. In some cases, a BIOS will not boot from a particular USB storage device but will boot from another.