# Unable to boot from USB - Inspiron E1505



## chandchak (Jun 18, 2009)

Hi,

I own a dell inspiron E1505 with a non-working DVD drive.I am trying to install a OS on this machine and thought of booting from my USB pen drive(as the OS DVD wont work).Now in the bios, the first boot device is set as USB and I have plugged in the usb drive with the proper OS files, but the laptop stalls on a black screen and the cursor keeps on blinking..nothing haapens.

Could somebody help me solve the issue.How can I make my laptop boot from the USB drive ? Is there any other option of installing the OS,given the fact that the DVD drive wont work.

Thanks
Chandchak


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

I am not sure if your procedure would work. AFAIK it would work if the USB device is bootable and your BIOS supports booting from USB device. What you can do may be is this... 

http://www.syschat.com/install-windows-xp-without-floppy-cd-463.html


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## SA Spurs1 (May 2, 2009)

If you press CTRL F11 at boot when you see the Dell logo you can restore it to factory settings. So long as it is the original drive that came with the computer.


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## InvalidUseOfNul (Jul 11, 2009)

oops I just read the original post and posted an irrelevant reply. To boot from a USB, you need to have a some sort of operating system on the USB to boot into: see http://www.pendrivelinux.com/usb-linux-mint-7-flash-drive-creation-windows/

Your best bet I think is to try booting/installing over a network using PXE (it's an option on the E1505 but not enabled by default AKAIK). Do you have another computer that you can use that can be put on the same network as your laptop?


----Reboot/boot > Press F2 to enter the BIOS when it flashes on the screen > Expand the SYSTEM tree > go to BOOT SEQUENCE option > arrow down to USB STORAGE DEVICE and press the space bar (a number should appear when the option is enabled) > with USB option selected press the letter 'U' to move UP in the order or 'D' to move the option down. Follow the instructions on the screen to exit menu and save/exit. If you moved USB to the top of the boot order (and you have a bootable USB drive plugged in) it should try it first, otherwise hit F12 when the BIOS loads and select USB from the boot menu.


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