# [SOLVED] Boot manager missing when booting from USB flash drive.



## hellwisp (Mar 3, 2012)

I made a bootable USB with Ubuntu 11.10, made sure that it is flagged active and tried to boot from it.
Entered boot menu, selected Hard disk, selected the bootable USB flash drive.
The following message appears "Missing boot manager press CTRL + ALT + Del to restart. (Windows boot manager is working)
I figured that I need a 3rd party boot manager that supports USB booting.
I downloaded Plop boot manager (http://www.plop.at/en/bootmngrusblog.html), installed it in the boot menu, tried to boot the USB through it, but the same error appeared.
I uninstalled it through it's boot menu (which caused me more problems, possibly corrupted the boot sector or something because now I can't start Windows and the error message "missing operating system" shows. I'm trying to resolve this by downloading a Win7 64 repair cd. The windows installation disk doesn't present the option to repair windows because it doesn't detect an OS.)
So the question is: what is the reason of the Boot manager error and how to fix it?
I'm on a different PC right now if someone is wondering.


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## shawnpb (May 30, 2010)

*Re: Boot manager missing when booting from USB flash drive.*

Is the thumb drive's format in FAT? The thumb Drive has to be formated in FAT to be bootable. Try using unetbootin to make a bootable USB for Ubuntu.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

*Re: Boot manager missing when booting from USB flash drive.*



> Entered boot menu, selected Hard disk, selected the bootable USB flash drive


The Boot Sequence menu in the Bios should have *Boot From USB* not *HDD*. If you don't have this option, it will not boot to any USB Device. Also, make sure you have created your USB Flash Drive correctly. 
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick


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## hellwisp (Mar 3, 2012)

*Re: Boot manager missing when booting from USB flash drive.*

I did use unetbootin and I had the USB formatted in FAT32, there is no option to format it in FAT. I reformatted anyway, did everything I did before and now it doesn't even show up in BIOS. (also for some reason I can't run batch files as administrator anymore, so I can't give Plop another shot)
I used LiLi USB creator too. I guess I have to figure out Plop to make this work, I find the instructions hard to follow and confusing.


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## hellwisp (Mar 3, 2012)

*Re: Boot manager missing when booting from USB flash drive.*



spunk.funk said:


> The Boot Sequence menu in the Bios should have *Boot From USB* not *HDD*. If you don't have this option, it will not boot to any USB Device.


I have a USB hard drive and its listed under Hard Dsiks in BIOS and the USB flash drive was too. None of the options (USB HDD, USB Zip, Zip) worked, no message, PC booted as normal.


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## hellwisp (Mar 3, 2012)

*Re: Boot manager missing when booting from USB flash drive.*

Plop worked this time. Maybe because I updated BIOS.
Thanks for the replies.
Case solved.


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