Boot from external USB hdd

[Fincab]

I have made a clone of my internal hdd to an external USB hdd. In the bios, I put the external USB disk as the first priority. But my laptop still won't boot to it. I have read that I should disable Legacy mode, but there is no legacy option in the bios. I have checked and I do have the most recent bios installed. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

[Riddle_Decipher]

@Fincab

Welcome to the HP Forums 🙂 

I would like to take a moment and thank you for using this forum, it is a great place to find answers. 

As I understand you want to boot from the external USB Hard drive rather than the internal drive,

Don't worry as I'll be glad to help, however, to provide an accurate resolution, I need a few more details: 

Have you attempted to disable the secure boot? Click here, If you haven't.

Is there a reason to booting from the external drive than the internal? 

Meanwhile, once you successfully disable the secure boot, You need to go into your BIOS by hitting the F10 key at the HP welcome screen and changing the options in the boot menu to allow for the hard drive to boot first.

Then you can set the boot order for the other devices as you please.

Make sure you save your settings where you made the change and again when you exit.

When you specifically want to boot from a device, hit the F9 key at the HP welcome screen and you will be presented with a one-time boot options menu where you can select from any of the bootable devices listed.

Keep me posted for further assistance 😉

[Fincab]

My BIOS does not have a secure boot option.  I have the most current Bios update installed. 

I have created a clone, so that in the event of a hdd crash, I'd be able to boot from the external drive and instantly be back and running without any down time.  Also, if my laptop died, I could get a new one, make a clone of my clone onto the new hdd and be back up and running.

[Riddle_Decipher]

@Fincab

Thank you for responding,

It's great to have you back 😉

I did some research on your concern and I'm afraid You need to remove the HDD from the external case and connect it via SATA, internally. As the advanced options to change secure boot is locked in your system (if it isn't available) and in your case, Windows doesn't support booting from USB drives.

Feel free to post your query for any other assistance as well, 

It's been a pleasure interacting with you and I hope you have a good day ahead.

[Fincab]

Thank you for doing the research.  Is that a problem with all laptops or is it unique to HP?

[Riddle_Decipher · Accepted solution]

@Fincab

Thank you for replying 😉 

I appreciate your time and efforts,

That seems to be a universal setting with all laptops as far as using external HDD for booting goes,

However, the part where the BIOS is locked is limited to HP as we test the computer and set up the computer with its optimal performance, therefore changing certain settings within BIOS isn't an option.

Feel free to post your query for any other assistance as well, 

It's been a pleasure interacting with you,

And I hope you have a good day ahead.

[pensguy]

@heliflyer091

You say Windows doesn't support booting from usb.  Respectfully I say, that's not quite accurate. I have an HP8470P with the same problem. Yet I can boot into an app (e.g. AOMEI Backupper iso) from a usb flash drive, But it won't boot from. a usb external HD with a Win10 operating system on it.  It will either boot directly to windows or a BSOD saying "Device is inaccesible".  Articles on the Web have implied that it could be done. Infact an article on Microsoft  ( Microsoft confirms fix for Windows devices facing BSOD after recent update ) (https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-confirms-fix-for-windows-devices-facing-bsod-after-recent-upda...) talks about it.  But I haven't quite understood what is happening since I don't have any of the Updates being discussed. So the question remains , Is it or isn't it possible to boot to an external usb HD containing  a clone of the internal hard drive on my Laptop? It would be great if it could and if someone could solve this dillema if it is.  Again, please take no offence in my response. 

[iwonag]

I was able to boot from an external USB drive. Here is how:
- press 10 repeatedly while your HP is restarting

- use left/right arrows to move to System Configuration tab
- use up/down arrows to highlight Boot Options and hit Enter
- use up/down arrows to highlight Boot Order and hit Enter

- use up/down arrows to highlight USB Diskette on Key/USB Hard Disk and then F5/F6 keys to move the selected option to the top of the list

- F10 to save and exit

Your computer will now boot from the USB drive. Once you finish the installation, don't forget to change the boot order again and move your HP's internal hard drive to the top of that list.