USB recovery drive not recognized by BIOS

[DAWO]

I have made an disc image using AOMEI Backupper and stored it on an external USB-drive. I have also made a recovery USB flash drive using the PE-tool creation within AOMEI Backupper. Although I have tried to change boot order and tried with all the three different boot modes (UEFI , Legacy) in combination with a recovery USB WinPE for both UEFI and Legacy mode, the laptop will not recognize the USB flash drive. I might do something wrong when trying to configure the Boot mode and boot order in BIOS (which to me is a bit confusing on the EliteBook). I have tried exactly the same software AOMEI software on a Microsoft Surface, and it works perfectly fine. I have tried to search for the same BIOS menu in order to understand how to configure the boot order and mode properly, but not yet found any information on this.

When I enter BIOS by holding down the F10 I am presented with a graphical user interface and I can use a mouse. It has three tabs at the top: "Main", "Security" and "Advanced".

Selecting "Advanced" gives me several options: "Language", "Set System Date and Time" Boot Options" and "BIOS Power-On" + Device settings.

Selecting "Boot Options" I am able at the top to choose "Startup Menu Delay" which is currently set to 0 seconds, and Multiboot Express Popup Delay, which is also set to 0 seconds.

Below the first list of options like "Audio alerts during boot", "Fast Boot", "USB device boot" (which is selected), I may first choose the "Boot Mode" with three options "Legacy", UEFI Hybrid (with CSM)", "UEFI Native (without CSM)". 

Below these options, depending if I choose the Legacy or UEFI-mode, I can choose "Boot order", with UEFI-mode having more options than "Legacy mode". 

The boot order for UEFI is: USB Hard Drive, Generic USB Device, M.2 SSD Hard Drive OS Boot Manger, Notebook Ethernet IPV4, Notebook Ehternet iPV6, Customized boot and SD Card. 

The boot order for Legacy boot is: M.2 SSD Drive, Notebook Hard Drive, Notebook Elthernet, USB Floppy, USB CD-ROM and USB Hard Drive.

So which of these three modes should I choose? And which boot Device should be on top for that boot mode?

Thanks!

[CherylG]

Immediately after powering on start tapping the Esc key. This will open a menu where F9 Boot Device Options is a selection. Tap F9 key and use arrow keys to select/highlight usb. Tap Enter.

[DAWO]

Thanks CherylG!

But that is exactly what I did. The problem is that the USB-drive is NOT visible! Could this has something to do with "Fast boot"?

[CherylG]

I'll tag @IT_WinSec to look in. He is more familiar with Elitebook and may be able to help.

[IT_WinSec · Accepted solution]

Hi @DAWO

Make sure you go to BIOS (F10) -> Advanced tab

Go to Boot options

Uncheck Fast boot

Make sure Secure boot is not enabled / not checked

Configure the boot mode to Legacy

Scroll down and configure Legacy boot order to have the USB hard drive in upper places

Eventualy, make sure you DO PRESS THE "SAVE" button and confirm with YES that you will save the changes

Exit the BIOS saving the changes.

Restart the PC

(here are pictures, the instructions continue below)

Please, shutdown the computer using the power button (pressed and hold for a while)

Insert the bootable USB thumdrive prepared previously

Power on the PC.

As soon as you press the power-on button, start hitting the Esc button repeatedly (like tap-tap-tap).

This should open a HP Startup Menu

Choose F9 to open Boot options. Select the USB thumb drive as a boot option.

Note that chaging these BIOS settings (Legacy mode vs UEFI mode) may affect your Windows boot settings and ability to boot to Windows as before.   If this happens, you will need to revert eventually to enter BIOS again (F10),revert to UEFI mode and Secure boot ON.

More information on Secure Boot and UEFI mode vs Legacy mode:

>> https://support.hp.com/lt-en/document/c04784866

>> https://support.hp.com/hr-en/document/c03653226

Hope this helps @DAWO

@CherylG