can you boot from an external hard drive

It’s possible that this is hidden by a logo, so look out for a message telling you to hit the Tab key. Look out for the Power On Self Test (POST) screen, which is the information screen you first get when you turn on your computer. To get this option, you need to reset, reboot or start your computer from fresh. This option is useful if you’re installing an operating system, as you can select your flash drive, install Windows and then just boot from your regular hard disk. This lets you select a drive from a menu for a one-time boot: it doesn’t affect the regular boot order, so next time you restart your computer it will use its regular hard disk. The easiest way to choose which device to boot from is to use your computer’s boot menu. Any USB port will do, but if you’re having problems with the front ones not recognising your device, try using a port at the rear of your computer. If you don’t, then your PC’s BIOS may not recognise the drive and won’t let you boot from it. If you’re booting from a USB flash drive, it’s important that you insert the drive before you turn on your computer.

Once you step away from the boot order that’s programmed into your computer, things can get a little tricky, so here’s how to manage everything. For starters, you may want to boot from a USB drive if you want to install Windows 10 then, you may want to switch which hard disk you boot from, so that you can run multiple operating systems all without having to worry about complicated boot menus.

As good as the standard order is, there are times where you may want to change the status quo. For the most part, your computer is set up to boot from devices in the most sensible order, such as looking for a CD or DVD to boot from, before it loads an operating system from your hard disk.

Can you boot from an external hard drive