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I'm trying to boot an old notebook (Toshiba Satellite 1135-S1553) from USB but so far it didn't work. I have already tried several different ways:

  • All 3 USB ports.
  • Different USB devices. (USB flash drives and external hard disk drive)
  • Different ISO files. (Debian, Peppermint, Tiny Core, etc…)

I'm sure the USB devices + iso were bootable since GNOME Disks showed 'bootable partition' and they all booted on more recent machines.
And I'm pretty sure that the BIOS configuration is properly set:

  • Legacy USB support enabled.
  • USB device properly shown at the BIOS screen. (ex: Generic USB Flash Disk, ScanDisk or Mass Storage Device)
  • Boot order set to begin with removable devices.

Why this machine is not booting from USB? Is it possible that the USB is available at the BIOS boot menu, but actually the hardware does not handle it? How can I be sure that this machine can or can not boot from USB?

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  • There may be an additional keypress needed during boot to force the choice to USB... try holding F11 or F8.
    – DrMoishe Pippik
    May 9, 2019 at 16:59

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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I am not 100% familiar with booting from a USB flash drive on—what is essentially—a Windows PC like this since I am a Mac person. But this site seems to have some good info:

If you have InsydeH2O bios, you may have some trouble booting from UEFI flash drive (with linux or Win8 or higher).

There is a ton of advice, like to switch to CSM boot mode, but that defeats the point of UEFI. So some tips for you:

The core steps are as follows:

To boot this drive after many hours of trying, sadly only because of a bug:

  • Reset your bios to default settings!
  • Leave Secureboot ON
  • Turn Fastboot OFF
  • Save settings with F10
  • Hold F12 while booting to get to the boot menu, and select your USB.
  • It should boot!

Hope this helps!

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  • I'm not sure why it worked, but after resetting the BIOS to default settings, suddenly the USB device (ex: Generic USB Flash Disk) appeared in the hard drive section (very weird place to appear by the way) of the boot menu.
    – Mark Messa
    May 4, 2019 at 4:17
  • Not wierd at all. It is a solid state drive after all ;). I'm glad you got it working. Are those isos UEFI boot? If so resetting the bios might have undone the legacy mode, and that could be why it worked.
    – Guy Gastineau
    May 4, 2019 at 5:46
  • @GuyGastineau > "Not wierd at all. It is a solid state drive after all ;)." If so, I'm wondering why the "removable device" section.
    – Mark Messa
    May 9, 2019 at 18:24
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Didn’t work for my Insydeh2o rev 5.0 bios. The config tab shows the new blank SSD but when I Save and Exit no device ever shows up on the window that says choose a device option or insert recovery media then enter. Boot Manager window always comes up with no devices showing

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  • Also, did try using recovery media but same result. Even though USB is enabled neither of the two will work. Both USB ports are working on the HDD. I am just trying to upgrade to an SSD!
    – jcarp1939
    Oct 13, 2022 at 0:58
  • BRW, My system is Ideapad 110-15IBR MTM 80T7
    – jcarp1939
    Oct 13, 2022 at 1:00
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