Boot USB on UEFI

AllanP

Posts: 7   +1
Three months ago I got rid of my seven year old Dell Studio (may regret doing same). My new machine (Dell Inspiron 15-5578 with Windows 10 Home) will not boot to USB. I have USB boot enabled in setup. The new laptop is working flawlessly, so I hesitate to change settings in setup; like disabling "Secure boot" and changing to "Legacy" as I've read where a someone had trouble after doing so to boot Windows again.
A Dell forum expert gave me a long set of instructions to manually insert USB Boot in boot choices. I just don't understand why this feature is not automatically included.
I hope to be able to format the 500GB SSD drive and do a Windows 10 fresh instal; then partition and install Linux Mint, which is the way I had it on my old laptop.
 
Is it possible to use a freeware program like MiniTool Partition Wizard to create a new partition or resize existing ones rather than going to the bother of reinstalling Windows?
 
Is it possible to use a freeware program like MiniTool Partition Wizard to create a new partition or resize existing ones rather than going to the bother of reinstalling Windows?
Partitioning isn't the problem. I can do that now. The problem is not being able to boot to USB. I can't even boot to Acronis to do a restore.
 
I'm not convinced that you need to reinstall Windows 10 particularly as everything is working well. You could install Mint if you burn a bootable DVD thus avoiding USB problems.

https://www.tecmint.com/install-linux-mint-18-alongside-windows-10-or-8-in-dual-boot-uefi-mode/

There's also the option of using a virtual Mint OS if you install software like VMWare Workstation in Windows 10. It's the least risky route.
I must not be expressing myself clearly. I want to be able to boot to USB on a UEFI system. I do not have a DVD drive. Repeat: I would like very much to be able to boot to USB. There are many applications that require this function; Acronis True Image for one.
 
Sorry but I can't help. You have the instructions from a Dell forum expert so give them a go. There's always going to be some degree of uncertainty and everything moves on with computers.
 
UEFI and Secure Boot vary in implementation from one maker to another (and sometimes from one motherboard version to another). Go to maker for explicit instruction.

My best understanding is that you must disable secure boot - as secure boot is there to keep anyone from booting from a flash drive (or other removable media).
 
Thanks and yes that is what I thought, but was hesitant to try it in case I couldn't get back to Windows as one poster had said. So I was just on to Dell tech support for over an hour and we did that, but then Windows wouldn't boot and still wouldn't show USB in boot menu. So I guess I'll try what and expert suggested and manually put USB boot into boot menu.
 
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