Zotac Boot From USB

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26 Jul 2004
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94
Does anyone know what settings need to be enabled for boot from usb to work. I'm stuck without an OS on mine at the mo :( I put boot priority to usb-fdd first and then hdd but that doesnt seem to fly.

The manual doesnt seem to say if it even supports it Id of guessed it would as it does see the drive in the bios screen but just doesnt even attempt to try and boot.

Also if the drive has to be a particular format and size i.e. fat fat32 ntfs ?
 
Thanks m8 I gave it a go but it seems to be the bios that's causing all the trouble. If I go to hdd boot priority its listed as usb-hdd0 using 2nd in the list so I move it up to first but when I go to first boot device there is no usb-hdd on the list so I'm stumped.

Apparently supports it but usb-hdd isnt on the list I tried usb-fdd hdd usb-cdrom pritty much all of them but still no luck.

Does the drive have to be of a set size and format ? I used fat32 on a 4 gig drive. Even tried Fat and NTFS but didnt seem to do much difference.

I dont understand how they expect you set it to boot when usb-hdd is not on the list unless theres something hiding away in the bios I missed.

Arrrrrrrrghhh......

Bootup from USB Device (USB Flash Disk or USB Hard Drive) can be configure in the following way in the AMI BIOS (eg., Zotac ION) :
The step below assumes that you had one SATA HDD (as normal bootup drive).

1) Prepare the USB Device so that it becomes "bootable".

2) Plug the USB Device to the motherboard.

3) Power up, press <Del> to enter CMOS Setup

4) Press the [->] arrow key to select the [Boot] column

5) Under Boot Settings, scroll down to the item [Hard Disk Drives]
The list of plugged HDDs should be shown.
Scroll to high-light the target USB Drive (to boot from this), press the + / - key to make this become "1st Drive"

6) Go back one level and select the other item [Boot Device Priority]
The target USB Drive should be listed as "2nd Boot Device".
Scroll to this USB Drive, press the + / - key to make this become "1st Boot Device"

7) Save changes and exit.

8) Reboot, the USB Drive will be booted.

That was posted on the Zotac board but from point 6 onwards its total ******** I guess it must be for a different board. Instead of Boot Device Priority its just lists 1st, 2nd, 3rd, boot from other which I assume is the same thing but usb-hdd0 is not on the list nor is anything to do with usb-hdd unless its named something else.

My guess is you leave it as just hdd in the first boot device but I'm not completely sure. It doesnt work anyway though :(. Its a 4 gig card reader I'm using does that make a difference ? I have a 4 gig sd memory card plugged into an adaptor which I'm using as the boot device.
 
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I'm not sure if it being a card reader would make a difference, it isn't something I've tried.
Can you hit F8 (iirc) for boot options instead of going into bios?
 
I could never get my 9300 zotac to boot from usb either, tried lots of different guides. So I'd also like to know if it has been done succesfully on this board, and if so how.
 
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