Booting from the USB stick requires that:

  • The USB stick is properly connected to a USB port when the computer is powered on. In many cases a LED is lit when the USB stick is properly powered from the USB port.
  • The primary boot device has been set to "removable USB device"/"USB" from the BIOS. This can be done by following the instructions in this FAQ article.
  • Alternatively, the boot device is selected directly from the boot device menu, when the system is starting. Usually a specific key needs to be pressed to access the menu the menu (for example F12 or F9). The boot menu key varies, but is usually displayed on the screen during the system startup.

If the USB booting seems to fail:

  1. Try connecting the USB stick to another USB port. With desktop computers, using the backside USB ports usually work better as they have more direct connection to the motherboard's USB connectors.
  2. Try different USB port types (USB 2 and USB 3 ports). Sometimes USB 3 ports (usually the blue USB ports) might have problems with the device detection.