Installing Windows using a distribution recorded on removable media in the form of USB flash drives usually does not cause problems even for the most unprepared user. However, sometimes it is possible to meet situations when a message appears on the screen that the download seems to start, but after a while a notification is issued informing that such an action is not possible (Boot Failed). When booting from a USB flash drive, this situation can occur for several reasons. What are these reasons, and what are the main methods for eliminating failures of this kind, read on.
Boot Failed when booting from a flash drive: what is the reason for the failure?
There can be a lot of reasons for the inability to start the bootloader, but basically the failure to try to boot from a removable drive occurs mainly because:
- The flash drive contains an unsupported file system;
- In the settings of the primary system, the incorrect boot type is indicated;
- drive is damaged;
- the media necessary for downloading is damaged or missing on the media.
We do not take viruses into account, since they, as a rule, have no effect on loading from the media, unless they have already settled on the USB flash drive and have had a detrimental effect on it.
Boot Failed Error: Media Formatting Problem
So, the main problem of failures when starting from removable drives is considered to be improper pre-formatting when the user created the media on their own (for example, using command-line tools), and not in some automated program. If you get a Boot Failed error when booting from a USB flash drive, you need to pay attention to its format.
It is important to understand that if a primary UEFI system is available on a computer or laptop, the media must be formatted in FAT32, and you cannot use the NTFS file structure under any pretext. In the same way and vice versa. If you have a distribution with 64-bit Windows 7, it is advisable to boot from a USB flash drive for the primary BIOS with the NTFS file system.
Changing Primary I / O Settings
However, it cannot be ruled out that in the primary system itself, some important parameters affecting the recognition of the removable device and the start using the bootloader that is recorded on it are set incorrectly. Most often, the Boot Failed error when booting from a USB flash drive appears precisely when using primary BIOS systems in which the boot mode is incorrectly set. It should try to change.
If the start does not occur in UEFI mode, change it to Legacy and vice versa. Upon completion of the settings, do not forget to put the USB flash drive first in the list of devices used to boot and save the changed options when exiting.
Incorrectly created or damaged media
It is quite possible that starting from a removable device is impossible only because the files present on the media are damaged.
In such a situation, the best solution would be to re-record the information on the drive, but it is best to use the automated Rufus utility, which, when the user selects a recordable image with the distribution kit or recovery environment, will determine the required format type.
In addition, the situation looks absolutely natural when the flash drive itself can be corrupted or corrupted. Before recording and using the medium, it is necessary to check the media in a working system, and if problems are detected, for example, restore the controllers to work using utilities from the device manufacturer or universal programs like D-Soft Flash Doctor. Even if with their application the result turns out to be zero, as a cardinal measure you can perform low-level formatting, which will allow bringing the medium, so to speak, to the factory state.
To perform such operations, the HDD LLFT program is the most effective, in which the formatting process takes only a couple of minutes.
Other reasons
These were the main problems that can be encountered when trying to start from removable media. However, do not forget about the image files themselves, which you are trying to write to a USB flash drive. If you download them from unofficial resources on the Internet or when using some custom assemblies, you can often observe the absence of some important components that are responsible for the correct launch of the bootloader. In this case, at boot, it will be reported that the component was not found. Therefore, download files only from trusted sources, but even downloaded objects can sometimes be scanned for potential threats.
Note: if the Secure Boot function is activated on the primary system, sometimes it may be necessary to disable it (if possible).