How to Prepare Thumb Drive to boot from USB

Updated 2 months ago by Nita Slanina

Dell Optiplex and Latitude USB Bios

Turn on or restart your computer.
Press F2 when the Dell logo is displayed on the screen to enter the BIOS setup program.
The BIOS setup program is displayed.
On the left pane, select Settings > System Configuration > USB Configuration.
The USB configuration is displayed on the right pane.
Select or clear the Enable External USB Port check box to enable or disable it, respectively.
Save the settings and exit.

This would be for all Surface Models.

Before you start, ensure you do not have any other USB devices connected to your Surface, including USB mouse devices, keyboards, or other storage drives. Surface will try to boot from any other connected USB devices. Here's how to boot from a USB.

Shut down your Surface.
Insert the bootable USB drive into the USB port on your Surface.
Press and hold the volume-down button on the Surface. While you're doing this, press and release the power button.
The Microsoft or Surface logo appears on your screen. Continue to hold the volume-down button. Release the button when spinning dots appear beneath the logo.
Follow the on-screen instructions to boot from your USB drive.

If you’re having trouble starting your Surface with the bootable USB, you can try booting through Windows. See the steps below.

Insert the USB drive into the USB port, and then select Start > Settings > Update & security > Recovery
Under Advanced Startup, select Restart Now.
On the Choose an option screen, select Use a device > USB Storage.

After your USB drive is set up as a bootable drive with an appropriate operating system on it, you’ll need to set up your Surface to boot from this drive. This requires you to make changes in the UEFI so that the USB drive is the first option. See the steps below.

Shut down your Surface.
After the Surface has turned off, press and hold the volume-up button.
With the volume-up button held down, press and release the power button.
Continue holding the volume-up button until the Surface or Windows logo no longer appears on the screen.
You should now see the Surface UEFI. To proceed, you will need to follow specific instructions for your Surface.

NOTE: You will need to change the boot order so that your Surface boots from the USB

Select Boot configuration.
Select USB Storage and drag it to the top of the list. Alternatively, you can swipe left on USB Storage to boot to the device immediately. This will not affect the boot order.
Select Exit and then select Restart Now.

Insert the USB boot media into an open USB slot.
Press the Power button to turn on your Mac (or Restart the Mac if it's already on).
When you hear the startup chime, press and hold the Option key. Holding that key gives you access to OS X's Startup Manager. Once the Startup Manager screen appears, release the Option key. The utility will look for any available drives that include bootable content.
Select the USB drive you wish to boot from using either the pointer or arrow keys on the keyboard.
Once selected, either hit the Return key or double-click your selection. This will command the machine to boot from the USB drive.