How to Boot From a CD or USB Drive on Any PC

How to Boot From a CD or USB Drive on Any PC

Fig.of CD 

Occasionally, if you're troubleshooting your PC or installing a new operating system, you'll have to "boot it from a disc" or USB flash drive. Here's what that means, and how to do it.

When you press the power button on your computer, it boots up from its internal hard drive, where your operating system (usually Windows, OS X, or Linux) is stored. But sometimes, you need to boot into something different. Maybe you need to boot from your Windows installation disc to reinstall Windows, or perhaps you need to boot from a system rescue disc to solve a problem with your machine. When you're told to boot from a CD or USB drive, here's what you need to do.

Five Best System Rescue Discs

When your computer starts behaving strangely, won’t boot, or you start getting strange errors that you can’t pin down, a great way to troubleshoot the problem is to boot to a rescue disc and see if you can isolate the problem. It might be your operating system, it could be hardware, but you’ll never know until you boot to some other media to take a look. That said, there are tons of great system rescue discs to check out if you want a tool to save your ailing system. This week we’re looking at five of the best, nominated by you, our readers. 

Earlier in the week, we asked you to nominate the best system rescue disc for our roundup. You rolled in with tons of great suggestions, and now we’re back to look at the top five.

The Trinity Rescue Kit

The Trinity Rescue Kit is a customized Linux distribution that’s designed specifically for troubleshooting and reviving ailing systems, whether you’re running Windows or Linux. It fits nicely on a CD (or a USB stick if you prefer) and once booted gives you tools to reset lost Windows passwords, scan hard drives for viruses and malware, clone drives, recover lost partitions, even open up the drives as network shares so you can get files off of them and to other computers on your network. It’s completely free, although a donation to the developer behind it is always appreciated and keeps the project alive.

Hiren’s BootCD

Hiren’s BootCD is pretty legendary, and anyone who’s ever worked in support or systems administration has probably used it at least once (or has several version of it lying around still.) The rescue disc is aimed squarely at repairing Windows systems, and includes a wealth of tools to that effect, including antivirus tools to scan your hard drive, anti-malware utilities to clean out spyware and adware, even rootkit detection tools. Hiren’s BootCD can also help you repair, adjust, or re-flash your system’s BIOS or wipe your CMOS, clean out temporary files and folders, securely erase files, back up your data to another hard drive or to the network, update and back up hardware drivers, scan your system for hardware failures, repair lost or damaged partitions, and much much more. We’re only scratching the surface here. It’s completely free and always has been. Even if there are other tools in your toolkit, Hiren’s BootCD should be among them.

The Ultimate Boot CD

The Ultimate Boot CD is another tool you’ll probably find in most technician’s disc binder. The Ultimate Boot CD is designed to troubleshoot Windows and Linux systems, and comes with a wealth of hardware testing, hard drive management, and partition troubleshooting and repair tools. The UBCD packs memory testing, CPU testing, and drive testing tools all onto the same disc, and even includes some BIOS management tools as well. If you’re having serious PC problems, the CD also includes a number of drive cloning and data recovery tools to help you get your files off of a problematic hard drive and somewhere safe. If you’re looking for a specifically Windows-targeted version of the Ultimate Boot CD, there’s always the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows, a rebuild of the disc that uses BartPE to create a pretty fully functional version of Windows XP once booted—and is also packed with many of the same troubleshooting tools. Both are free, but donations to the creators are always welcome.

Knoppix

Knoppix is a bootable Linux live CD that gives you a fully functional operating system once booted. You can use Knoppix to get familiar with linux (although it is highly customized) or just to boot to media other than your hard drive for troubleshooting, but in either case Knoppix is a whole OS—not just a customized interface to give you access to diagnostic and repair tools. It comes packed with a web browser (Firefox), Open Office, GIMP, and more, just in case you want to use it to get things done. Knoppix’s greatest benefit is its flexibility, and it can be customized to suit almost any need—you can download it and build your own installation with the troubleshooting tools you use most often, package it up, and then burn it to a CD or DVD yourself. If you’re a developer, the DVD version of Knoppix has even more extras for you. If you do need to use Knoppix for troubleshooting, there are data recovery and cloning tools built-in to make it easy. It’s free, and you can donate to the cause if you want, but since it’s completely open source, the developer notes that your time, code, and input is a more ideal way to contribute.

System Rescue CD

The aptly named System Rescue CD is a linux-based rescue disk designed to troubleshoot Linux and Windows systems and servers. The disk is packed with tools to help you manage or repair partitions, back up your data or clone your drives in case of a failure, and supports a wealth of file systems (even network file systems like NFS) so you can work with just about any file on any drive anywhere. The disc also comes with replacement bootloaders, system file editors, network troubleshooting and diagnostic tools, and disc burning tools so you can burn while you use the disc. There are also antivirus, anti-malware, and rootkit detection and removal tools. It’s completely free.

On a Windows PC

Every Windows PC is different, but once you get into your system's boot menu you should be able to find what you're looking for. To boot from a CD or USB drive:

1. Restart your computer and wait for that first screen to pop up. Often, it'll say something like "Press F12 to Choose Boot Device" somewhere on the screen. Press that key now.
2. Give it a moment to continue booting, and you should see a menu pop up with a list of choices on it. Highlight your CD or USB drive and press Enter.

Alternatively, you can set your computer to always check for a bootable CD or USB drive. That way, when you have one inserted, it'll boot from it automatically, and when you don't, it'll head into your regular operating system. To set this up, follow these instructions:

1. Restart your computer and watch for the first screen that shows up when you boot. You should see something that says "Press DEL to enter setup," or something similar. Press the noted key on your keyboard and wait for setup to start.

  2.

You should see a new screen pop up, called your BIOS. This is where you set a lot of low-level settings for your computer. Look through the options (being careful not to change anything) for a setting called "Boot Device," "Boot Order," or something similar. Select that option.

3.From the menu that pops up, choose your computer's disc drive and press Enter. If you're trying to boot from a USB drive, choose USB-HDD instead and press Enter. Depending on your BIOS, you may need to use the Page Up and Page Down keys to move your selection to the top of a list, instead.

4.Exit out of your BIOS, saving your changes. Usually, this option is under "Exit" on the main menu, or available via a keyboard shortcut listed somewhere on your screen.

5.Your computer should reboot. Make sure your CD or USB drive is in your computer. If you're prompted to "Press any key to boot from CD/DVD," do so. Your computer should boot into the CD or USB drive instead of your normal operating system.

On a Mac

Booting from CD or USB is very, very easy on a Mac. All you need to do is:

1.Reboot your computer. When the white screen first shows up and you hear the startup chime, press and hold the "Option" key.

2.

You should see a list of drives show up. On the right, you'll find your CD or USB drive, listed with its name under it. Use your arrow keys or your mouse to highlight that drive, then press Enter or click on the arrow below it.

From there, your computer will boot into the CD or USB drive instead of OS X, and you can do whatever it is you need to do following the instructions on-screen.

It's a pretty simple process once you get used to it, and it can be immensely useful if you're taking the maintenance of your computer into your own hand.