CMOS BIOS Setup is way older than the UEFI, was introduced back in 1975 by Gary Kildall, and made its way to IBM’s personal computer in 1981.
And that’s the reason why I particularly mentioned the term ‘OLD’ & ‘CMOS BIOS’ in the title. In case you bought your laptop or desktop in the last decade, then you can refer to this article about Boot Sequence/Order/Priority Configuration of UEFI BIOS. Here you can see the difference between both UEFI and CMOS BIOS; Usually, the Boot Sequence configuration gets handy when we require to install an Operating System on our computer, or maybe we need to use some Bootable Utility Tools or a Live Operating System. But before getting into the boot setup of your BIOS, you have to understand the word called “Boot” first. In the technical language, the word called “Boot” or “Booting” means startup. When you push the power button of your computer, you actually short a circuit in the motherboard which leads to turning ON the Power Supply and it starts to supply the power output to all the hardware components (including your BIOS Chip that has BIOS Firmware installed in it). Then you can see the first Logo or I can say the POST (Power-On Self-Test) Screen appears in the front of your display like this; When completed, BIOS will start to boot that bootable device listed on first as set in the boot configuration. Generally, it’s your primary SSD/HDD. Right after a couple of more seconds, you’ll see that your Operating System get starts to load and end the whole booting process. Booting is a just process that takes place in between the ‘Powering ON’ and ‘The loading of an Operating System’ of your computer, and that’s where the value of Boot Sequence comes in. Boot Sequence is your BIOS internal configuration that manages, to whom to boot first, or second, or last. That’s why it’s always better to understand and manage this configuration on your own or otherwise, the BIOS will automatically configure it to the default and boot the first SATA-connected storage device to load the Operating System. Make sure you understand correctly; The wrong configuration leads to boot-related errors in between the booting process. The most common and famous one is “Error – Reboot and Select Proper Boot Device”.
If you are using this setting to install an OS then make sure you have a proper bootable flash drive or disc with you, not just only the setup files copied in it. You have to understand that the BIOS will only boot your storage device when it’s able to find the properly allocated bootable files in it, not just the OS setup. In a general language, bootstrapping mainly refer to a self-starting process of your computer which doesn’t need any external input command to perform itself. So, in technical language people starts to use the word called booting for… Read More
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Commonly, this config remains untouched if you don’t mean to boot anything; But in some cases, it’s possible that the computer won’t boot the OS on the next startup when a person connects an external storage drive to the USB and wanted to plug it permanently. That will only happen when the 1st boot priority is pre-set to the Removal Storage.
#Let’s See How To Change/Manage The Boot Priority
To change the boot configuration, it requires you to open the BIOS Setup. Just opening the setup can be tricky for some people but don’t worry I’ll make it easier for you. In case, you’re changing the Boot config for the purpose of OS Installation (which only requires you to boot the setup drive once and the rest will be done by the setup), or wanted to boot some “Bootable Utility Tool” for once; Then you don’t have to waste your time and can easily skip the hassle of this whole configuration thing and can get with the way-to-go option by using an amazing BIOS option called ‘Boot Menu’. Using ‘Boot Menu’ can help you to quickly & directly boot any Bootable Storage Device attached to your computer, whether it’s your Flash Drive or a Disc. It allows to boot any device just for once and skip the pre-configured boot priority.
By using the Boot Menu, booting actually made easy for you. i’m saying this becasue with the help of this BIOS Shortcut tool you really don’t need to make those Boot Sequence changes in order to boot anything… Read More
Step 1 – Entering In BIOS
In order to enter into your Computer’s BIOS, you need to press the designated keyboard key (which most of the time can be seen on the first Boot screen of your computer). By pressing only a single key can give you direct access to the BIOS Setup, but make sure to press it quick. Just follow the steps given below:
Start your Desktop or Laptop. In case if it’s already powered ON, then you’ll need to restart it. Now quickly take a look at your PC’s ‘First Boot Screen’ (or otherwise it’ll get skipped) and find the designated keyboard Key to open the BIOS Setup. Designated Keyboard Key can be different according to the brand of BIOS that your computer’s motherboard has in it. It can be the Esc Key, F1 Key, F2 Key, Del key, or anything other function keys assigned by the manufacturer. Sometimes it’s possible that taping the BIOS key once won’t work for you, then tapping the key multiple times works like a charm. In case, if your first boot screen shows nothing besides the Manufacture’s Logo, then the best you can do is try to press all the Function Keys one by one from Esc to F12 until you find the correct access. While trying for a single key, make sure you tap it quickly multiple times, and that way you can actually confirm whether it’s the designated key or not. The look of the BIOS menu can differ according to the firmware manufacturer.
Here are some different Types Of CMOS Setup Utility Menu:
Step 2 – Finding The Boot Setting
After successfully getting into the BIOS menu, you can now see many different administrative options and information about all the connected hardware. BIOS is the computer term that stands for Basic Input Output System. BIOS is a software that is stored on the Small Memory Chip present on the motherboard of your computer system…. Read More In between all those options, you’ll need to find the one called “Boot Priority” or “Boot Setting”, or “Boot Sequence”, or any other option related to boot. Here are some screenshots;
Step 3 – Change The Boot Order
Before jumping to the boot order configuration, make sure that the “SATA Mode Configuration” is configured correctly. ‘SATA Mode’, ‘Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl’, ‘PCH SATA Control Mode’, or whatever is listed on that Boot menu page. It surely needs to be set according to the operating system you are going to install. If the setting is configured correctly, you can even install Windows 10 on your OLD desktop or laptop. Here are some screenshots;
AHCI Mode (stands for Advanced Host Controller Interface) is a way faster option as compared to IDE. It’s the only option for you too if you’re installing the latest Operating System like ‘Windows 7 or 10′ on your computer. IDE Mode (stands for Integrated Drive Electronics) only gets handy if we are required to use some way older bootable softwares like DBAN etc. or maybe need to boot an older version of a live operating system. After setting up the SATA Mode, now it’s time to set the boot priority. This configuration needs to be set according to the storage device we require to boot right now. You can set anything (whether it’s your USB Drive, DVD-RW, or your External-HDD) on the First Boot Device and the computer will boot that connected device on every startup. Note: After using the USB or DVD as ‘First Boot Device’, make sure to put the primary HDD/SSD back to ‘First Boot Device’ for a smooth OS startup.
Note: After when you get done configuring the boot sequence setting, now you don’t just restart the computer. You have to make sure that you save the whole setting by using the save option while exiting the BIOS.
You can also use the F10 Key to directly save the setting, even without using the exit page.
#What To Do, If You’re Having Some Problem While Boot Something;😱
Boot setting isn’t able to save changes: If you’re having this problem then there is a 100% possibility that your BIOS’s CMOS Battery is dead and that’s the reason why your BIOS Chip won’t be able to save the setting. To confirm about the dead battery, check whether the computer’s clock is running correctly or not. If not, then it’s surely discharged.
Flash Drive isn’t able to boot – In that case, it’s possible that the software you use to make your drive bootable isn’t cooperating with the version of BIOS that your computer has. To fix this, you can try to use some different boot transfer software like Rufus, Yumi, or WinToFlash.
In case, if your flash drive isn’t able to boot at all, even after changing the first boot device to the removable storage or USB. Then it’s quiet possible that your BIOS is handling the connected flash drive as an ‘External USB Hard Drive’. A computer whether it is a laptop or a desktop has a Motherboard where a small amount of memory known as CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) stores the BIOS settings. Hardware settings, system time and date are the parts of BIOS settings. BIOS protect the data each time the computer turns off. If CMOS lose its power the system clock resets.. Read More Nowadays USB drivers are actually quite famous for the booting purpose, even Microsoft is supplying the pre-installed live Windows 10 OS into the USB which you can boot on any computer… Read More Because of that, now you have to put the hard disk drive back to the First Boot Priority and then change another BIOS Setting called “Hard Drive Priority” “Hard Disk Boot Priority”, as shown in the picture given below:
If HDD/SSD/Optical Drive is not listed in BIOS – In that case, changing the SATA/IDE cable of that drive is the way to go option that you can try. Most laptops don’t use any SATA or IDE Cable, using a different drive can ensure about the drive’s fault.
Suggested Links:
How to Change HDD, SSD, and Optical Drive’s SATA Or IDE Cable? Old/New HDD Not Recognized or Showing up by Computer or Laptop Fix for – Old/New SSD Not Recognized or Showing up by Computer or Laptop
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