If USB is not listed in BIOS as a boot option, does that mean the machine can't boot from USB?

Solution 1:

I just went through the same pain... but I found a workaround.

1. Plug in your USB drive
2. Turn the Zenbook on
3. Enter UEFI (BIOS) through pressing ESC or F2
4. In 'Boot' tab: 'Disable Fastboot' (*)
5. Press F10 to save & exit
6. Immediately press ESC or F2 again
7. In 'Boot' tab: your USB drive should be listed - change the order
8. Press F10 to save & exit
9. Your Zenbook should now boot from the USB drive
10. profit

(*) = and 'Enable CSM' if you want to boot in legacy mode

If that does not help, you might need a more recent firmware version.

Just in case you run into more trouble while trying to install Windows onto your GPT SSD - this post might be very helpful: http://www.hodgin.ca/2012/10/02/creating-a-uefibios-windows-7-usb-and-installing-to-gpt-partitions/

Solution 2:

We just got a few of these in at work and they are a right PITA to wipe and clean-install windows with, especially the usb-3 only ones.

To enable booting to a USB device you need to set secure boot to disabled (in the security tab of the bios) and enable CSM (on the boot tab of the bios)

You can then select a USB boot device.

If you are trying to install windows 7 on a USB3 only zenbook, your next headache will be windows setup failing, from either a bootable USB memory stick or a USB DVD drive. This is because the bios loads the windows boot image, but when the windows setup program starts it doesn't have USB3 drivers and can't read the setup files.

To get around this you need to create a customized windows setup, on either a USB memory stick or a DVD. You need to download the USB3 drivers from asus, extract the driver files (from the folder containing the .sys and .inf files) and use dism.exe to load these into a windows boot image. There are tutorials on how to do this on the net, the one I used was here: https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/how-to-install-windows-7-from-a-usb-3-0-thumb-drive-fast-installation.32302/

Solution 3:

1. Power on
   
2. F2 to enter BIOS
   
3. Tab to Boot
   
4. "Secure Boot" -Disabled
   
5. "CSM + UEFI" selected in OS Mode Selection
   

6. F10
   
   

7. Hold F2 to Enter BIOS
   

8. Check boot -> Boot Priority to see if connected USB is listed
   

I use sandisk Cruzer.

Solution 4:

I hit this same issue. However, if you plug in the USB stick before you boot, the choice will turn up. You can then save and boot away.

IN THEORY.

I tried to boot onto an Ubuntu USB - I see the grub loader but nothing happens after that. But that's a different issue :-)

Last note: Once you remove the USB stick, it will disappear from the options. Next time you want to bot from USB (or a USB DVD, whatever), you'll need to do this again.

EDIT 12-12-12: OK, I managed to get this working with Ubuntu. What I needed to do was turn off the "Secure Boot" option in UEFI/BIOS. Once I did this, it was pretty smooth sailing. Ubuntu installed and all was well with the world once more. This page here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI was the best help I found.

Note: Disabling secure boot also meant that I had no issues at all getting both a USB and USB CD-ROM to appear in the boot menu on startup (hitting ESC). You do need to have them plugged in on boot (as it happens so fast), but messing around with the boot order as I mentioned previously became unnecessary.

As always, YMMV - this worked for me, I hope it helps you.