Solved! Boot to USB on older Toshiba Satellite Pro

[gossamer]

Hi, I have a Toshiba Satellite Pro P50-B (PSPNUU-032S05D) and can't get it to boot to a USB stick.

I've read dozens of previous posts about disabling secure boot and choosing CSM over UEFI, but none of it worked.

I've tried different USB sticks (small ones and large ones), and know the USB sticks boot on other machines. I've also tried older ones and that doesn't work either.

I've tried hitting F12 to choose the USB device to boot, and it identifies and reads the USB stick, then boots to the hard disk.

I can select the CDROM and boot from that with no problem.

I'd have to think the problem is that it only supports specific USB sticks, but I have not been able to find which ones.

 

[webworkings]

Did you try changing the boot order? Making the USB first?

Also, make sure that the port you are using and the stick are the same type. If say the port is 2.0 but the stick is 3.0 you will have a problem. However if the port is 3.0 and your stick is 2.0 then it should work.

 

[gossamer]

I wish it were that easy. Yes, I've set USB to be first, as well as used F12 to specifically choose the USB stick. The USB device is detected, the computer reads it, but then just doesn't boot from it.

I've also tried USB2 and USB3 devices, inserting them in the proper USB port, and it also doesn't make a difference.

I've also tried several different ISOs.

 

[Grobe]

There is acually a workaround for computers that won't boot to usb drives. That is Plop boot manager:'
https/www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/intro.html

 

[gossamer]

Did you try changing the boot order? Making the USB first?

Also, make sure that the port you are using and the stick are the same type. If say the port is 2.0 but the stick is 3.0 you will have a problem. However if the port is 3.0 and your stick is 2.0 then it should work.

There is acually a workaround for computers that won't boot to usb drives. That is Plop boot manager:'
https/www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/intro.html

I actually saw this, but Toshiba says it should boot to USB. I'm also pretty sure in the last four years or so I've owned this laptop that I've been able to boot to a USB stick.

Obviously I'll install this new boot manager if it comes to that, but I'd really like to know what the magic combination is to make this work.

Other ideas greatly appreciated

 

[smorizio]

in the bios you may have to switch from efi to legacy boot. also make sure your bios on the laptop is up to date.

 

[gossamer]

in the bios you may have to switch from efi to legacy boot. also make sure your bios on the laptop is up to date.

I should have added that the BIOS is current. The last release was 1.50, back in 2016.

There is no "legacy" or "efi" boot options, as far as I can tell. The BIOS menus are very simple. There's really only "secure boot" on/off. Switching to CSM instead of UEFI boot keeps the machine from booting at all.

Anyone have any additional ideas on what the problem could be?

 

[jsmithepa]

1. When you are configuring BIOS, it must explicitly allows you to select USB as a boot device.

2. U must install a BOOTLOADER into the usb stick. Depends what you are booting. I have used YUMI in the past to create bootable Windows ISO (install disc), friendly util.

 

[gossamer]

The problem turned out to be with the media on the USB stick. I had a bootable Win10 ISO that I wrote to the USB stick using the native UDF filesystem contained within the ISO, but it required FAT32. I used Rufus to write the ISO to the USB stick, which recreated the filesystem as FAT32, and it worked properly. Disable Secure Boot in the BIOS and choose CSM.

https/rufus.ie/en_IE.html

 

[SchwiftyInHere]

Hey I've got a satellite a105.....had the same insanely annoying problem....this sounds crazy but I got to the point of trying every boot order possible.....if you put the FDD option first (top) then it will FINALLY BOOT FROM USB lol....hope this helps