Can You Boot From USB?

Sara Samplawska of New York asks if you can boot from a USB drive. The short answer is maybe. First, your BIOS has to support booting from USB. To find out if it does, restart your computer and enter your PC Setup program (there should be a message when you turn on your machine telling you what key to press). Now check your boot device options to see if USB is one of them. If it is, then check your USB drive's specs to see if it is bootable. Note that while Windows XP and some other operating systems won't boot from an external drive, you can still use the USB device as a DOS-based, emergency boot device.

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