Whether you can boot from a USB thumbdrive depends as said on your BIOS and how that it is set if it does allow booting from USB devices.
But it also depends on what you used to create the bootable recovery thumbdrive -- what is the source of what you put onto the thumbdrive and how you put the files there. It is not enough to just copy some files across.
I created the USB Recovery flash with the “Norton Bootable Recovery Tool Wizard”. My BIOS is set to allow booting from USB - and, as I said, putting a non-system flash in gives the error: “Non-system disc, remove and strike any key” Thanks to all for responding.
One thing to check -- although your BIOS suports booting from a USB device is that set to be the first source checked or is it going direct to the hard drive.
On some computers the POST that comes up when you boot up when it's not hidden by the makers' flash screen gives you a key to press to get the list of devices and say which should be used.
OK -- I downloaded the file via the Download Manager and followed the instructions to make the NBRT on a thumbdrive. I then restarted my computer and as I suspected I have to press -- this is specific to my BIOS which is on an ASUS motherboard -- the F8 key to get the list of drives that could be booted from, hard, optical and USB hard drive and thumbdrive.
It then booted up and I quit at the enter the KEY since I did not have it handy and I'm on a multiboot computer ..... which they tell you in a HELP file you only see when you get there does not support automatic detection of the KEY and you have to write it down before booting up ......
If you don't know how to get your computer to give you the choice of drives check your User Manual or give us the make and exact model identification so I can see if I can look this up.
First, thanks to all for your quick responses… What makes me crazy, is as I said - if if have a non-system flash plugged in at boot time, the computer will not boot and tells me to remove it and press any key. So, obviously I’m set up to boot from flash - correct ? (and the BIOS screen says so also). I’m thinking there’s something wrong with this Norton Bootable Recovery Wizard - but not sure what.
It may not make sense but did you check your user manual for what your PC maker says you should do to boot from a thumbdrive?
What version of Windows are you using? Do your hard drives require a special driver since I've had bootable disks refuse when SATA first came in because that kind of drive was not known to the bootable disk.
When your computer starts up do you see the step by step POST or do you see a pictorial flash screen that hides what is going on? If the latter find out how to stop the flash screen and watch a full POST for any on screen messages.
If still no success, make the thumbdrive again since mine worked fine once I told the PC to go to the thumbdrive.
And if you want some more help please answer about the make and model of your PC.
OK, it works… I did have to hit F12 for the boot menu, then selecting flash allowed the Norton bootup. Sorry for being thick-headed about this, and thanks for the help - much appreciated !