USB boot options in BIOS - what is a "USB Key"
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Thread: USB boot options in BIOS - what is a "USB Key"

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
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    347

    USB boot options in BIOS - what is a "USB Key"

    Firstly, booting from my Cruzer flash drive into Fedora Linux (created with Fedora live usb creator program) all works fine.

    Its just that on the boot menu in the BIOS there is "USB Key" and "USB HDD" option and the flash drive is recognised as a "USB HDD"

    I have had a search and it seems 'newer' BIOS's detect these as "USB HDD" and that is the one that I should be using which is all fine but out of curiosity I cant actually find anything that says what sort of thing would be detected as a "USB Key"
    Last edited by Carenza; November 14th, 2009 at 02:25 AM.

  2. #2
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  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
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    I have noticed that when my USB modem is plugged in it shows up in the boot menu as a USB-CD Rom, it is basically a U3 device with the drivers on the 'CD rom' bit.

    So I am guessing that if you could format a flash drive like a floppy it would show up as a USB-FDD in the boot menu.

    So maybe a USB-Key is a USB device with boot info on it but does not fit into any of the other types.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
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    347
    I have been trying to make bootable memory cards using http://www.linuxliveusb.com
    I tried it on a compact flash (in a USB card reader) first and when I booted it showed as a USB-Key on the boot menu and it booted (into DSL)

    I plugged a SD card into the builtin slot (with nothing on it) just to see and it also shows up as a USB-Key in the boot menu.

    So I guess any USB device that does not have its own special type shows as a USB-Key

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