We do not run into this problem until we install several hard drives, or want to start the system from a certain device. Therefore, we find it useful to know how to choose the boot hard disk by accessing the BIOS . If you don’t know how to do it, you are in luck because we explain it in detail below.
The BIOS or UEFI of our motherboard can be of great help when we want to configure the boot priority of our PC. Sometimes we have to configure it because the motherboard boots the system from a hard disk that we only use to store information. In this way, it will be difficult for us to log into our operating system, such as accessing its installation wizard through a USB , CD / DVD or any external device.
How to choose the boot hard disk from BIOS
Many of you are afraid to access the BIOS in case you misconfigure something, but you have to jump in and make mistakes to learn. Remember that if we deconfigure the BIOS we can always return it to its initial state by restoring the default settings, so don’t worry because we won’t break anything. Choosing the boot disk is very simple, it is even possible to do it without having to fully access the conventional BIOS . If you follow this tutorial step by step, nothing bad has to happen, so let’s get to work.
The boot priority system is used to establish an order of preference when booting from a device. In this way, if the first does not work or is not available, the board tries to start the system from the second option, and so on.
The first thing we will do is restart the PC to wait for the logo of the PC manufacturer , or the brand of the motherboard, to appear . When the image comes out, you will see that the keys that we have to operate to access the boot menu or the BIOS will be illustrated at the bottom of the screen . So, when the manufacturer’s image appears on the screen, you have to press the indicated key to access ” Setup ” (BIOS) or ” Boot ” (boot menu). To make it more visual, we are going to show you how it would be done by accessing the boot menu or the BIOS.
In case there is any doubt, the motherboard used to explain the tutorial is an MSI Gaming Plus B350 with firmware 7A34vMF .
From the boot menu
In our case, we have to press the DEL key (it is ” Del “) to access the BIOS , or the F11 key to enter the boot menu . First, we have accessed the boot menu (F11), in which we simply have to choose the boot device that we are going to use. This is a good option for those who want to start on time from this device , since this boot priority will not be changed forever .
After having used this boot unit, we can restart and the boot priority will be the usual one, that is, the predefined one. Personally, I recommend this option to boot from USB or hard disk in order to install the operating system . As you can see, we have the option of entering the BIOS from this boot menu so that we do not have to restart again.
From BIOS
The other alternative we have is to access the BIOS directly , having to press the ” DELETE ” key in our case. Once we are inside, we have to navigate through the different menus to find a section called ” Boot “, where the boot options are. Changing the boot priority from here means doing it permanently, contrary to what happens from the boot menu.
We proceed to access the “Boot” section and you will see many options called ” Boot Option # ” accompanied by a number that represents the position in the boot order. As you can see, the first option is the hard drive on which Windows 10 is installed, so it is in 1st position so that the motherboard starts directly from it.
There is a possibility that you have installed a new hard drive, or the boot priority has been deconfigured. Do not worry, we can change it by selecting the unit we want and, later, choose its replacement. In case you have a hard drive without any operating system installed , it may not be shown as an option, but it is something that does not always happen.
Changed the boot priority, we still go to the “Exit” or “Save & Exit” section to save the changes you have made and restart the PC. In this case, we have a summary of how our boot priority is in this same section, you can see it at the bottom in “Boot Override”.
Once the PC has restarted, the motherboard will boot from the unit that we have ordered.