Setting USB drive as a bootable option in BIOS?

[GoodEnough]

I made an Acronis boot media on a USB drive (since CR-ROM boot media doesn't work under Win7)

However, how do I get it to boot off the flash drive?
I am unable to do this.

I press F2 to enter setup, thinking it will take me to the BIOS where I can specify the boot device priority order.
But, all setup does is give me some boot options (Safe, normal, etc)

How do I get into the BIOS?

 

[Ketchup]

F12 should get you into the BIOS on that Dell.

 

[GoodEnough]

F12 got me into the BIOS.

My boot sequence is
1) DVDROM
2) USB Flash
3) SATA

I also explicitly picked to boot off Flash, and it went right to Windows anyway.

So, it's not seeing the flash drive.
How can I get the BIOS to see the flash drive and boot from it?
The flash drive contains an Acronis boot utility.

 

[Virgorising]

I made an Acronis boot media on a USB drive (since CR-ROM boot media doesn't work under Win7)

Re the above: WHAT? Who said boot media disks don't work in W7????

 

[Virgorising]

I also explicitly picked to boot off Flash, and it went right to Windows anyway.

Not to insult, but sometimes it's the simple stuff we forget: after changing boot menu in the bios, did you save your new settings?

 

[Virgorising]

Quick follow up with visual: Simple to actually make yr bootable recovery disk USING Windows 7! No third party apps necessary.

 

[John Connor]

Some USB drives are not bootable. I have a few that won't boot from USB, but my Toshiba USB drive does. You should be able to create a boot CD.

 

[Ketchup]

Need to clear up a couple things OP. What version of Acronis were you using to make the flah bootable, and why do you think the Windows DVD is not bootable?

 

[GoodEnough]

Acronis True Image Home
Version 11

Virgorising, I don't think you understand.
I am not trying to make a generic boot disk.
I am trying to run the ACRONIS boot APP you use to restore partitions from outside Win (in DOS or whatever)

No, I did not save my BIOS settings,
but when I manually selected to boot from the flash drive,
it still did not boot and went to Win7.

The Acronis flash drive "Bootable utility" should be bootable since I created it within Acronis v11.

The Acronis Boot CDROM does not work.
I get "Can't find boot partition" or something like that.
It was confirmed on this forum that the Acronis v11 boot CDROM no longer works.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2268117&highlight=
Starting Acronis Loader:
Acronis Loader fatal error: Boot drive (partition) not found.
Press <ENTER> to try to boot your OS...

 

[Fardringle]

Actually, the thread you mentioned does NOT confirm that the bootable rescue media does not work. Some people said that the disc that comes in the box sometimes doesn't work, but many people said that creating a bootable CD/DVD from the installed program does in fact work with Windows 7, as does a properly bootable USB drive.

Unfortunately, as John Connor said, some USB drives just won't boot no matter what you do with them. I have only seen one with that problem, but it does happen.

 

[Virgorising]

Virgorising, I don't think you understand. I am not trying to make a generic boot disk. I am trying to run the ACRONIS boot APP you use to restore partitions from outside Win (in DOS or whatever)

Many thanks for this clarification. I thought you were saying bootable media does not work in Windows 7.

 

[GoodEnough]

Fardringle, I created the boot utility disk from Acronis.
No worky.

Are you all saying I should try another physical Flash drive?

 

[John Connor]

Yes, that's what I would do.

 

[GoodEnough]

I got the boot utility to run off a different USB flash drive.
However, the DOS utility itself didn't seem to work and got hung,