Swank
06-15-2016, 12:01 PM
I have an old Toshiba Satellite A210 (I think) that I use for testing upgrades and stuff before I install them on other PCs (I know, overkill, but I'm finicky that way). The laptop has an SSD running Windows 7 and I'd like to reinstall Windows from a USB flash drive...but it won't let me. I installed it fine this way when the SSD was new but now when I try to boot to the USB it thinks the SSD is a USB drive, so it always picks that and starts up Windows.
If I remove the SSD then it boots fine to the USB installer, but then there is no SSD detected at boot up to install the OS. I've tried enabling/disabling Legacy USB support, as well as changing boot sequence and using F12 to directly select booting from the USB device, but it keeps thinking the SSD is the USB device.
Maybe this old BIOS that was made before SSDs were even thought of just can't do it. I'm guessing I'll have to format the SSD by putting it in another PC rendering it non-bootable, but if there is an easier fix for this I'd love to hear it.
If I remove the SSD then it boots fine to the USB installer, but then there is no SSD detected at boot up to install the OS. I've tried enabling/disabling Legacy USB support, as well as changing boot sequence and using F12 to directly select booting from the USB device, but it keeps thinking the SSD is the USB device.
Maybe this old BIOS that was made before SSDs were even thought of just can't do it. I'm guessing I'll have to format the SSD by putting it in another PC rendering it non-bootable, but if there is an easier fix for this I'd love to hear it.