USB Boot

Why Trust Techopedia

What Does USB Boot Mean?

USB boot is the process of using a USB storage device to boot or start a computer’s operating system. It enables computer hardware to use a USB storage stick to get all essential system booting information and files rather than the standard/native hard disk or the CD drive.

Advertisements

All popular operating systems support the creation of a bootable USB drive that can be plugged into a USB slot to boot a computer, server or laptop.

Techopedia Explains USB Boot

USB boot works much like the legacy floppy disk drive (FDD) booting capability. It is mainly used to recover, repair and install an operating system. It provides users with an alternative method to boot a system. Typically, to perform a USB boot, a bootable USB device must first be created. The bootable USB drive can be set up using a native operating system component or through various third-party utilities. The software/utility will copy all the operating system files and boot sequence into the USB drive to enable the USB boot.

Advertisements

Related Terms

Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.