Problem with BIOS

[Argetlam]

OK, lately I found out that I could boot Linux (Ubuntu) with an external hard drive. I know how to do it, but there's one problem. My BIOS doesn't have anything about USB in the boot sequence. Does this mean that I won't be able to boot from a USB device or is there something I can do that will allow it? I have thought about dual booting but I figure this would be easier so that I don't mess anything up. So can I do something with the BIOS to allow it, or am I just going to not be able to boot from the external hard drive?

[kibito87]

Try updating your PC bios from the computer manufacturers website. That may add the option. If that doesn't work, then you will need to dual boot it. I'm not fantastic with computers but i'm pretty sure there isn't much of a workaround for this.

I'm pretty sure most if not all new bios versions come with a "boot from usb" option. Mine came with it, even though i've updated mine twice.

[[cc]z@nd!]

a note about updating your BIOS, it can be pretty risky. if power is cut off during the update, it'll brick your pc, and my best guess at unbricking it would involve a high degree of manual sorcery, like manually connecting data wires to your BIOS chip somehow and overwriting it with the update again, but i'm far from knowledgable with low-level stuff like that.

if the BIOS update won't fix it, then what i'd recommend is finding a cheap drive somewhere, putting linux on it, then installing it in your PC as the slave of the same channel the current one's one, or the master of it's own channel. that way you don't have to mess with partition tables and you can still dual-boot, which would take out alot of the risk.

[Argetlam]

I'm pretty sure I already have all of my hard drive spots filled up. I also tried updating by BIOS but it wouldn't update correctly. If I backup my hard drives, then I may have to try dual booting, but I heard it is pretty hard since I have Vista.