I'm building my first PC and it's almost ready to go! I've prepared a bootable USB drive, but I'm not sure about the next steps. Should I plug in the USB and power on the PC right away, or do I need to start the PC first and access the BIOS to change some settings? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
4 Answers
What if I start without the USB and skip the BIOS?
Insert the bootable USB into a port and turn on your PC. You’ll need to find the key to get into the boot menu, which is usually F12, F2, Esc, or Del. Select your USB drive from there to proceed with the installation.
You should boot the PC without the USB first. Make sure everything is displaying correctly and that it at least posts. Once you're in the BIOS, double-check that all the components are recognized, and keep an eye on the CPU temperature to catch any issues with cooling or thermal paste. After everything looks good, plug in the USB, restart, and install Windows from there.
Just plug in the USB drive, then power on the PC. When it starts, access the BIOS and set it to boot from the USB. After that, you'll be able to set up Windows easily!
If you don’t press into BIOS, it will likely just load into BIOS because it doesn't have any other device to boot from.