Solved Unable to Change Boot Drive

dickey38

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I have a Dell Inspiron 7720 Win 8 x64 PC which includes UEFI (described in Microsoft link below). However, UEFI is accessed on Win 8 from Settings Charm > "Change PC Settings". This requires that you have booted the system already. In case of a main disk crash, you need to boot from another drive, like a thumb drive.

During restart my Dell PC displays "F12 Boot Options" in lower right of screen during restart, but multiple presses of F12 during startup are ignored. Likewise when I try F1 or F2 during startup. So I have no way to specify an alternate boot drive.

I am thinking maybe my PC is defective, but also maybe I'm missing something.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated. Thanks.

What is UEFI? - Microsoft Windows Help
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8
I am thinking maybe my PC is defective, but also maybe I'm missing something.

You need to be very, very, very quick in press the F12 key.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    ME, XP,Vista,Win7,Win8,Win8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Other Info
    Notebooks x 3

    Desktops x 5

    Towers x 4
It is hard to get into the bios or any other menus during a boot scenario. The newer systems with Windows 8 may even bypass the bios part to enable a faster startup. Maybe this is another mobile device need being pushed to the Desktop/laptops.

There may be a setting in the bios you can change to have the system not skip past the bios and thus slow things down. But, like Theog says, you have to be fast. Assuming it is even possible on your system, I would start hitting the key just after I turn on the power or restart when it starts back up. It doesn't hurt to do it early, just not late.

Starting from a cold boot or a restart might make some difference. Or another term might be powered off as to opposed just a restart....

There have been comments about using the Shift key in conjunction with other keys, but I have no proof it works.

OEM systems may even have certain options hidden so the normal user cannot even see them... Hard to say about your particular system.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
I have tried F12 as fast as possible a half-dozen times, and got to a boot option menu once! So I guess it's possible on this Dell PC. Guess I'd better not buy anything faster than this.

Thanks for your help and insights.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8
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