Recommend me a Socket A (462) Motherboard that can boot from a USB Drive

[biggy7]

hi guys

im on a quest here to see if i can find a cheap socket A mobo that can boot from a usb pen drive

i have a Abit Nf7-s V2 and its perfect but it doesn't boot from usb

anyone list any models that do?

thanks in advance!

[Behemoth]

You sure it doesn't ? I had one and it most certainly did, have you flashed it to the latest bios ?

Failing that if you can find one, then get a Gigabyte GA7N400 Pro 2, the best Socket A Motherboard I ever owned, till I fried it

[biggy7]

Thanks Behemoth

yep defo sure it doesnt have usb support, i cant remember what bios im using though, il try and update to the latest one tomorrow

in the mean time please keep the suggestions coming

il take a look at the Gigabyte GA7N400 Pro 2, they are going for silly money on ebay though

[scrandman]

ASUS A7V600 most certainly can,

[BUFF]

NF7 v2.0 doesn't, AN7 does.

[biggy7]

scrandman, thanks for the suggestion mate! il take a look!

NF7 v2.0 doesn't, AN7 does.

does the an7 defo boot usb mate?

ive read some mix reports and was unsure about it tbh

ibn the bios is has USB-zip and usb-fdd but no usb-hdd

[scrandman]

One of the issues with more recent Abit boards was that unless you physically have the USB drive connected, you can't properly get it to boot.

Although this may sound logical, if you are trying to get it to boot from a USB pen drive, every time you disconnect it and reconnect it you have to go back into BIOS to re-select it as the first hard drive to boot form. A couple of the options (labelled USB-FDD & USB-HDD under first boot device) do nothing. It was pretty confusing at first, and like I said every time you disconnect it it can't see it and drops it from the pre-selected first "hard" drive to boot from. Certainly that is the case with my current KN8-SLI board. Earlier / later boards may differ.

The ASUS board I mentioned was a much simpler affair. Select USB-FDD or USB-HDD (can't remember which) as the first boot device. Any time you re-boot after this with a bootable USB pen drive attached, it will boot straight into it, even if you've disconnected & reconnected it since first setting up BIOS.