The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    One time boot menu question

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by Brodieman, Jan 14, 2012.

  1. Brodieman

    Brodieman Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    14
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    6
    So, I have a second hard drive in my second bay with Linux installed on it. When I hit F12 for a one time boot menu, to the left of "hard drives" is a "+", meaning there is more that one. I cannot get that to expand to be able to choose which HD to use.

    The only way I can boot is to go into BIOS and change it there, then I have to do it again to use 7.

    Anyone figured out how to expand that out?
     
    Brodieman, Jan 14, 2012
    #1
  2. Alabaster

    Alabaster Newbie

    Reputations:
    135
    Messages:
    5
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    My best guesses would be Enter, Right Arrow, or Space.

    But I recommend rearranging your HDD boot order from the BIOS so that the Linux disk drive boots first, and then just using grub as a boot manager.
     
    Alabaster, Jan 14, 2012
    #2
  3. Brodieman

    Brodieman Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    14
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    6
    Thanks, I have tried those, I've tried holding CTRL or shift or ALT with all of those as well, but there has to be a way to expand that.

    My wife uses my laptop as well, i'd like to make this as seemless as possible.
     
    Brodieman, Jan 14, 2012
    #3
  4. The Revelator

    The Revelator Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    5,395
    Messages:
    4,571
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    105
    On my R3, the F12 boot menu shows the Hard Drive and Second Hard Drive as separate entries.
     
    The Revelator, Jan 14, 2012
    #4