Cannot select alternative boot device on Samsung NP355V5C-AOEUK

Hello all,

I installed an SSD into the optical disk drive of my friends laptop, the Samsung NP355V5C-AOEUK.

I was planning on installing Windows 8.1 via USB, like I have done many times on many other laptops and desktops, but much to my dismay I am unable to select to boot via the USB, even for one-time boot accessed by the F10 key. I have searched on other forums, where it is suggested to disable safe-boot and fast boot, etc. But none of these combinations seemed to have worked?

Is this a terrible idea by Samsung to lock down the BIOS so you are unable to reinstall Windows, effectively meaning you have to upgrade your whole laptop completely, or am I missing the point somewhere?

The USB key I'm using, I used it literally a couple of hours ago on my own new laptop, and it worked absolutely fine.

Thanks people, please tell me if this is the wrong place to be posting this.

 

Which version of Windows are you currently running?

You've mentioned fast boot but make sure it is turned off in (Easy) Settings. If it is enabled the BIOS doesn't look for bootable USB devices.

There is also a known issue about Samsung notebooks not wanting to use one brand of USB flash drives because of the way they report their hardware to the system. However, i can't remember the details but try a flash drive from a different manufacturer. And also use a USB 2.0 port if the notebook has one.

I presume that F10 is giving you a one-time boot menu (but lacking the USB device(s). If F10 doesn't give you a menu then try Esc which was the key used by older Samsung notebooks.

John

 

How did you create the installation USB stick? If you used Microsoft's ISO/USB tool that may be the reason you cannot boot it.

If your laptop came pre-installed with Win8 or 8.1, that means it runs in UEFI mode (instead of good old BIOS mode). Microsoft's tool (which was made for XP and Win7) creates an NTFS partition on the USB stick, but UEFI can only boot from a FAT32 partition. You need to use another tool to create the USB stick (such as Rufus) or create it manually (as described in this guide in our Windows forum).

This post has more information on the subject.

 

I had this same problem with a NP355V5C-A06UK.
It wasn't seeing the corsair ssd or the sandisk usb I was trying to install win8 with.
Luckily I had a Kingston usb at hand to install windows and I switched the boot option from UEFI to UEFI and Legacy for the ssd and that sorted it.

 

That is usually caused by the USB stick being formatted as NTFS -- often with the good old Microsoft ISO/USB tool, which is not compatible with UEFI. Creating the USB stick as GPT/FAT32 makes it bootable in pure UEFI mode -- and thus eliminating the risk that Setup might mistakenly install in legacy BIOS mode.