How can I boot from a USB stick
 

I installed Ubuntu 15.04 on a laptop and overwrote the whole disk but now want to re-install Windows 7 from a USB stick and then re-install Ununtu from a disk.
How can I get the boot to look for the USB stick when I power up the laptop?
(Ive tried F8 and F20 after during power up but they just get ignored and it boots up as usual)


Many thanks to jefro and colorpurple21859 and Shadow 7. F2 let me change the boot order and the USB stick worked fine.
Not sure why rokytnji thought no-one would understand the question but thanks to the three of you who proved him wrong.

PROBLEM SOLVED - THREAD CLOSED

Nobody has a clue to what you are asking without a review link showing make and model of your laptop.

The word laptop only covers a lot of turf.

Do you have windows installed to a USB drive like the Technet web pages suggested on how to create a usb install?

I think I'd try other options like F1 F2 del or insert. Might even find the owners manual for clues how to change boot order. In many cases you select a hard drive order and don't use a removable device but each system is different.

also try esc, f10 f11 f12

Various ways depending on the bios version. Normally a hot key reference at the bottom of the bios page when you first boot. ESC on my laptop, closest key to the power button. Sometimes F10, del, space, ... With UEFI you can boot windows and tell it to reboot into UEFI, which you can then change the boot preference. NOTE: It may not save your preference, but it should honor it the next boot or that boot. Most laptops / computers since 2006 support booting USB. On older ones you can use a grub CDROM to chain load the grub.cfg on the USB (configfile) and boot it.

Your USB stick should hold a bootrable iso image. Here you can learn how to make bootable iso images for usb devices: http://www.slackwiki.com/Install_Sla...SB_Flash_Drive

If you insert a nonbootable usb stick, your bios will not detect it and it will not appear in the BIOS boot order list.