Booting from USB with UEFI bios to install Windows 8.1

I have a Lenovo 11e Yoga laptop. I have installed a new, blank SSD in the system and now I want to reinstall Windows 8.1 (which is what the laptop came with).

I created a bootable USB stick using the latest version of Rufus, but when attempting to boot, and selecting the USB drive as the boot device, it simply goes back to the Boot Device Selection screen instantly.

I disabled "Secure Boot" in the UEFI bios, but still does the same thing.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Ryan Griggs

Posted 2015-02-03T23:17:38.473

Reputation: 682

Rufus created a EFI bootable image and contains the required EFI EFI drivers? – Ramhound – 2015-02-03T23:51:36.543

Answers

I tried the following and it solved the issue!!

Please refer the answer here - https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Lenovo-Edge-Yoga-Flex-Laptops/Guide-Windows-8-1-PRO-RTM-clean-install-on-Yoga-13-from-a-USB/m-p/1233563/highlight/false#M9262

In order to boot from UEFI the flash drive must be formatted as FAT32. Windows USB and DVD tool supports only NTFS, So after creating the bootable image, copy all the files from the flash drive to the HDD then format the flash drive as FAT32 then copy the files back from the HDD to the flash drive. The flash drive will still be bootable.

Rumesh Nuwan

Posted 2015-02-03T23:17:38.473

Reputation: 41

3He used Rufus, though. Rufus also uses FAT32 when you chose to create a UEFI-bootable USB drive. – Daniel B – 2016-01-31T12:35:20.447

I had the same issue with my Lenovo Yoga 900-13ISK. Here are the setup steps which I used to install Windows 10 from a USB stick in UEFI mode on my Lenovo Yoga:

USB Setup

Download Windows 10 image (*.iso format)
Install Rufus 2.14
Create a bootable USB stick with Rufus, make sure to select GPT partition scheme for UEFI and FAT32 file system (it won't work with NTFS)

Laptop Setup

Press the "Novo" button on the Yoga laptop
Select "BIOS Setup"
Open "Security", "Secure Boot" and set it to "Disabled"
Open "Boot", "Boot Mode" and set it to "UEFI"
Open "Boot", "Fast Boot" and set it to "Disabled"
Open "Boot", "USB Boot" and set it to "Enabled"
Select "Exit", "Exit Saving Changes"

Now you should be able to select your bootable USB stick from the "Boot Menu". If you are done with the Windows setup, you should enable "Secure Boot" and "Fast Boot" (which were disabled just before the setup).

Benny Neugebauer

Posted 2015-02-03T23:17:38.473

Reputation: 417

This worked for me. God. Never seen such a messed up BIOS prerequisite to boot a system from USB. Lenovo should get their shi* fixed. Maybe in addition for anyone wondering: in my case the M2 SSD was broken and when it was insert the system would never boot from USB for some reason. Like UEFI was still trying to access M2 before continueing to boot from USB for some reason. With the M2 disk removed and the exact same procedure (select USB boot device and so on) it worked. Messed up Lenovo BIOS. – masi – 2018-04-15T10:38:41.110

Sadly this didn't work in my case. The usb created with Rufus is not bootable. I've managed to create a WinPE usb that is bootable and even created partitions and extracted an install.wim image to the disk and make it bootable, but that setup does not boot either... This Lenovo is a nightmare! – JosFabre – 2018-05-18T09:33:50.607

There are multiple changes needed in UEFI setting, such as enabling "legacy" devices.

See "Yoga 11s - how to boot from USB in UEFI mode", http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Yoga-Flex-Laptops-and/Yoga-11s-how-to-boot-from-USB-in-UEFI-mode-tried-everything/td-p/1431073 and

"Yoga 2 11 - how to boot in Legacy Mode", https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Yoga-Flex-Laptops-and/Yoga-2-11-how-to-boot-in-Legacy-Mode/td-p/1462773

as well as Lenovo's directions for Windows 7 on a ThinkPad, but presumably similar: http://support.lenovo.com/en/documents/ht051844.

DrMoishe Pippik

Posted 2015-02-03T23:17:38.473

Reputation: 13 291