1

I have a tablet that only has one USB port and one internal microSD card reader. It runs Windows 8 but I want to install Ubuntu on it.

I've created an Ubuntu install disk using startup disk creator on my PC. I place this card in the internal reader, boot up the BIOS and… nothing. The drive isn’t showing.

How can I get the drive to show up and be bootable?

I’m thinking something along the lines of creating a partition on my boot drive in Windows, coping the files from my microSD card to the drive, and then getting that partition to show up in the BIOS as HDD2 or something.

Also, if I use a USB card reader, it shows up in the BIOS, but I have to plug my keyboard in to browse the BIOS! Argh! And I only have 1 USB port. Should I buy a USB hub? Would that work even in the BIOS?

Or, could I somehow boot the internal card reader from inside Windows using some sort of virtual drive?

Improve this question
3
  • could someone consider upvoting. no idea what ive done wrong
    – Starkers
    Commented Dec 18, 2014 at 0:55
  • I don't you could make the bios boot from an SD card (as the bios certainly lack the drivers for your SD card reader), you would have to replace the bootloader on your hard drive to load the OS from the SD card,
    – dvhh
    Commented Dec 18, 2014 at 1:52
  • Is using a virtual machine out of the question?
    – MacGuffin
    Commented Jan 3, 2022 at 5:52

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

If the card reader does not show up as a boot option in BIOS, you cannot add it or boot from it.

Your idea of buying a USB hub will be the easiest solution. More than likely, you wont even need a powered hub, as keyboards, mice, and flash media require little power.

A USB hub like this one, is all you need. There are more complicated solutions, such as opening the tablet and removing the drive, but that is overkill.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .