Question about weird USB boot issue on HP ProDesk 400 G4

I swapped a client's old hard drive for a new SSD in an HP ProDesk 400 G4, but it refuses to boot from a USB drive no matter what I try. Tried all three USB ports, disabled secure boot, even reset the BIOS to defaults. Anybody run into these HP BIOS quirks before or am I missing something obvious?

2 comments

2 Comments

sethtorres5d ago

Try using the F9 boot menu at startup instead of relying on the BIOS boot order, those HP boards get picky about USB detection through the normal boot sequence. Also make sure the USB drive is formatted as FAT32 and not NTFS, the G4’s firmware can be weird about that. If it’s still stuck, check if there’s a legacy USB support toggle in the BIOS, I’ve had to flip that on for older HP desktops before.

schmidt.willow4d ago

Hey that F9 trick is a lifesaver, I've been bitten by HP's weird boot sequence more times than I can count and it's frustrating when you think you did everything right. FAT32 is definitely the way to go too, I spent a whole afternoon once trying to boot a G3 from an NTFS drive before I figured out they just don't play nice with it. Really hope you get it sorted, dealing with stubborn firmware is the worst kind of headache when you're already trying to solve a bigger problem.