# [FreeNAS] Trying to boot from CD or USB



## nicki (Dec 7, 2013)

Hi

I recently installed FreeNAS but cannot get it to work at all.  After wasting weeks of effort, I have decided to revert to Windows but don't know how to get FreeBSD to boot from a CD or USB.  Both are inserted when the machine is switched on and the BIOS is set to check both before the HDD.  However, on booting, all I get is this:


```
F1 FreeBSD
F2 FreeBSD
F6 PXE
Boot: F5 ###
```

If I leave it, it just keeps adding # until the screen fills up.  If I press F1 when it's booting, I get:


```
F1 FreeBSD
F2 FreeBSD
F6 PXE
Boot: F5
/
FreeBSD/x86 boot
Default: 0:ad(0,a)/boot/loader
boot:
```

I have tried typing everything I can think of in here but it doesn't like any of it.  Could someone please tell me what the magic command is to get it to boot from CD or USB?

Thank you.


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## wblock@ (Dec 7, 2013)

*Re: Trying to boot from CD or USB*

If you're reverting to Windows, why bother with booting FreeBSD?

The prompt is from the FreeBSD multi-boot loader, probably from the hard drive.  Don't count on the BIOS doing the right thing.  Select the BIOS boot device menu and manually choose the correct device on startup.  That would be F12 on a Dell, possibly F9 on HP.


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## nicki (Dec 8, 2013)

*Re: Trying to boot from CD or USB*

Thanks for your reply.  I'm not trying to boot FreeBSD, I'm trying to boot from the CD or USB which contains Windows installation software.  I can get into the BIOS.  It is set to boot:

```
CD/DVD-ROM
Removable Devices
Hard Drive
Network Boot
```

But it's still just booting into FreeBSD regardless


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## Beastie (Dec 8, 2013)

*Re: Trying to boot from CD or USB*

Were you able to boot the Windows installation CD *on that machine* before? Because - providing the BIOS is configured right - it really looks like it's failing to boot the CD, tries to boot non-existent "removable devices" and then falls back to booting from the hard disk which has FreeNAS on it.


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## nicki (Dec 21, 2013)

Hi!  OK, I can now get it to boot from the CD but it won't install Windows as the disk is not formatted correctly.  How do I go about formatting the disk to NTFS?


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## trh411 (Dec 21, 2013)

Your Windows installation media should give you an opportunity to repartition your disk and lay down an NTFS filesystem. You would be better off taking this issue to a Windows forum.


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