[twokatmew]

I posted a more detailed query on this subject yesterday, and although people are reading, no one's replying. So I thought I'd try again and keep it simple....

Is anyone *not* able to boot from the 11z's internal card reader? I can boot from USB key drives w/o a problem, but the BIOS doesn't see any of my SD/SDHC cards. I'm running BIOS A06. The card reader works fine for transferring data in Windows, but no bootie.

Advice appreciated.

[lauriem04]

I'm not so sure that the internal card reader is bootable. It definitely is not on the Mini 9, but I haven't tried on my 10v or 11z. If you have a USB card reader, you might be able to boot from the SD card that way.

Hopefully someone around here has more experience with this issue than I do.

[twokatmew]

Originally Posted by lauriem04

I'm not so sure that the internal card reader is bootable. It definitely is not on the Mini 9, but I haven't tried on my 10v or 11z. If you have a USB card reader, you might be able to boot from the SD card that way.

Hopefully someone around here has more experience with this issue than I do.

Thank you! The reader works fine within Windows, so I figured it's either a limitation in the BIOS or the RTS5159-GR itself. The only laptops I'm able to compare to are the Inspiron 1520 and 1525, both of which boot from their card readers. It's not that big a deal, as I have a thin Sandisk USB reader that will fit in my laptop sleeve. I just wanted to make sure mine is not defective.

In any case, I emailed tech support a bit ago, so I hope I'll get a definitive answer back. But ... it sounds like the 11z's reader is not bootable. I do find it strange, though, for the card reader not to have boot capability, especially on a system with no internal optical drive. But no biggie. I'm just glad I don't have to deal with a service call!

Thanks again!

[bbbobbbo]

Originally Posted by twokatmew

The only laptops I'm able to compare to are the Inspiron 1520 and 1525, both of which boot from their card readers.
Thanks again!

could you tell me how you managed to get those inspirons booting from internal card readers?

i own an 1520 and try as i may i will never be able to do that - have searched every in the boot options and there are only 5 options:
1-diskette (not the case here)
2-internal hdd (normal boot)
3-USB device (but i need SD card)
4-CD/DVD etc.
5-onboard NIC (???)

How do I enable my inspiron 1520 to boot from its internal card reader?

If you can tell me i will appreciate it forever.

Thanks

PS - the reason i wanna do this is new installation of windows - my dvd player no longer works, don't have USB devices larger than 2 GB but i do have an 8GB SD card from which i'm trying to clean install windows

[twokatmew]

I finally heard back from Dell tech support, and they confirmed it's not possible to boot from the internal SD card slot on the 11z.

Before I gave away my 1520, I'd tested Win7 x64 on it, and although the DVD drive still worked, I installed Win7 using the SD because it was faster. IIRC, the BIOS recognized the internal SD slot as a USB device, so I set that as the first boot device.

I just prepared the SD card using Microsoft's tool for making the card bootable and copying over their trial ISO. It was so simple on the 1520 (and other laptops I'd used previously), that it never occurred to me I might not be able to boot from the 11z's internal card reader!

I had one of the earlier 1520s. Might it be possible that Dell stopped putting in bootable SD slots some time during that model's production run?

Really, I don't know why Dell doesn't use bootable SD readers in all their laptops, especially ones that don't ship with DVD drives. They're all USB devices. I'm assuming this is a $$ issue rather than a technical one. If it *is* a technical issue, I'd be interested in hearing the facts behind it.

I wasted a lot of time trying to make the 11z boot from the internal card slot and then looking for solutions on the web. It was easy enough to use an external card reader, but I wanted to make sure my 11z wasn't defective. It would be nice if Dell would specify such capabilities (or lack thereof) when we're buying machines. Unfortunately they assume we're all dumb users who don't have any requirements beyond the very basic. This is one reason I build my own desktops. I really don't want to mess with building laptops, though.

[bbbobbbo]

Originally Posted by twokatmew

the BIOS recognized the internal SD slot as a USB device, so I set that as the first boot device.

I just prepared the SD card using Microsoft's tool for making the card bootable and copying over their trial ISO.

AHA! now that's GREAT info.

actually i skipped USB device boot altogether since i figured no way was the bios going to treat an SD as USB device.

besides, i didnt "apply" any special treatment to the sd so as to make that bootable - had no idea.

THANK YOU for your REALLY fast reply and i'll try all that

Be back on later with the results - thankds

[twokatmew]

MS' tool requires both Windows 7 and a Microsoft-made ISO. One created from a MS Windows install DVD won't work. As I already had a MS-made (IT pro) trial of Win 7 x64, and the tool first formats the ISO with the WinPE bootable environment, I just canceled the operation once it made the SD bootable.

If you're going to use a non-MS-made ISO, you'll need to use a tool like Win2flash, and you'll need to have your own WinPE bootable files, which you can get by installing the Windows AIK for your OS. After installing the WAIK, you have to run a script to actually create the files. (You have to have the version for your installed OS.) For Win7, you can get it here.

Let me know if you need more info.

[mkvans]

You say you're running BIOS A06? I have A04, and I don't see A06 available at the Dell website. You sure it's A06?

[twokatmew]

Yep, my 11z is running BIOS A06. I don't know why it's not available for download from Dell. Here's a screenshot from the latest Belarc Advisor.

[twokatmew]

Originally Posted by mkvans

You say you're running BIOS A06? I have A04, and I don't see A06 available at the Dell website. You sure it's A06?

Yep, my 11z came with BIOS A06 when I got it about a month ago. Here's a screen shot from the latest Belarc Advisor.