Boot options

I'm at a standstill, and not sure if this is even the right forum for this question.

Is it possible to setup any computer, including my aspire on, to have a menu that allows me from which media I wish to boot from (whether it be from USB, HDD, or CD/DVD where available)? You know, similar to the menu that lets you pick safe mode and such in Windows.

I keep trying to Google it, but apparently I'm using the wrong words.

 

Most computers i've built in the last few years, more specifically those with Gigabyte motherboards, have an option in the BIOS to enable a boot device selection menu.

It's definately not available in ALL systems, but I agree it would be nice to be able to press F12 during POST on all my computers to choose what to boot from.

Your best bet is to sort out a boot order for your BIOS. For example, once a system is built and completely set up, I usually make the HDD the only boot option. But if you were to regularly change between say a Windows XP HDD installation, and running a Linux distro live from a CD, you'd do better to set your boot order as CD, DVD, HDD.

Basically set up all removeable devices ahead of the HDD. Most PC's will attempt to boot from the removable media and if there's nothing there it will goto the next device in the list. Once one media is detected (and is bootable) it'll boot.

Hope this helps