Batboard

Are there any tricks to get the ML900 to boot from USB? I don't have an internal CD-ROM drive and am trying to load OS through a USB CD-ROM drive and have boot order set to CD-ROM -> Floppy -> Hard drive -> LAN. When I hit F12 on boot, it brings up the boot options menu but won't boot off CD.

Thanks...

If the BIOS doesn't give a 'boot from USB' or 'boot from Flashdrive' you're pretty well dead in the water.

I am 99% sure that I was able to boot via usb cd-drive before...but I aquired one with an internal cd drive and started using that so I don't really recall. Some usb bootable drives just don't like some usb interfaces anyways.
I can only confirm when I get home on Tuesday. The ML900 BIOS is pretty basic.

Yes, all versions of ML900 can boot from USB CD/DVD/Floppy drives only. For best results try following:

1) Turn off your ML900
2) connect the external CD-ROM drive to the bottom USB located on the right side. I found out that some ML900s had powered only this port, the bottom on the right side.

Off topic:

I know it as I got special CDs which will add full USB booting support to your ML900 and then you can boot and run your ML900 from flashdrive / USB drive. You don´t even need HDD and caddy inside. Tested with Windows XP Embedded and SLAX Linux.

Yes, you can do that. Please try this:

1) Please enable USB CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive boot in BIOS, check the boot priority and save it
2) turn off ML900
3) connect the drive to the BOTTOM USB port located on the RIGHT SIDE. This USB is powered.
4) Turn your ML900 and you are ready to go

If not, you have problem with your external drive or USB port.

My ML900 only offers - both in BIOS and F12 | Hard Disc C | CD-ROM/DVD | Diskette A | PXE LAN | I can't find any BIOS settings to enable USB boot. Am I missing something or is there a BIOS update my laptop needs?

Thanks!