E5 won't boot from usb

Thanks in advance for the assistance.

I am trying to upgrade the E5-575-33BM to a SSD and install windows 10.
I have a working bootable image of windows 10. I verified it was recognizable and working with the old HDD in the computer. I turned on boot menu and verified it saw the external drive. I also booted from it once and successfully got to the new install page.

I shut down the computer, swapped the HDD for the new SDD and tried to start the computer and boot from the external drive. It wasn't on the boot menu. I tried all 3 usb ports. I've tried moving USB FDD, HDD, CDROM up to top of boot list. I've tried legacy, UEFI with secure boot enabled, and UEFI with secure boot disabled. I've tried power plug in and out. I've tried with the new hard drive and no hard drive. The PC won't find the external drive. It is FAT32 format.

I plugged the old HDD in and viola, it found the external drive and was successfully able to boot from it.

So my question is... What the .....?

Anyone have any suggestions? I've tried every setting I can think of. I have done this several times with several computers and never had issues until this one.
I have remade the bootable image twice now on FAT32 and once on NFTS and repeated all the above steps.

I did check BIOS firmware and updated to ensure it was current. (Went from 1.27 to 1.47) and repeated all the above steps. Still no success.

Accepted answers

JackE

>>>Then I moved over and was able to load in legacy and reinstall>>>

This very much sounds like the machine did not have factory-installed ACER Win10 when you tried to swap the HDD out. In fact, I'd guess the HDD was changed from GPT to MBR partitioning at some point in its life. The switch to MBR partitioning would've wiped out the original factory-installed ACER-flavored Win10 system and hidden recovery partitions. Jack E/NJ

All comments

JackE

>>>boot from the external drive.>>>It is FAT32 format.>>>

BIOS must be UEFI bootstrap. Supervisor password should be used and not forgotten to disable secure boot. USB boot installation stick must be NTFS formatted using latest Rufus along with the Win10 image file or the Microsoft media creation tool. Is the image file Microsoft generic or ACER-flavored Win10? That is, how did you make the iso or img file? Jack E/NJ

j1mbo

I used Microsoft media creation to create an iso file after making media failed. Then I used Rufus a free different times. Couldn't make it work UEFI. Tried every possible option I could think of.
I ended up creating a clone using my toshiba using the same sdd.
Then I moved over and was able to load in legacy and reinstall. Same steps as before. But this time it worked so idk. 7 hours later... I have a faster computer. The joke of it all. I actually contacted acer "tech" support. That's 12 minutes of my life I'll never get back.

JackE

>>>Then I moved over and was able to load in legacy and reinstall>>>

This very much sounds like the machine did not have factory-installed ACER Win10 when you tried to swap the HDD out. In fact, I'd guess the HDD was changed from GPT to MBR partitioning at some point in its life. The switch to MBR partitioning would've wiped out the original factory-installed ACER-flavored Win10 system and hidden recovery partitions. Jack E/NJ

j1mbo

It came with win10 and a fresh start install from Microsoft was done immediately after purchase. Recovery partition was not hidden. The HDD was GPT still. I did MBR for the SDD and just run it in Legacy now. Totally worth the

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