BIOS Boot settings

Goals

Set Internal USB Drivekeys to boot before externals ones

This is done as a security precaution. As long as the bootable EJP Recovery Drive is inserted internally, we can never accidentally boot from an external USB drive. This also protects from boot sector virus contamination too.

Disable Network booting

Theoretically a Network PXE boot could be an attack surface. In our case that is not to worrisome. What we do care about is not waiting for two PXE boot failures before moving on.

Set Hard drive to boot first

• Booting the hard drive first means that we don't accidentally boot from removable media
• This setting allows our bootable EJP Recovery Drive to remain inserted persistently, without booting from it as long as the hard drive is booting.
• The only way to boot from the internal USB is to delibrately press the F11 key at boot time and choose to boot from USB.

Procedures

Enter the main BIOS screen

• See Entering the BIOS Setup

Navigate to Removeable Flash Media Boot Sequence

• While System Options is highlighted, press Enter
• Highlight USB Options, press Enter
• Highlight Removeable Flash Media Boot Sequence, press Enter

Select Internal First

• Select Internal DriveKeys First
• Press Enter
• Press ESC to return to the previous menus

Navigate to NIC Boot Options

• System Options
• Embedded NICs

• There will be a warning message that you can ignore...

• NIC 1 Boot options

Disable NIC Boot for both interfaces

• Select Disabled
• Repeat that process for NIC 2

Select Standard Boot Order

• On the main menu select Standard Boot Order

Rearrange the Boot order

• If the NIC boot was still enabled, the NICs would appear here, but you can ignore them
• Arrange the order like so:
  • Hard Drive
  • CD-ROM
  • USB DriveKeys
• The Floppy doesn't matter as there isn't one.