[NTLUG:Discuss] USB 1GB device question

[Robert Pearson]

On Thu, Dec 25, 2008 at 10:58 PM, Stuart Johnston <saj at thecommune.net> wrote:
> Allen Meyers wrote:
>> I never realized until today that any storage device can and does become
>> part of the boot process. So My question is can I insert the stick into my
>> PC load what I want and unplug it with no problem. I ask because I inserted
>> one and tried to reboot into a panic of grub loading error 22.
>> Please advise
>
> If you don't intend on booting from USB, you might want to remove that
> option in your BIOS.
>
> As far as when it is safe to remove it, if you have written any changes
> it is best to unmount it first.  This can generally be done by right
> clicking the icon on the desktop.

Since I don't have any bootable USB Flash drives I can't test what
happens so I'm going to ask?
Q: With BIOS USB boot enabled and a known working bootable USB Flash
drive inserted as well as the
normal bootable hard drive which will try to boot first?
USB or hard drive?
QA: Is there a boot order preference for USB versus other drives like
removable, CDROM, disk, etc.

Q: Can USB bootable drives be listed in GRUB so a choice can be made
at boot time?
Using GRUB looks like the cleanest solution if it is possible.

In Googling this question it looks like there are third party products
that will allow multiple bootable USB Flash drives
to be installed and booted by choice from a menu. I could not find
anything that explained how these boot managers
interact with the BIOS. The old pre-GRUB System Commander product I
worked with was called by the boot process
so everything was handled in the System Commander software.