HP Mini 311 will not recognize bootable USB key

[linkylingtoncarl]

I have an HP mini 311 that has recently undergone a factory restore (to Windows 7) from the recovery partition. I previously had a dual-boot setup of Ubuntu 11.10 and Windows 8 RP (eek!).

Given Windows 8 was a complete mess imo, I wanted to do a clean install of Ubuntu. The new Windows 8 boot configuration was making this extremely difficult, hence the factory restore.

After the restore, when I try to boot a 12.04 USB image my boot loader cannot even recognize that the device is there. I have tested the same image on a different computer and it worked fine recognizing the device and beginning the installation process. My HP mini also recognized a USB image when I had originally installed 11.10. Is there something that Windows 8 may have permanently changed in my boot settings that would disallow me to boot from a USB device? (I have also used wubi to write an entry to the MBR, to no avail.)

[bcbc]

You don't use the MBR to boot a USB stick. It's a BIOS function: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...071240&lang=en

Wubi won't write to the MBR (lucky for you, or else you wouldn't be booting Windows).