Booting without HD

[smek]

I have Mint installed on a USB flash stick and I want to run the computer without the HD plugged in. I excluded the HD from the boot order, but it throws a disk error if the HD is disconnected. Any suggestions?

[Harryc]

What machine is this? It sounds like BIOS is not seeing your USB stick. Hit F12 at the first boot screen and select the USB stick. Is it visible and does it boot? How did you create it?

[smek]

The z60t BIOS recognizes the USB stick, so thats not the issue. The HD is dead, so the only way to boot is through the flash stick. It boots fine as long as the HD is connected, even though it has been removed from the boot order. Once I disconnect the HD, a disk error is displayed.