I have found 2 easy hardware ways to boot from a specific USB drive:
1. Connect the drive you want to boot from directly to the RPi5. Connect the backup drive to a USB 3 dongle. Make sure you set "Control Centre>Performance>Disable USB Current Limit" to on. The RPi5 will find the directly connected USB drive first and boot it.
2. Connect all of your alternative USB 3 drives with a SABRENT 4 Port USB 3.0 Hub with Individual LED Lit Power Switches. Power only the drive you want to boot.
Even though I'm an American, I did not want all of my USB drives to be created equal.
1. Connect the drive you want to boot from directly to the RPi5. Connect the backup drive to a USB 3 dongle. Make sure you set "Control Centre>Performance>Disable USB Current Limit" to on. The RPi5 will find the directly connected USB drive first and boot it.
2. Connect all of your alternative USB 3 drives with a SABRENT 4 Port USB 3.0 Hub with Individual LED Lit Power Switches. Power only the drive you want to boot.
Even though I'm an American, I did not want all of my USB drives to be created equal.
Statistics: Posted by B52apl — Thu Feb 05, 2026 4:39 pm