|
Post by vikingken on May 26, 2010 11:14:11 GMT
I went to a mates house to install Win7 for him, only to find his DVD ROM had packed up and only the CD burner side of the device worked. Rather than give up, I put the installation disk in my laptop and copied it to one of my pocket hard drives. Then I booted his computer and set the BIOS to USB hard drive as first boot. Then I booted into XP and opened the installation, it first downloaded the updates, rebooted and proceeded to install Windows 7 from the USB drive. I had gathered all his personal files and favourites to the external before installing, I put them back in and checked all was well. Once I was sure it all worked fine, I deleted Windows Old, installed his main programs, ran Check Disk and defragged it. He still needs to get a DVD drive, but at least he's got a working Win7 computer.
It's something I've not tried before with Win7, but it works and might be useful to someone who finds themselves in the same situation. I tried to do it once before with XP and it didn't work, so its something else that Win7 has got over XP. I've copied a Paragon image via USB with XP, but installing in this way failed and had to be done using the disk.
|
|
|
Post by judymcl on Jan 8, 2011 8:37:29 GMT
Thanks! This will be handy for me!
|
|
|
Post by vikingken on Jan 8, 2011 12:52:20 GMT
Your welcome Judy.
If a computer has BIOS that cant be set for a USB boot, its too old for Windows 7 anyway.
|
|
|
Post by judymcl on Jul 26, 2011 0:23:06 GMT
What size of USB does W7 need?
|
|
|
Post by vikingken on Jul 26, 2011 1:00:23 GMT
I put it on a 16 gig, but an ISO fits on a DVD Judy and theres no real difference. Its only an ISO image. Windows 7 has been made this way, as netbooks dont have disk drives. You dont want to put it on too big a drive, as you cant use any free space for anything else and it only gets wasted. I've not tried to do it yet, but I presume you could slipstream SP1 into it if your putting it on a Flash drive. I dont think that will fit on a single DVD.
|
|
|
Post by judymcl on Jul 26, 2011 7:15:14 GMT
So you just put the ISO on the USB or do you extract it first?
|
|
|
Post by vikingken on Jul 26, 2011 12:21:29 GMT
You have got me thinking now Judy. I formatted the disk the first time and and then just copied the installation disk to it. If you have a got a Technet download and use the Windows burning wizard, I think it gives you a choice of burning it or putting it on Flash media. Dont quote me on that, I might be getting mixed up with making Paragon Recovery Media. I know for sure that gives you the choice. Copying a disk is the surest way, but if its been installed on a machine already, you have to remember to change the Key to a new one before trying to register it.
|
|
|
Post by judymcl on Jul 26, 2011 18:49:30 GMT
I'll have to check it out sometime and see, thanks for the info.
|
|
|
Post by vikingken on Jul 26, 2011 19:40:15 GMT
Your welcome Judy, good luck.
|
|