Netbooks are all the rage in mobile computing right now. Most of these come loaded with either some version of Linux or Windows XP. The fact is however, many of these machines are capable of running the Windows 7 beta. Being much lighter than Windows Vista, it's perfect for lower powered machines like this.
The issue becomes one of installing the OS. Since most, if not all, netbooks don't come with an optical media drive, how do you go about getting it installed? That's where a properly formatted USB drive can come in handy. Below you'll find the steps needed to turn your ordinary extra storage device into something capable of installing the latest Windows OS.
What you'll need:
- 4GB USB Key(4GB minimum)
- Windows 7 beta already burnt onto DVD
From here it's relatively simple to load your USB key to boot and install Windows 7. You should feel comfortable working within the command window, but if you're not, this guide will take you through step by step.
- Plug in and back up your USB drive
- Open a Command Prompt with Administrative rights. (Right click on command prompt icon and choose Run as Administrator)
- Type DISKPART. (This is going to help us get some information about the USB key which is needed to run further commands)
- The next command to type is LIST DISK. Be sure to write down the number of the disk of your USB key. Mine was Disk 1 so we'll use that from here on out. If yours is different be sure to replace it with the correct number below.
Once you have the Disk number of your USB key, type the following commands, one at a time (
Remember to change the Disk number if yours is different. You don't want to do this to your hard drive!):
- SELECT DISK 1
- CLEAN
- CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
- SELECT PARTITION 1
- ACTIVE
- FORMAT FS=NTFS (Note: This process may take a bit. Mine took almost 5 minutes)
- ASSIGN
- EXIT
Don't close your command prompt quite yet as we're not done with it. Just send it to the bottom of the screen for now. The next step is to put your Windows 7 DVD into your DVD drive and note the drive letter of both the DVD drive and your USB key. On my laptop these are D=DVD Drive and J=USB Key. Again, if yours are different, be sure to change them when you do this.
Open your Command Prompt window back up and type the following, one by one:
- D: CD BOOT (D being your DVD Drive)
- CD BOOT
- BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60: J: (J is your USB Key)
You've now prepared your USB key to be a boot device on your netbook. The only thing left to do is copy the contents of your Windows 7 DVD over to the key. Once you've done that you can remove it from your system.
At this point, all of the work is done on the netbook. You really have one of two options. 1) Enter your Bios and set your device to boot from a connected USB device first. This will make your netbook boot directly from the USB key and enter Windows 7 setup. I personally don't recommend this option as when I used it and the Windows 7 setup had to restart, it went back to the beginning of the setup process.
I recommend going route two: Know which key to strike (usually F12) to enter your boot menu. Make sure your bootable USB key is plugged in and it should show up on the list. That way, when Windows 7 has to reboot the machine, setup will continue as normal.
The above listed process worked perfectly for me. It took me awhile to find several processes and patch them together into something that worked. I had to reformat my USB key several times before I finally got the right sequence going. Be sure to back up!
