0

I've got the same end goal as this like named question but a different starting point.

I have a Win7 Ultimate DVD (not an ISO), one XP box with a DVD drive and less than 4GB of free disk, an XP netbook with no DVD drive, a blank HDD I plan to install on, and a strong aversion to installing any more software on either.

The direction from the sited question (and others how-tos I have found):

  • start with "install something" or
  • require the win 7 version of diskpart or
  • assume the system is already bootable.

Only the first of those isn't a killer for me but I'd really like to avoid it.

Any Ideas?

Also, anyone have an idea on how I can make XP treat a DVD drive as an ISO without having to copy it to disk? I know how I can make an ISO within my constraints (Linux live CD, dd, netcat, yuck) but it's going to be a pain.

Edit: I also have access to a linux box. Would using the Linux tools do the partitioning and then finishing out on with windows work?

Community
  • 1
BCS
  • 773

3 Answers3

2

If you have enough room on the netbook hard drive and it can boot from a USB drive then you can install to it from a USB drive. Microsoft has posted the instructions here:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/installing-windows-7-on-a-netbook

Zooks64
  • 2,060
1

I'll start with the obvious: what's stopping you from moving the DVD drive to the other machine for the duration of the install?

Joel Coehoorn
  • 28,637
0

I assume what they are using diskpart for, is to make a sufficiently large thumbdrive bootable - in which case you can use the HP drive format tool instead to make it bootable, then copy over the files to see if it works.

Journeyman Geek
  • 133,878