Easy Windows 7 Clean Install Without DVD Drive

[Louisifer]

**Optional Step**
show hidden and system files and copy all the files on the recovery drive to a location off your laptop by usb/wifi or whatever u have access to.

**Important Part**
With hidden and system files visable delete all the files from the recovery partition ignoring the "System Volume Information" folder as it refuses to be deleted.

Now extract the contents of the win7 x32 iso from microsoft into the recovery drive, I used Winrar as its quick to install and wont need registering because your reformating

**Make sure you have your Beta Key written down.

Now the easy bit, restart laptop and press F11 and you know what todo from here

i decided to delete the large partition as i wanted to make sure there were no files left over from previous OS.

I found this way to be very convenient as you can quickly update to the next beta by simply replacing the files on recovery partition with the files from the latest beta iso :wink: and theres the bonus of if something horribly goes wrong with your copy your just 1 F11 key press away from a clean install of Windows 7 ..or any other OS thats installable by DVD/CD i think :shock:

*Edit*
With the 6.5GB spare on the drive you can save all your installers to get you up and running quickly! make sure you have the audio driver, graphics driver and the mp3 corruption patch in there!!

[fauxpas]

I got my 2133 2nd hand and they'd already deleted all the partitions and installed XP... Pressing F11 does nothing as you can imagine...

What partition do I need to setup to get recovery back?

[seadogs]

I did something similar on my HP mini Note. I had XP on it, so instead of getting an external CD drive i copied the 7 installation stuff to a usb drive, launched setup.exe and it worked a treat!

It even remembered where the files were "housed" during reboots which surprised me a little.

[Louisifer]

@fauxpas
I rarely deal with creating partitions so i dont know all the information about them but i can pass along all the information that the windows Disk Management tool will show me about it.

The partition appears to be created at the end of the drive.
Its 9GB in size / 9,665,769,472 bytes to be exact. :P
File system is NTFS.
Is labeled HP_RECOVERY.

Thats all the info i have rite now but others may chip in with other info if re-creating the partition isnt successful with just this info.

@seadogs
I almost did it that way too but luckily the max usb drive i had was 2gb.

@Everyone
I'd love to hear if the recovery partition way works for anyone else. i wouldnt be suprised if u could install a small OS on the recovery partition and use F11 to boot it.. but i'll leave that to others to try :P

[endhalf]

I had no idea that is so easy to install Windows from USB... I always needed some guides on the internet etc. Now I just try to copy Wista 7 DVD to USB flash and it worked... That's wonderfull :-)

[painless]

My TinyXP had a few dramas so its time to try something else.
Just finished downloading 7 & am copying over to try USB method now.
Will let you all know how it goes.

[damian]

Tiny XP is more hassle than it's worth you always end up needing one of the not present bits!

[fauxpas]

Cheers for that. When I get a new drive I'll partition it up and copy over 7 before I install it... We'll see if it works...

@fauxpas
I rarely deal with creating partitions so i dont know all the information about them but i can pass along all the information that the windows Disk Management tool will show me about it.

The partition appears to be created at the end of the drive.
Its 9GB in size / 9,665,769,472 bytes to be exact. :P
File system is NTFS.
Is labeled HP_RECOVERY.

Thats all the info i have rite now but others may chip in with other info if re-creating the partition isnt successful with just this info.

@seadogs
I almost did it that way too but luckily the max usb drive i had was 2gb.

@Everyone
I'd love to hear if the recovery partition way works for anyone else. i wouldnt be suprised if u could install a small OS on the recovery partition and use F11 to boot it.. but i'll leave that to others to try :P

[Webbage]

I posted a link to a method on my blog for creating a bootable Windows 7 installer on a USB key. It worked a charm for me, only thing is you have to take the USB key out after the first reboot or your Mini-note just reboots in to the installer

http://www.markbenson.org/blog/2009-...ory-stick.html

I know that's a link to a link to a link etc. but the original URL wouldn't post properly.

If you follow those instructions you'll have a USB key that will boot no probs. Works for Vista or Win7.

PS why when I post something inside [ url ] [ /url ] does my post go blank? :P

[d13373d]

I had real trouble creating a bootable usb stick for Windows 7 (especially with half of the methods use a version of diskpart only available in Vista).

In the end this guide worked a treat and only took a few minutes.
http://www.bwana.org/2009/01/11/how-...without-vista/