Installing windows without a DVD drive

iviv · 22 May 2011 at 17:28

What options do I have? I have a USB external hard drive, would it be possible to install win 7 off one of those? The motherboard is fairly old though, its an Asus P5B socket 775, so I'm not sure if that means it will be missing any features needed to do this or something.

If not, are there any other options? Thanks

rgritchie · 22 May 2011 at 17:36

I think you can copy the install DVD to a pen drive and install it via USB.

kylew · 22 May 2011 at 19:09

You can install it off a USB drive (there's no such thing as "pen drives"

), or if there's already an operating system on the PC, you can get the installation rolling from within the windows install.

This guide tells you all you need to know http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7vista-from-usb-drive-detailed-100-working-guide/

SparkyG · 22 May 2011 at 19:12

check in bios to see if it can boot from usb

robinbredin · 22 May 2011 at 19:17

There is a Windows 7 USB DVD tool HERE that will also help.

iviv · 22 May 2011 at 20:40

Awesome, thanks for the pointers. Hopefully the mobo is new enough to let me boot from USB, otherwise I'm going to have to dismantle parts from my computer just to get windows installed

Alternatively, would it be possible to stick a linux distro on a usb drive, boot off that and start installing windows 7 over the network?