Booting from USB to install an OS

gregrocker said:

As suggested enter BIOS setup at boot to check if HD is detected and set first to boot.

Then download your licensed version of Win7 to write to flash stick from Step 6 of Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start to work through the repair steps, or Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

Trigger the flash stick to boot for repairs or reinstall using the one-time BIOS boot menu key, under USB, Removable or HD's.

The USB is FAT32, do I need to format it to NTFS? If so, do I do that from another PC, if so, how?

mike6623 said:

gregrocker said:

As suggested enter BIOS setup at boot to check if HD is detected and set first to boot.

Then download your licensed version of Win7 to write to flash stick from Step 6 of Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start to work through the repair steps, or Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

Trigger the flash stick to boot for repairs or reinstall using the one-time BIOS boot menu key, under USB, Removable or HD's.

The USB is FAT32, do I need to format it to NTFS? If so, do I do that from another PC, if so, how?

The Microsoft tool that creates a bootable USB flash drive formats it as NTFS.

That's good, unless you want to do a UEFI install on a newer PC. My Asus motherboard required FAT32, so I had to prepare the USB drive manually.

Since your old HP notebook likely doesn't have UEFI, you can format the stick NTFS. If the tool provided doesn't work what always works for me is UltraISO Software To Create Bootable USB Flash Drive.

Then reboot and tap the HP ESC or F9 boot key to choose stick by name under USB, Removable or HD's. You may need to expand an entry to see the stick and choose it.

Then work through the Troubleshooting steps, or rescue your files and reinstall per Reinstall tutorial. I'd delete all partitions during reinstall unless you have the need to preserve Recovery partition. HP Recovery reinstalls the worst load of bloatware in the industry.

Hello, I am feeling quite sleepy, it's almost morning, still havn't gone to bed, so I did not read the above posts.

Dear OP,

If you are looking out for installing Windows from USB, get the ISO online, get ultraIso trial version, open your iso with it, go to ''bootable'' menu>click ''make bootable disk'', let it write, once done, boot from it on your system, install, done.

Good night.