I reckon that's looking just as bleak, if your BIOS doesn't support booting from USB devices and you only have a CDROM drive, unless you buy a DVD ROM for it, there's no way of actually installing it. Infact, i assume the optiplex is running XP, if so you'd have to boot from a DVD to format the drive before installing W7 anyways, so USB would still be a no-go.
okay do you think i could partition the HDD on it so i could install windows with a virtual drive then wipe the old xp partition? because once im on the computer i can rip the iso off the dvd and mount it.
Sorry, you've lost me now, which PC are you talking about now? The Dimension?
If you're upgrading XP to Windows 7, you have to use a DVD to do the job. Even if you did manage to mount the ISO in XP, you'd not be able to do anything with it apart from burning it.
The dimension simply doesn't have the horsepower to run 7 and the optiplex doesn't read/write DVD's or boot from USB.
I think the only way you're going to see W7 on either computer is to run it in a VM.
I do stand to be corrected.......
well what im saying is if i could partition the HDD on the optiplex and then install 7 on that new partition and then clear out my old xp partition and take that unallocated space and merge it with the new windows 7 partion because i cant format the HDD unless i had a xp CD. if im confusing you im rele sorry =[
What is the make & model of the optiplex ?
If you hit F5, F8, F11, or F12 during the Bios boot, can you get a menu boot that says USB device ?
How do you suggest installing W7 on that partition though?
Even if you did manage to install W7 on the Optiplex on a different partition, you wouldn't be able to delete the XP partition (C: i assume) very easily and certainly wouldn't have any way to install 7 onto that partition.
This is very confusing, if i've got it wrong, i'm sorry!
ive got work but doc brown ill see what it says when i get home
Quote