Windows 7 - Install Wndows 7 without an optical drive on a brand new computer?

Alright. I am somewhat a beginner to this. My mother wants to buy a small laptop (13.3'' toshiba t130D). When I went to the store to buy it, the salesman told me that I need to pay 85$ to get windows 7 installed on it since it has NO OPTICAL DRIVE. It seems like a rip-off... I was wondering... because I have no exterior dvd drive, is there ANY way else that I could use to install Windows 7 on that laptop since it is brand new. Can I use a USB key? Or that is only possible when a computer already has an OS installed on it? Is having an exterior drive the only possible way to install this? Can I use the disc drive of my pc? Any suggestion is appreciated!

USB will work just fine. Once you get the thumb drive set up it will even install faster than from a cdrom.

HOW TO: Install Windows 7 from a USB stick

I have a netbook with no drive. I decided to buy a used CD/DVD writer slim drive using the USB port. I paid $30 for my Sony DRX-S70U-R.
I found mine on Ebay

Oh that'S great news! I always thought taht an OS had to be installed for a laptop to be able to read a Flash drive... My only concern is.. Windows 7 comes with the laptop on a cd, I havn't read the how-to's to make a usb thing, but does it's something that anyone can do right? I don't need to have Windows 7 files downloaded onto my computer or anything? If all else fals I will hunt for external drives from Ebay.

You can put the 7 installation on flash drive direct from the dvd using the free program:

WinToFlash - Install Windows from usb - Home page

YouTube - WinToFlash: Make a Bootable USB Installer for Windows 7 - XP and Vista by Britec

The new version of WinToFlash is a bit bigger than the one he uses in the video ( it has pretty pictures and additional languages.) Just download and install it like any other program.

The proces of transferring from installation dvd to flash is exactly the same as on the video.

Wow thanks alot! You guys are very helpful I guess 85$ is a rip-off after all. lol

what operating system does this computer come with?

My desktop runs windows xp hom edition and the laptop I am willing to buy comes with windows 7 home premium (or home somethin..). I have one last question. When I install the thing on the USB, Afterwards, if I reconnect the flash drive on my desktop... will it ry to install windows 7 automatically on it? Or will I be able to delete all files that are on the flash drive and re-use it?

The USB drive that I used to install Windows 7 doesn't autorun in Windows 7. One prepared in a different manner might, but it'd be no big deal.

You can reformat the drive and re-use it for data, no problem.

Or, keep it as is and buy a new one. I see 4GB USB flash drives locally advertised all the time for around $13US, or less.

Is 4gb USB drive enough? or do I need to go up to 8gb? It seems lke 4gb s small to have Complete windows 7 on it :s