Booting from USB to install an OS

[mike6623]

I have an old HP notebook with no optical drive and the laptop is saying "no os found" or something like that. I want to install a fresh copy of windows 7 pro on it, but this is one statement from a Microsoft site regarding the issue.

"When you download the ISO file, you must copy the file onto a USB flash drive or a DVD to install Windows 7. When you're ready to install Windows 7, insert the USB flash drive into your USB port or insert your DVD into your DVD drive, and then run Setup.exe from the root folder on the drive"

If I cannot get to an area in which I can actually access the drive, how would I? The whole reason I need to reinstall is because is says OS not found, that is it. I cannot move on fro there although I do believe I can access the BIOS. Do I need the drive connected when I switch the boot order? What will it be called when the pc has no cd drive?

 

[BEEFSTIX]

Yes, you'll want to put in the disc/USB with the ISO burnt to it, and then start up your computer and enter BIOS.

Though your first problem seems to be that it's suddenly not detecting your current install and that could mean your HDD croaked, in which case trying to reinstall an OS on that HDD would be pointless.
Have you confirmed that the HDD is working? or is there a different reason your current OS isn't booting?

 

[mike6623]

Yes, you'll want to put in the disc/USB with the ISO burnt to it, and then start up your computer and enter BIOS.

Though your first problem seems to be that it's suddenly not detecting your current install and that could mean your HDD croaked, in which case trying to reinstall an OS on that HDD would be pointless.
Have you confirmed that the HDD is working? or is there a different reason your current OS isn't booting?

How can I test if the HDD is bad or not?

And actually, sorry, It is a friends computer. they never really used it, but she does have small children so who knows what they did. I do believe I ran diagnostic and it didn't indicate that the HDD had any issues. When you say the ISO "burnt" to it, do you just mean placing the ISO onto the stick.

 

[BEEFSTIX]

If you have any other PC you could try connecting it to that and see if you can access the files or boot from your HDD.
Or if anybody else has a functioning Hard drive that you can try to boot your PC off of that'd be fine too.

I don't know your situation over there but my local PC parts/repair shop lets you put your HDD into their Hard drive dock and will tell you if it's corrupted or working for free.

 

[chadh89]

How can I test if the HDD is bad or not?

And actually, sorry, It is a friends computer. they never really used it, but she does have small children so who knows what they did. I do believe I ran diagnostic and it didn't indicate that the HDD had any issues. When you say the ISO "burnt" to it, do you just mean placing the ISO onto the stick.

If you just place the .iso file onto the USB drive and arrange your BIOS to boot the USB drive first, you should be able to run it that way.

 

[mike6623]

If you have any other PC you could try connecting it to that and see if you can access the files or boot from your HDD.
Or if anybody else has a functioning Hard drive that you can try to boot your PC off of that'd be fine too.

I don't know your situation over there but my local PC parts/repair shop lets you put your HDD into their Hard drive dock and will tell you if it's corrupted or working for free.

Awesome! What needs to be done in order to test from another pc? I do have a laptop a desktop and an Imac

 

[BEEFSTIX]

If you have any other PC you could try connecting it to that and see if you can access the files or boot from your HDD.
Or if anybody else has a functioning Hard drive that you can try to boot your PC off of that'd be fine too.

I don't know your situation over there but my local PC parts/repair shop lets you put your HDD into their Hard drive dock and will tell you if it's corrupted or working for free.

Awesome! What needs to be done in order to test from another pc? I do have a laptop a desktop and an Imac

Unless you have a handy-dandy external Hard Drive dock you'll have to take off side cover on your other desktop PC and connect the HDD, and then enter BIOS and change the boot priority to YOUR hard drive.
If you don't have spare the spare cables, just switch it with your current hard drive. Remember to plug in both the power and the data connections.

And of course you'll want to power off and unplug the PC before you start swapping HDDs in and out.

 

[chadh89]

Awesome! What needs to be done in order to test from another pc? I do have a laptop a desktop and an Imac

If you enter the BIOS on your current PC and the HDD appears in the boot order list then it should be recognizing it without problems. I would say that as long as it is recognized, you should be fine to reformat it. On second thought to what I mentioned above, you will probably need a program to make the .iso bootable from the USB drive. This should do the trick: http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-use-ultraiso-software-to-create-bootable-usb-flash-drive/

 

[mike6623]

Awesome! What needs to be done in order to test from another pc? I do have a laptop a desktop and an Imac

If you enter the BIOS on your current PC and the HDD appears in the boot order list then it should be recognizing it without problems. I would say that as long as it is recognized, you should be fine to reformat it. On second thought to what I mentioned above, you will probably need a program to make the .iso bootable from the USB drive. This should do the trick: How To Use UltraISO Software To Create Bootable USB Flash Drive

Thanks! I will try this once I get off of work!

 

[gregrocker]

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.

 

[mike6623]

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?

 

[bobkn]

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.

 

[gregrocker]

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.

 

[nilank]

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.