Installing Windows 7 via DVD on Motion Computing Tablet

Otherwise I am screwed because I can't burn the iso to a USB key in FAT32.

Format usb stick to fat32 - best use win7 or newer to do that - or any decent partition manager so the boot sector is nt60.

Then extract/copy the iso contents to the usb stick. Easy with 7-zip

You can make a Win 7 installation drive on a Fat32 USB.

- Format a USB drive as Fat32
- With 7zip extract ALL files and folders to the USB Fat32 drive.
- Open a CMD window as administrator and type:
diskpart
list disk (take note the drive number assigned to the USB drive)
select disk n (replace n with the number found above)
list part (take note the partition number assigned to the USB drive)
select part m (replace m with the number found above)
active
exit (to exit diskpart)

Insert the USB drive on the tablet and boot from it.

Rem.: Win 7 64 bits can be installed as UEFI-GPT or Legacy-MBR. Win 7 32 bits can only be installed as Legacy-MBR.

Is there a specific way I need to burn the Windows 7 iso to get the BIOS to recognize it on startup?

Some ancient hardware can't load the sectors required by win7 etfsboot.com The solution is often to use vista etfsboot.com.

One way is to extract the win7 iso contents into a folder ( call the folder e.g. ISO or DVD or something sensible )

Then create an .iso file from that folder using vista version of etfsboot.com . Much more likely to work on old machines.

VistaETFSboot.zip

I haven't tested this , but maybe just replacing the iso boot info using something like gburner gui will also do the job.
Download gBurner

You have to also select partition 1 after selecting the disk

If you are using diskpart commands, yes you need to select a partition or volume or disk by typing.

If you are using something graphical, selecting can usually be done by clicking.