Installation - Feeling Lost

gregrocker said:

Bootable ISO - Create from Installation Files
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Thanks =) Followed to the 'T' and have a bootable ISO USB. I plugged it into my PC with XP and tried to boot expecting an automatic installation. Didn't happen. Restarted again, loaded the Boot Screen, but I'm not seeing an option to boot with the USB Flash Drive (my PC was custom built by someone I don't know, and I've had it for about 6 years. So will this even be possible?)

Is there still a way to install this on my PC through the USB? I've tried searching for the right tutorial, but had a hard time finding one.

gregrocker said:

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If XP is telling you that it might be willing to run Win7 Setup except for SP2 being absent, then I would install SP2, better yet SP3 to be up to date:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

You can't really expect XP to do much without at least SP2, and SP3 has it rolled in.

Unfortunately, the XP I have installed is a bootleg version so as expected, it won't allow me to upgrade to the latest SP.

Look for the F-key prompt on the first bootup screen for Boot Menu, normally F10, F12 or ESC. The flash drive will be listed under Hard Drives - you have to expand those listings.

If you cannot access a one-time Boot Menu like this, then use the F-key given to Enter Bios, set Boot Order to boot your Flash Hard Drive first, then your regular Hard Drive. Again, flash is normally listed under Hard drives.

Also while in BIOS setup, look for box to enable USB and make sure it is checked.

Now restart computer and look for prompt to "hit any key to boot from Flash drive."

Do you have any bootable disks at all there, even the XP CD? Perhaps you can use Diskpart to clean/format the HD to force Win7 installer to start since it should autostart if HD is wiped.

On my Boot Menu F-key and BIOS boot order list it never says USB.

when I click on Hard Drives, it lists "Kingston Data traveler 2.0" amongst them which will then boot if I click it.

Interesting. I wasn't able to access a Boot Menu from an F-key prompt (strange enough), and my BIOS does not have something similar to yours. What I was looking for under Advanced BIOS Features >> First Boot Device was either USB-ZIP or USB-HDD (based on the following: How to boot a system from different devices (e.g. a USB device) )

I often see USB-HDD in the boot order menu, but that is not where the Flash stick is usually found.

It is usually found in my experience uwhen expanding the Hard drive listings.

But by all means try it and see if it triggers the boot prompt upon restart.

gregrocker,
Thank you for your patience lol. I should've said that I tried looking through my BIOS for a Hard drives listing when you first mentioned it. I couldn't find one? I've never entered this Setup before and I'm completely new at this.

DocBrown,
I will try to find out! Hopefully it is so :)

The HD should be listed under Master/Slave listings for the way your HD and DVD drive are cabled. Nearby should be the contoller settings for those drives. It should say something like SATA, IDE, RAID, etc.

The HD will have to show up here if it is running XP. The CD drive should also be there if it is working at all.