win7 installing on my x60

Soldato
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hello all,

my ibm x60 has just arrived in the post (finaaly... stupid royal mail)

so i have wiped win7 off my old laptop and put xp back on it to sell on.

now comes the next challenge, installing windows7 onto my new x60.

i have bought a new 250GB HDD for it so will want to be installing onto that but with out a optical drive im a bit stumped. my mate explained that you can install win7 onto the hard drive when it is plugged into my main pc but i have looked for a guide how but cannot find one :(

so im basically looking for information on how to format and do a clean install of win7 on a secondary HDD in a pc, so that i can remove it once instally and plug it into the laptop drive bay, boot and it will be running windows7.

any ideas :) ?:confused:
 
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Installing Windows onto a drive in a different PC is going to leave you with a copy of Windows which is configured for that PC. If it even boots connected to the X60 then you'll still have a fair job getting the right drivers and ironing out the kinks.

External DVD drives are only about £35.
 
Associate
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you would need to use a external usb disc drive
then set the bios to read the usb/removable devices first
setting it up on a main pc will be a bad idea, firstly it confuses windows, or at least i have found this. and you will get boot errors if you install a os on one pc then use the hard drive in another (only from experience)



(beat me to it, im to slow!!)
 
Soldato
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You don't need an optical drive to install Windows 7 - you can use USB sticks. Never tested it myself, but there are a few guides on Google - I'll link to a TechNet article on it.

At some point it's probably best to invest in an external optical drive though. Chances are you'll need it at some point for other things.

//edit Beaten by marmalade
 
Soldato
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I would go with the USB method, but if you did install it onto the disk with your PC you would be alright as long as it is the same architecture. Just run sysprep and it will go through the setup again.
 
Soldato
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looks like i need to buy a usb stick then..... would you believe i dont actaully have one anymore xP

well i have the dvd for the version of win7 i have, can i just do that thing to format then usb and create a boot sector and then copy the files from the dvd?
 
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it says to run a partition application and clean and set as fat32. my usb stick is fat32 already, do i still need to "prep" the disk for the programme to run a iso to it? its not clear if you already have it set as fat32
 
Associate
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you've missed my point of question, if that was to me, im saying, that step by step guide points out you should create a partition and run it as fat32 but i have nothing on the disc and its already fat32

so...

can i just run the utility or do i still have to run the programme to run a partition
 
Associate
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I tested 7 on my netbook with the USB method. Formatted to NTFS and what not and it worked a treat :) I also repeated a similar procedure on a HDD and managed to get a dual boot of the Windows 7 setup and Windows 7 on a drive which was rather useful.

I can't remember the exact steps off of my head but I remember using DISKPART to clean the USB stick then I created an active primary partition which I formatted to NTFS, copied the bootsector across with bootsect (/nt60 switch) then just bunged all the files on there from the DVD. Job done :)
 
Soldato
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ok got windows on a usb stick, booted from it, got the setup menu but now i get this...

Load Driver

A require cd/dvd drive device driver is missing. if you have a driver floppy disk, cd, dvd, or usb flash drive, please insert it now.

Note:if the windows installation media is in the cd/dvd drive, you can safely remove it for this step.

Browse/OK/Cancel

any ideas?:confused:

btw its an 8GB SanDisk Cruzer usb 2.0 flash drive... if it makes any difference?

edit/update:

got it installed fine, used mates portable hdd in the end, think its because the sandick flash drive needed to install some drivers to be read..... what a load of bull :p
 
Last edited:
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