Installing Windows on a Netbook

Netbooks have been gaining immense popularity. They are small, portability and have really long battery life. Some come with Linux, while others come with Windows. One thing that is common to Netbooks though, and one major drawback that is usually mentioned, is that they do not come with an optical drive. It is therefore ironical that some Netbooks come with a bunch of optical discs, and these include the OS installation disc.

This is a major disadvantage as you are in a fix when your operating system gets corrupted and you need to reinstall it. All you can probably think about is to install it using an external optical drive, but not many happen to have such a drive. So what can be done in such a scenario?

Most of us have USB Flash drives. Making a USB Flash drive bootable and using it to install your OS is a very viable way of going about things. In this workshop, we shall show you how to install Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 using a USB Flash drive.

The hardware required for this workshop are: a USB Flash drive (at least 4 GB), and a Netbook. The software required is installation files of Windows XP/Vista/7 and Komku software pack. You can download the latter from http://www.mediafire.com/?zlvkwwzmjmt. If that link doesn't work, you can download it from http://depositfiles.com/files/k3gqjx9xy, or http://w18.easy-share.com/1702424224.html or http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HB3AK6HJ.

Komku software pack contains Bootsect.exe (a boot sector manipulation tool), usb_prep8 and PeToUSB. Run the self-extracting file Komku-SP-USB.exe. Extract the contents of the software pack to a folder.

Formatting the USB drive in Windows XP

The first step involves making the USB Flash drive bootable.

Assuming that you have Windows XP, you cannot use the diskpart utility (which you can use if you have Windows Vista or Windows 7, as we will explain later). You have to use PeToUSB in this case to format the drive. This utility is located in the PeToUSB folder.

Choose USB Removable and select the USB drive you want to format. Under Format Options, mark the checkboxes Enable Disk Format, Quick Format and Enable LBA (FAT16X) as shown in the figure. Click on the Start button.

You will be asked to confirm the format; click Yes.

Formatting the USB drive in Windows Vista/ Windows 7

If you are running Windows Vista or Windows 7, open command prompt by running the command "cmd". Type the following commands in that order.

diskpart
list disk
select disk 1
(here 1 is the number corresponding to the USB disk, so you can replace it with what is shown in your system)

clean
create primary partition
active
format fs=fat32 quick
assign
exit

Making the drive ready to boot and install Windows XP

After the formatting is done, run the command "cmd". Since the content of Komku-SP-USB.exe extract to C:\Komku by default, we shall assume that you have all the files extracted to that location. Type the following commands and press Enter after typing each line.

C:
CD\Komku\bootsect
bootsect /nt52 J:

Here we are assuming that J is your USB Flash drive. You will see the message "Successfully updated filesystem bootcode. Bootcode was succesfully updated on all targeted volumes." and return to the command prompt. Your drive has been prepared to boot now. Continue typing the following commands.

CD../usb_prep8
usb_prep8

Assuming that you have already popped in the XP installation CD into the drive, now press 1 and Enter, then select the XP Setup source drive and click OK and you will be returned to the main screen.

This method creates a virtual drive and by default, the drive letter T is assigned to this drive. If you do not have any drive, with letter T, then leave this alone, else type 2 and press Enter. You can now change the letter to assign a letter not assigned to any drive. You will again be returned to the main screen.

Now press 3 and press Enter to specify the target USB drive letter.

You will be returned to the main screen again, after which you can press 4 and press Enter. This will create a new temporary image with XP LocalSource and copy it to the USB Flash drive.

A warning message will appear "WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE T: WILL BE LOST! Proceed with Format (Y/N)?" type Y and press Enter as this message is for the virtual hard drive, so there is nothing to worry, your data is safe. When the virtual drive format is completed, you must press a key to continue.

You will now see that the files from Windows XP source are being copied to the virtual drive. You will receive a message "Making of LocalSource folder $WIN_NT$.~LS Ready", so press any key to continue further.

Now you will get the message "Copy TempDrive Files to USB-Drive in about 15 minutes = Yes OR STOP = End Program = No", click Yes.

Click on Yes again at the next message.

Once the file transfer is done, you will receive a message "Would you like to unmount the Virtual Drive ?" Click Yes and wait for some time. Press a key to close usb_prep8.

That's it; your bootable USB Flash drive is ready to install Windows XP. To install Windows XP on your Netbook, you must set the Netbook to boot through the USB Flash drive. To achieve this, go to the BIOS and make USB HDD (or USB ZIP) as primary boot device.

On the first boot, select "TXT Mode Setup Windows XP, Never unplug USB-Drive Until After Logon". Start the installation of Windows XP as usual. Once the Netbook restarts for the first time, select "GUI Mode setup Windows XP, Continue Setup + Start XP" and continue the XP setup. Reset the boot order to boot from the internal hard drive after Windows XP is installed and running.

Making the drive ready to boot and install Windows Vista/ Windows 7

This is a lot simpler than what we had to do for Windows XP. Assuming that E is your optical drive letter where the Windows Vista / Windows 7 DVD is inserted, open command prompt by running "cmd". Type the following commands.

E:
CD boot
Bootsect /nt60 J:

Simply copy all the files from the DVD to the USB Flash drive. To install Windows Vista/ Windows 7 on your Netbook, you must set the Netbook to boot through the USB Flash drive. To achieve this, go to the BIOS and make USB HDD (or USB ZIP) as primary boot device. Start the Netbook, press a key to boot through the USB drive, and install Windows as usual. Remember to reset the boot sequence to boot from the internal hard drive when the system restarts the first time during the installation.