Installing Windows 7

I had an absolute nightmare installing Windows 7 on my 1005! First I did the RAM and SSD upgrades on it and then got started. If you are installing a new HDD or SSD before installing Windows 7 read the end of this post first as you might have problems. If not read on and it will be fine.

This is how to do it:

• With the computer off, plug in your Windows 7 USB drive.
• Turn the computer on and press F2 to go into the BIOS.
• Using the cursors, move along to "Boot" and change the boot device priority to the USB drive.
• Then press F10 to save and exit.
• Leave the PC to start up and it will start the Windows 7 setup - it will say something like "Windows is loading files".
• Next you need to choose the language and keyboard setup - for me English (UK).
• Then click on the "Install Now" button.
• You must agree to the licence terms etc.
• Then I chose "Custom (Advanced)".
• This will then show you the partitions on your hard drive - you can delete all of them, there will be 4; a tiny one which is the boot booster, you can leave this on but I didn't realise so deleted it, a slightly bigger one which is the recovery partition for the Eee and then 2 others of equal size (~70GB I think) which are the C: and D: partitions that the Eee has.
• To delete them you first have to click on  "Drive Options (advanced)" then choose "Delete".
• Once you are done with the disk options click on  "Next" and the setup will begin.
• Once that it done it will restart and finalize the installation etc and then you get to choose a user name and a computer name.
• Then it is time to put in your product key - do this and you might as well let it activate itself straight away (if you don't wish to you have 30 days to do so).

Now you are done and can start playing with Windows 7 and all of its great features.
Don't forget to install the drivers for the 1005HA (found here: ASUS drivers and choose EeePC 1005HA from the drop down lists).
If you get errors when starting up your machine in Windows 7 about ACPI and SHE (super hybrid engine) then you will need to update the BIOS (as I had to) to sort them out - I had to upgrade it to version 0905 (from 0703 which it came with). Again look at the ASUS website on how to do that.

I said at the top and had a lot of difficulties installing it even though I have described it there and it sounds straight forward. The problem with me was that I did all of that and it said my product key was incorrect which I checked and knew was wrong. It turns out that because I had the "Upgrade" only version I could not install it onto a blank hard drive (or brand new SSD in my case). To sort this out you first have to install XP from your recovery disk (explained in the Upgrade Time part of this blog) and do all of that, then start at the top of this guide and install Windows 7 over the top of it, formatting the partitions etc. that is made from the XP disk. Only then did my product key work as it worked out that I had upgraded Windows rather than starting afresh. The easiest way to avoid the problem is to buy the normal version although that is more expensive.

I hope this helps, if you have any problems leave them as comments and I'll see if I can help. AJ

Setting up Windows 7 on a USB drive - updated

I am writing this guide to put Windows 7 on a USB drive as there are many other guides on the internet but none are complete from start to finish and I had to spend a lot of time putting information from lots of places together to be able to do it. Also these steps are the way to do it in Windows XP, Vista may vary. I hope this makes it easier for everyone!

Being a student I took advantage of the Windows 7 student offer  where it costs £30 with a valid .ac.uk student email address. You can even get Windows 7 Professional if you tick the right box at the right time (which is what I did and it costs no extra). The download gives you 3 files - an application file and then "setup1.box" and "setup2.box".
This guide describes how to get these files from this format as downloaded onto a USB stick and ready to be installed on your computer (EeePC or otherwise). If your version is already an .iso file then you can skip the first bit of the guide.

Obviously you will need a (blank) USB stick to put Windows 7 on and it has to be at least 4GB. To make the install quicker you should buy the fastest USB stick you can find (fastest read/write speeds). I bought this one and would recommend buying yours from 7dayshop as they gave me an excellent service and have some fast USB drives and are cheaper than most other websites.

To do this you need a few programs:

• Oscdimg CD/DVD Premastering Utility 
• HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool
• MBR Wizard
• Daemon Tools Lite (the lite version is free)
• Your copy of Windows 7 

Changing the .box files into an .iso:

•  Run the .exe application to extract the .box files. This makes a new folder called expandedSetup. Put the expandedSetup folder in the C:\ root folder.
• Close the Windows 7 installer once it has extracted fully.
•  Download and install the oscdimg.exe
• Put the downloaded oscdimg.exe file into your system32 folder (e.g. c:\Windows\System32) 
• Click on Start -> Run, then type in cmd and press enter.
• Type in: oscdimg.exe –bC:\expandedSetup\boot\etfsboot.com –u2 –h -m -lWIN_EN_DVD C:\expandedSetup\ C:\Win7.iso  (by the way the bit before WIN_EN... is a small L not a 1 or I or anything).
• Once that has run you will have an .iso of Windows 7. You can then burn this onto a DVD and install that way or continue reading this guide to put it onto a USB stick.

 Making the bootable USB drive:

• Install and run the HP Disk Formatter. Select your USB drive in the drop down list and use the NTFS file system. You can just do a quick format. This step isn't essential if you have a brand new unused USB drive but you can be certain if you do this and it is very quick.
• When you drive is formatted install and run Daemon Tools Lite. Right click on the icon in the system tray and open the "Mount'n'Drive Manager". Click on add file (the CD with a + on it) and choose you Win7.iso file. Mount the .iso to a drive letter - I chose I:.
• Extract the MBRWizard .zip file and copy the .exe into C:\ root folder.
• Open cmd (Start -> Run -> cmd) again.
• Type in: MBRWiz /list
• This shows the configured drives on your system. Look for your I: (or whichever drive you chose in Daemon Tools) and not which disk number it is - mine was 1.
• Next type: MBRwiz /disk=1 /active=1 (if your disk number was not 1 swap this in that command).
• If it asks you if you are sure press Y, then enter.
• Next type in: I:\boot\bootsect /nt60 G: (here I: is your mounted drive and G: is the drive letter of your USB drive, swap these letters as appropriate for your machine).
• Open up My Computer or Windows Explorer and copy the contents of your mounted Windows 7 drive (I:) onto the USB stick.

Now you are done, your USB drive is ready to be used to install Windows 7. You will have to change the boot priority on your computer/EeePC to boot from USB first in the BIOS. I will write about this in detail soon when I actually do it myself.

I hope you understand everything in this post, please feel free to leave me questions in the comments and I will answer them when and if I can.

AJ

P.S. I have heard that there is a Windows tool to do this all for you but I have no idea if it works and how to do it - here it is. You are welcome to try it and let me know if it is any good!

Update: This is the Windows USB installer which they have just re-released. It requires a Windows 7 .iso so if you have the .box files then you will need to follow the first part of my guide. It also requires a 4GB USB drive as mentioned earlier.
I haven't had a chance to use it but it looks incredibly simple to use so I would recommend it!