[lysis]

Alright, so if you couldn't tell by the title, I might have an anger problem....

I have two Dell Mini 9 netbooks.

Mini "A"
512MB RAM
4GB HD
no webcam/bt (that I'm aware of)

Mini "B"
2GB RAM
16GB STEC HD
webcam/bt


I've got Windows XP Professional installed on A with no problems. I had XP Professional installed on B and wanted to mess around with a different operating system. I started trying to get Windows 7 RC installed. Couldn't. I then tried getting Mac OS X installed. Couldn't.


B is my only other Windows computer. I have an external HD that I can hook up to B. I also have an 8GB Cruzer and a 1GB Cruzer.

I've attempted the "Part F: Two USB Mac OS X Installation (Mac Only)" directions and no matter what ISO I grab of Mac OS X I can't boot. I have also tried my retail (not OEM) copy of Leopard 10.5 (no updates) and it doesn't work. I've tried both versions of the Dell EFI bootloader.

I've attempted the Dell EFI bootloader to work in association with an external DVDRW drive. I cannot get ANYTHING except for a Dell EFI bootloader CD to boot in the DVDRW drive - I've concluded that it's broken.


When attempting to load Windows 7, I've downloaded the RC directly from MS and from torrents. I've tried booting from the DVD that I burned (see above, doesn't work) and I've tried the HP USB Format Utility to copy it over and rename the bootmgr to NTLDR (or something like that) and I can't get it to boot.

I don't care what OS I load - Vista, Windows 7 or Mac OS X (god, please not XP)

Can somebody help me out? I'm an IT person and am more frustrated because this should be something that should be easy for me and all it's doing is pissing me off.

[mileslb56]

How about calming down first....
then, ...maybe telling us where things broke down, what errors were displayed, what wouldn't work?

With some specifics...there are some really knowlegable people on this forum that can point you in the right direction. You might have a hardware problem (bad SSD drive) or something that is can still be resolved with Dell?

But you will have attack these one at a time. Pick the OS you want to install 1st, and go to that forum, and post what goes wrong.

good luck.

[Blue_Sassley]

How to install Windows 7 from USB Flash drive:

Let me google that for you

Install Windows 7 From USB On Aspire One - My Aspire One {dot} Com

I don't know what kind of IT guy can't use the magic of Google, but that worked perfectly for me.

Blue

[STiMULi]

Patience.

Loading any OS besides Linux on a 4GB machine is a chore.

Loading OSX on s 16GB is not a 1 or two step procedure but it is not too rough. Stick with the DVD method and you should find that all will work out.

Take your time. So many people have tried and failed before you only to find that it was a minor issue thay were missing.

Good luck

[lysis]

Ok so I went to best buy and got an lg tiny dvdrw drive for $90. It connects with two USB cables and no ac plug to wall. I see the same thing.... I plug it in, turn the mini on and it hangs at post at the hard drive right before detecting the USB dvdrw. If I unplug it then it shows up in post. This happens on BOTH of my minis. Does this sound like a bios problem to you guys? I'm on A04.

[holmes4]

How long are you giving it? I sometimes find it takes 30s or more for the drive to be recognized. Do you have the Mini on AC power while you are doing this?

[rs6w]

Originally Posted by lysis

Ok so I went to best buy and got an lg tiny dvdrw drive for $90. It connects with two USB cables and no ac plug to wall. I see the same thing.... I plug it in, turn the mini on and it hangs at post at the hard drive right before detecting the USB dvdrw. If I unplug it then it shows up in post. This happens on BOTH of my minis. Does this sound like a bios problem to you guys? I'm on A04.

That would tend to indicate that not quite enough power is making it to the DVD drive. I had the same issue with my iomagic drive I got from dell. What you really want to do is to find a good heavy duty USB cable and use it to connect up to your mini. I had an old one I used for connecting a printer. Once I started to use that instead of the provided one, i have had 0 problems with the DVD. I just hook it up to the USB port on the right hand side of the machine.

[lysis]

That doesn't make sense. It's a brand new drive with two USB connections to the mini. This is the second drive that has done this. The first had it's own dedicated power.

[lysis]

I stand corrected . . . that's exactly what it was . . .

NOW when I attempt to boot from Windows 7 DVD it works great, however I'm running into a new problem. It says it cannot install Windows 7 onto my disk because "the computer's hardware may not support booting from this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the machine's BIOS menu".


I'll double check BIOS, but I'm pretty sure everything is set up correctly. New suggestions?

[lysis]

Ok, I had HD enabled, but the individual drive was disabled. Stupid . . .

So I got Windows 7 installed and was going through drivers and whatnot. I upgraded the BIOS to A05 from A04 and in the middle it locked up. So now that mini is going back to Depot. ARGH!!

The good news is, I took the HD and RAM out, swapped with my other mini so now I at least have a working mini with Windows 7 - just sucks that it doesn't have Bluetooth or a webcam.