[Elm]

I recently fixed the "bios password" problem on my Dell Mini 9, but now it says "operating system not found". The Fixed HDD says "None". I assume from reading other posts that this means that the SSD has "passed away".

My husband and I don't want to spend MORE money on a PC that may never work, so we would rather not buy a SSD. I've read that you can use a USB Drive instead. We don't care about speed or anything, but we do want the OS to be Windows based (XP most likely). So, what would be more likely to work without too much of a hassle- a USB Drive or External Hard Drive? And would a 8GB or 16 GB suffice?

And, also, do you make an iso of the CD or what to put on it? I'm totally confused about what to do.

[rrfranczak3]

Windows CAN NOT be loaded on a USB (ie. run from)......it must be installed onto a drive....you can create a Windows USB install on a USB but the OS itself cant not be loaded on a USB as a matter of fact Windows can not even be loaded on an external disk drive either....Linux can and I believe that OSX can be also but not Windows....sorry


PS. you might wanna check the For Sale section on this forum..maybe someone is selling a cheap SSD

[reflex]

A USB hard drive and a USB flash drive are largely "same" from a software perspective. They're just simple USB mass storage devices. USB hard drives have greater capacity and I expect they tend to be faster as OS drives, but a fast USB flash drive will be faster than a USB hard drive.

Any Linux distribution (Ubuntu, Fedora, etc) will be happy installing to a USB drive. 8GB should be adequate.

I've read about procedures to hack installs of XP onto a Flash drive, but I don't know if it really works.

[Cardguys3]

A friend of mine gave me a mini and begged that I remove ubuntu. I did but now I can't get an OS on the sucker. I have an EHD and a manly flash drive. I put the source files for windows on the flash drive and slap in the usb port turn the mini on by playing with it's buttons for a bit and then I get denied with a messages that states quite unambiguously, "Boot failed". I am not provided an error message or anything. What can I do to get an OS on this mini? I don't have a computer with a floppy drive. What other info would you like from me so that I can find a resolution?

graciously,

Mark!

[holmes4]

Putting the "source files for Windows on the flash drive" is not sufficient - you have to make the flash drive bootable and so that it will boot to the Windows install.

[dadeo]

I've tried live Ubuntu installed to bootable USB, the netbook release, in fact, on my Mini-9 and it was unusably slow but did work. I've heard of folks using live cds like this for their banking (no login info on machine to be harvested by trojan) but would hate to have to use this regularly.

Hate to sound like a broken record but do a search for Puppy Linux for netbooks.

---------- Post added at 10:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:06 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Cardguys3

A friend of mine gave me a mini and begged that I remove ubuntu. I did but now I can't get an OS on the sucker. I have an EHD and a manly flash drive. I put the source files for windows on the flash drive and slap in the usb port turn the mini on by playing with it's buttons for a bit and then I get denied with a messages that states quite unambiguously, "Boot failed". I am not provided an error message or anything. What can I do to get an OS on this mini? I don't have a computer with a floppy drive. What other info would you like from me so that I can find a resolution?

graciously,

Mark!

A "manly flash drive"? I thought they were all male?

There should be no button pushing necessary as it boots - make sure BIOs is set to boot from USB first.

But I suspect holmes4 is correct that Windows won't like running from USB drive.

[holmes4]

Well, yes, it's true Windows won't run from a USB drive, but it will install from one. Simply copying files to the USB drive is insufficient, though.

[ScottLott]

Originally Posted by rrfranczak3

Windows CAN NOT be loaded on a USB (ie. run from)......it must be installed onto a drive....you can create a Windows USB install on a USB but the OS itself cant not be loaded on a USB as a matter of fact Windows can not even be loaded on an external disk drive either....Linux can and I believe that OSX can be also but not Windows....sorry


PS. you might wanna check the For Sale section on this forum..maybe someone is selling a cheap SSD

There are guides that outline how to install Windows XP onto a USB drive. It CAN be done but its no walk in the park and takes someone with a little bit of tech skill to get it done.
SolutionBase: Boot Windows XP from a USB flash drive | TechRepublic

You may, like he said above, consider a linux system like Ubuntu. If ALL your going to use the Mini for is internet, music, and word processing Ubuntu is more than capable on all those fronts. For me, the only reason not to use Linux would be because I have Windows software that I use often that I MUST have. (MS word doesn't count, there are very capable office applications for Ubuntu).

Not only that, but Ubuntu will install happily on a USB drive without having to jump through hoops.

If I were you, I would get an 8 or 16GB thumb drive, install linux on it, and if its terrible and you hate it, THEN go through the days of headaches to get windows xp installed on the USB drive.

[bsiegler]

I looked into this in the past, and you CAN use a FAST SD to boot and run windows 7 off of. Make sure you have a Class 10 Memory card (which pretty much means 10MB/s Read/Write minimum speed). Here are the reference pages for this task.

I tried to post the link to the site with instructions, but apparently I'm too new for that.

Link to come soon.

---------- Post added at 05:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:15 PM ----------

OK. after 3 posts, I'm back with the link:

How To Install Windows 7 To USB External Hard Drive [Must Read]

If you have problems you may also want to look here:

NT 6.x fast installer: install win7 directly to usb extenal drive - reboot.pro

I spent a few days playing with this technique, however there is a major step missing in their process. When you are done you will notice the lack of the boot folder. You will find yourself using these tools manually to make the USB drive bootable.

Please post your results here.

[holmes4]

If it's a Mini 9, it will not boot from the SD slot, but can boot from a SD card if you use a USB card reader.