Can i instal windows 7 without DVD or USB.

[Deleted]

So i have windows xp and i want to upgrade to windows 7.
The thing is i cant use CD-DVD couse my PC is prety old and i usualy upgrade old parts not buy new pc.
I newer use cds so i never bought a cd-drive wich can read cd-dvd but now i want to upgrade to win 7 and i cant figure is it even posible to instal it withouth cd-dvd.
I like to intal it fresh deleting all data wich was on harddrive.

and sorry for my bad english. -_-

[Keller]

NO you cannot.
USB is more convenient.
Only way I can think of is download Vista and then download 7. and go all the way Xp->Vista->7
or Take the HDD out and install it from another computer.

[EyelessCrow]

I am going to venture a guess that if your computer is that old you won't want 7 on it.

[Zxian]

The only way to get a fresh install of Windows 7 is by using a DVD drive or a USB flash drive. Installing Windows by putting your hard drive into another computer is a bad idea, since Windows installations are still somewhat hardware specific.

USB flash drives are fairly cheap though. A 4GB drive is enough for a Windows7 installation. Use the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool to transfer your installation ISO file to the USB drive.

[Gheld]

You can probably hook yourself up with a used (and still functional) dvd drive for about 10 bucks. Assuming your PC is THAT old there's probably millions of poor rejected old ATA ones laying around in peoples garages. I have a box full of obsolete drives somewhere. I have 48x CD burners, <100Gig hard drives, a couple of DVD roms. CD Rom drives (that don't burn).

I would recommend asking any friends you have that are also into computers, they tend to have a lot of this stuff laying around and are willing to give it away for free since they don't want to be e-waste offenders.

[Deleted]

So i have windows xp and i want to upgrade to windows 7.
The thing is i cant use CD-DVD couse my PC is prety old and i usualy upgrade old parts not buy new pc.
I newer use cds so i never bought a cd-drive wich can read cd-dvd but now i want to upgrade to win 7 and i cant figure is it even posible to instal it withouth cd-dvd.
I like to intal it fresh deleting all data wich was on harddrive.

and sorry for my bad english. -_-

yes you can. only thing you need is a Windows 7 image and an image reader (something like daemon tools) and thats it BUT ask you 1 question first. Is your "pretty old pc" good enough to run Win7? Are the "pretty old parts" from your "pretty old pc" compatible to Win7?

yeah that should be it.

[Keller]

yes you can. only thing you need is a Windows 7 image and an image reader (something like daemon tools) and thats it BUT ask you 1 question first. Is your "pretty old pc" good enough to run Win7? Are the "pretty old parts" from your "pretty old pc" compatible to Win7?

yeah that should be it.

---------- Post added 2012-01-03 at 10:08 PM ----------



yes you can only thing you need is a Windows 7 image and a virtual cd/dvd drive (something like daemon tools). BUT ask your self first is your "pretty old pc" rdy for windows7?

Thing is he needs to upgrade to vista first, you cant go directly from xp to 7 i think

[Ballador]

yes you can. only thing you need is a Windows 7 image and an image reader (something like daemon tools) and thats it BUT ask you 1 question first. Is your "pretty old pc" good enough to run Win7? Are the "pretty old parts" from your "pretty old pc" compatible to Win7?

yeah that should be it.

Problem with your statement is that you cannot install Windows using a virtual drive that requires Windows to be running.

Thing is he needs to upgrade to vista first, you cant go directly from xp to 7 i think

The OP stated that he wanted a fresh install of Windows, not an upgrade.


Also, I have to agree with multiple other people's posts in here, are you certain that your hardware is even compatible with Windows 7? Perhaps Windows 7 Basic, but probably not Ultimate or Home Premium, and more than likely not 64-bit either. If you don't have access to a DVD reader drive to hook into your computer, your best possible bet is to use a 4 GB or larger thumb drive, though depending on your motherboard, the BIOS may not even support Boot from USB ... so you may be SOL.

Please go here, http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...pgrade-advisor, download and install the Upgrade Advisor. It will inform you if there are any hardware compatibility issues before you start something that you cannot reverse.

[Deleted]

As keller suggested you can even just take it to somewhere else where they have a DVD drive and install W7 there.

If not you can use a portable HDD to install the files but that would require a format of it first.

[Keller]

Problem with your statement is that you cannot install Windows using a virtual drive that requires Windows to be running.

Actually it works perfectly fine.

[Ballador]

As keller suggested you can even just take it to somewhere else where they have a DVD drive and install W7 there.

If not you can use a portable HDD to install the files but that would require a format of it first.

As suggested by someone else, I would not recommend doing it this way. Especially if the hardware is vastly different from the machine you are using (such as an Intel vs AMD CPU, or the same CPU and different motherboard chipsets) then the copy of Windows may not function properly or may even fail to start. You should always install Windows locally or from an identical machine. I have even had a case where two of the same model laptops, IBM T60 and IBM T60 rev. 1, are not compatible, just with swapping hard drives, because they used different internal components. This is very risky, and I would not suggest this.

Actually it works perfectly fine.

If you are going to upgrade, possibly ... but I have not seen Daemon Tools run on system boot-up to read an image file in order to install a fresh copy of Windows. If you have seen this exact solution, please post it as it would save me a BUNCH of money is physical disks myself. There are programs like Norton Ghost and Paragon Backup and Restore that will take a full machine image and install them, but the only possible solution I have seen for what you suggest is something like an Ubuntu Live CD which can mount a disk image, but I don't believe you can start a Windows installation while booted through the Live CD.

Besides that, you obviously didn't read the OP's statement that he is wanting to FORMAT AND INSTALL FRESH ("I like to intal it fresh deleting all data wich was on harddrive."). This is not possible with the image on the drive that you are planning to format, unless he has the drive partitioned, which from the sounds of it, he doesn't.

[kckttk]

yeah you can. i got all the window 7s in an ISO file which i mount and install.
so ISO works if u can find windows in an ISO format

[Surfd]

If he is doing a fresh install, wont it require him to boot off the cd image and wipe his old OS, which would be pretty much impossible to do using an ISO loder application?

It might be possible to do a network install, but i have no idea how you would go about doing that.

Personally, i would just reccomend getting a bargin bin DVD drive and going with that. You can get a basic DVD drive for like 25 bucks or less from most PC shops.

[Ballador]

yeah you can. i got all the window 7s in an ISO file which i mount and install.
so ISO works if u can find windows in an ISO format

Here is the scenario then, please let me know how to accomplish this:
1. Build new computer from scratch, all new components except 1 new OS hard drive and 1 currently used storage hard drive, and no CD/DVD disk drive (small form factor case, no available external drive).
2. Ensure Windows ISO (downloaded fresh from Technet, in pure ISO format) is located on the used storage hard drive.

Now, how do you start the computer with no OS, and install Windows 7 which is an ISO file located on D:\, the used storage hard drive. Again, without any access to a Windows 7 DVD disk as you don't have a drive hooked up to the computer.

Now, I would burn the image to a USB Flash Drive, and boot from the Flash Drive, but not every BIOS supports this, especially older BIOS.

[Dizey]

Google "Install windows 7 from partition." That's going to probably be your best option. It does require that you have access to an OS beforehand so that you can mount the ISO and extract the files to the install partition you will create.

[Deleted]

Tnx all for all your responses.
So first of all yes i am sure i can run windows 7. It was prety old PC at the time but i usualy upgrade one part after few months and it resulted in changing almost every part ( except the case and cd-drive).

I like to instal it fresh couse i like to get rid of those nasty viruses and when i instal it fresh i can see that PC is working much faster but i have a question.
If i will use deamon-tools and ISO file and istal windows. will my pc get slower?
I mean is it that big of a difrence if i instal it fresh or upgrade.

[Deleted]

To all posters here thinking DaemonTools doesn't work, it does.
In fact, this is how I install Windows 7 the most. Setup copies all files to your HDD before rebooting, and then expands them after the reboot, not needing DaemonTools at all.

[Deleted]

You can always use your LAN connection, and deploy and image of windows 7, that will require that you have another pc that can send the files to your old computer, GL

[lockblock]

NO you cannot.
USB is more convenient.
Only way I can think of is download Vista and then download 7. and go all the way Xp->Vista->7
or Take the HDD out and install it from another computer.

While the above works just fine it would be much cheaper to simply buy a dvd drive assuming its a desktop or hell even an external if a laptop.
Is there some reason why you can't drop the 20$ or less to get a dvd+rw.
At the end of the day I still wouldn't bother putting W7 on a machine that came with anything less vista.

[Keller]

While the above works just fine it would be much cheaper to simply buy a dvd drive assuming its a desktop or hell even an external if a laptop.
Is there some reason why you can't drop the 20$ or less to get a dvd+rw.
At the end of the day I still wouldn't bother putting W7 on a machine that came with anything less vista.

He stated that he upgraded it many times, altho he didnt specify.