Having access to MSDN via the MVP program, I downloaded the beta version of Windows 7 as soon as it became available, with the idea of loading it onto my Acer Aspire One netbook (an nice little Christmas present to myself!).
With the software downloaded there was just one issue to overcome, how do you install an OS onto a netbook with no optical drive? The answer is you need a bootable USB drive. It took a lot of searching around the net to work out how to do this, so I thought I’d outline the steps here, mainly for my own benefit, so I know where to look the next time LOL. This guide will show you how to get W7 beta onto an Acer Aspire One Netbook, YMMV with other netbooks.
Step 1 – Let’s create a bootable USD Drive!
- Clearly, the first thing you need is a USB drive and the one I used was an 8GB Seagate model.
- Plug the drive into your PC.
- Open a command prompt as administrator.
- Get the drive number by typing:
diskpart
list disk
On my machine the USB disk was number 1. - Format the drive by typing:
select disk 1
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=NTFS
assign
exit - Mount the Windows 7 beta iso using Daemon Tools or similar.
- Navigate to the boot directory
cd E:\boot - Using bootsect, we’ll make the USB drive a bootable NTFS drive, ready for a Windows 7 image (my drive was labeled G):
bootsect /nt60 G: - We are finished with the command prompt now, so you can close it.
Step 2 – Copy the installation files from the mounted Windows 7 iso to the USB drive.
Step 3 – Install on the Netbook
- Plug in the USB drive and turn on the netbook
- On start up press <F12> to select the bootable drive
- Select the USB drive and press return
- The netbook will boot from the USB drive and the installation will begin
- Install as normal.
I hope this helps someone, and if not, at least I’ll know where to look the next time I need this information. 
Addendum: If you are interested in installing Windows 7 Beta on an Asus Eee PC 901, then check out this blog post.
January 10, 2009 at 8:19 pm |
How did you get the wireless working? I tried a vista driver from atheros and the xp driver from the acer site. Any tips you can give me?
January 10, 2009 at 8:45 pm |
Gary, just tried following your steps on another laptop. Selecting the USB drive as boot device reports that no Operating System is installed. I tried running the setup from within Vista but this reports that USB drives are not supported this way.
I was installing on an 80GB external drive rather than a USB stick.
January 10, 2009 at 11:08 pm |
I successfully installed the Windows 7 Beta on my Acer Aspire One and so far it runs pretty good. I don’t think all the drivers are updated to work with Windows 7 yet. For example, although the wifi works, it does not detect it every other time I boot. Also, the light in the bottom right hand corner of the netbook keyboard where it shows wifi activity does not light up.
My computer has had blue screens 3 times with some sort of dumping process but I’m assuming it has to do with drivers as well.
January 11, 2009 at 4:17 am |
[...] permalink How to Install Windows 7 Beta on an Acer Aspire One Netbook garyshort.org [...]
January 11, 2009 at 12:05 pm |
hi! just tried to make a bootable USB stick but something goes wrong…
I have right now Win7 32 bit on my laptop and I want to install the 64bit version.
I got stuck here:
# Navigate to the boot directory(inside the command prompt?)
cd E:\boot
# Using bootsect, we’ll make the USB drive a bootable NTFS drive, ready for a Windows 7 image (my drive was labeled G):
bootsect /nt60 G:
# We are finished with the command prompt now, so you can close it.
i tried to open bootsect from windows explorer and i won’t run because it’s for 64 bit. is there another way?
January 11, 2009 at 1:19 pm |
I’ve been trying to do this but my USB stick doesn’t show up in list disk. Any ideas?
January 11, 2009 at 1:52 pm |
After an hour of swearing, I discovered you need the Vista version of diskpart for this to work. The XP version wont cut it.
January 11, 2009 at 2:09 pm |
Just a quick note – in step 7, I got stuck for a few minutes until I realised that your disk E is of course the drive that has just been mounted by Daemon Toolsin step 6 (obvious I realise that now!)
Also, for anyone who has never used Daemon Tools, when I downloaded it and installed it from the website it took me a while to realise that launching it just activates the task tray item and you do all the work from that (i.e. there’s not a separate UI as far as I could see until you start it from the task tray item).
Guess I’m just a bit slow today….
January 11, 2009 at 4:50 pm |
Thanks Gary,
This tutorial worked perfectly for me. Slightly amazed I am able to boot from an NTFS formatted pen drive!
I managed to follow the directions from using Vista 64-bit Business Edition.
Col
January 11, 2009 at 5:06 pm |
@Brian – The wireless was not functioning on first boot, but I ran the troubleshoot, which reloaded the driver and all is now working fine, except the wireless LED (botton right of case) does not light for some reason, but wireless still works.
@Andrew – Well I don’t really know, but it sounds like the USB drive is not bootable
@Erwin – Sorry, no idea about 64 bit, I’ve never had anything to do with it.
@Rich – Sounds like the USB drive is not bootable, or your motherboard and/or bios do not support booting from USB.
@Joert – Thanks for the update. I’m on Vista so didn’t realise the XP version won’t do it.
@Chris – Yeah I’ve had days like that LOL.
@Colin – Great! I’m glad this helped you out.
January 11, 2009 at 5:55 pm |
I hear Windows 7 is looking good. Maybe as good as XP?
January 11, 2009 at 6:11 pm |
Need to run around with my Aspire and work w/clients (troubleshooting, etc) so would like to know how Windows 7 does after a few days before trying it. Also need to try booting the Aspire from my external DVD player so can create a reinstall disk in case Win 7 doesn’t play nicely with the Acer after a bit. Hope you will keep updating this post. so I’ll know whether or not to move the Acer to Win7 next weekend. Thanks for the info so far! (Just got Win7 running on my Vaio laptop (literally just booted for 2nd time to get Norton running)… Thanks again.
January 11, 2009 at 6:43 pm |
I own an Acer Aspire One, and its an awesome little device for doing work on the road. I loaded it with Ubuntu Linux, and it fares pretty well for doing small scale graphic design, and its comfortable for typing. It took a little configuration, but there’s an online community devoted to getting it working so it isn’t that demanding.
I saw the screenshots of Windows 7, and I have to say the new task bar looks oversized and clunky, and the start menu looks a little sparse too. I can’t say much though, I haven’t had an hands on with it. Maybe its better than what the pictures tell ya!
January 11, 2009 at 7:04 pm |
would not run vista on the aspire one.. windows 7 would be a far better choice.
January 12, 2009 at 12:17 am |
I have loaded Windows 7 onto my Aspire One 150 and I have also noticed that I do not get the light for wireless activity either. But at first I was also getting the effect of no WLAN seen on every other boot until I realized that it was the removable media (usb or sd card). Remove that at boot-up and that goes away. I did have to download the default atheros driver for XP from the Acer website, as none of the drivers that came with my netbook or were downloadable for it did not work.
January 12, 2009 at 4:42 am |
I did things a bit differently, I mounted the iso with diskmagic and ran it as a virtual drive. The bootable usb drive is a good idea though.
I had the same problems with the wireless (random no connection and LED not lighting). I think we need to get all the Acer stuff that shipped with XP into this OS so all the “bells and whistles” to function properly.
January 12, 2009 at 12:41 pm |
hi i just want to know more about this topic… this is my first time to read this site i never thought ive found a nice blog in this site…
January 12, 2009 at 12:43 pm |
will anyway i install my beta last day but it doesn’t work i don’t what to do now.. do u have any ways to install in the other way
January 12, 2009 at 8:28 pm |
Just extract the iso with poweriso or same and double click setup! that simple!
January 12, 2009 at 10:09 pm |
Something else I noticed, pressing the function key and trying to use the up and down arrows to adjust volume does not work either. I installed a generic Vista Realtek driver and didn’t notice a change. Device manager said it was a Microsoft driver installed previously, it’s now recognized as a Realtek device.
Still googling around for a fix.
January 12, 2009 at 10:23 pm |
Busy post.
I was wondering what the performance is like on the Aspire. Any chance you could do a follow up post with some details on the experience?
I installed Windows 7 on a VM to see what it was like before letting it loose on my real hardware. Seems to run fairly well as a VM.
January 13, 2009 at 2:52 am |
[...] A gentleman named Gary Short has written instructions detailing how to install the Windows 7 Beta on a Acer Aspire One netbook. [...]
January 13, 2009 at 4:02 am |
Has anyone tried W7 with the Aspire One with built in 3G? I’d like to see if anyone got that working before I give it a shot.
January 13, 2009 at 7:15 am |
This “how-to” is wonderful. I didn’t have problems with a netbook but I did have problems installing from a DVD drive. Using this I took an old usb external drive and put Windows 7 on it and then the install went fine; and much faster than from the dvd. I did all of the above steps from a Windows XP computer; the only change I had to make is when it says to format the disk; do that like normal in windows and not from the dos prompt (since XP’s diskpart doesn’t have the format command).
January 14, 2009 at 1:06 am |
This is not working for me on step 7
Navigate to the boot directory
cd E:\boot
My mounted ISO in on letter Z:
I tried
cd Z:\boot
All it does is return blank
C:\Users\Chad>cd Z:\boot
C:\Users\Chad>
Please help. I’m running Windows 7 Beta right now. I mounted using Virtual Clone Drive. Also even tried using Pismo File Mount.
August 15, 2009 at 3:49 pm |
Instead of cd Z:\boot, try typing two commands:
Z:
CD boot
January 14, 2009 at 1:07 am |
This is a fake post just to subscribe (forgot to checkmark that before).
January 14, 2009 at 1:14 am |
I have installed the keyboard driver for XP to mine and am able to utilize the function key just fine. Have you tried that?
January 14, 2009 at 1:24 am |
It’s not so much the function key for me as all the hotkeys actually function, it’s the onscreen notifications (for volume for instance) that are not working.
And just to keep everyone updated, I read a post somewhere about a new Vista driver for the Atheros wireless card. I can happily report that I am no longer experiencing random drops and the LED functions properly. Here is the link for the driver: http://files.laptopvideo2go.com/wlan/atheros_v7.6.1.184.exe
It is a self extracting package, you must update the driver manually.
January 14, 2009 at 2:38 am |
This is not working for me at all. I was one hour into the install on my Aspire One (SSD 8GB version), after its 2nd reboot
it tells me that it is not compatible with the hardware??? Then I rebooted again, it now tells me “windows could not complete the installation. To install windows on this computer, restart the installation”
What’s going on? I’m running the official W7 Beta 7000 build on my Aspire One 8GB SSD version.
January 14, 2009 at 3:05 am |
cartoon about Windows 7 Beta!
http://pastexpiry.blogspot.com/2009/01/cartoon-how-to-install-windows-7-beta.html
January 14, 2009 at 7:29 pm |
Hi Chad,
how much RAM do you have (512Mb or 1Gb)? 512Mb could be a problem.
The other thing is Windows 7 apparently wants 15Gb free space. I have the 1Gb RAM 8Gb ssd one. I didn’t have the time to try it yet. However it might work with a 16Gb SD card in the storage expansion slot (the one on the left side). Windows 7 should install the boot records on the 8Gb drive and run on the 16Gb SD card.
Try it out…. let me know if you get it working. I don’t know when I have the time to try it.
January 14, 2009 at 7:34 pm |
I’m running 8GB SSD w/ 1GB Memory. The o/s (W7) does not require 15GB space. Its only 2.5GB in size (ISO) and during setup, says it is “recommends” 8.5GB in space.
I tried twice, failed. I’ll try to see if I can install to the SD card, but not sure.
January 14, 2009 at 7:47 pm |
I tried again with 8GB SD card inside, booted off USB (as yesterday). The SD card itself apparently was not recognize as
a drive to install to during setup. Only the SSD itself.
January 14, 2009 at 7:57 pm |
Hi Chad,
I know it’s “only” around 8 gigs installed. Microsoft system requirements however are 16 gigs of HD space. According to an insider source it it closer to 15 GB, and Windows 7 checks for it during installation. I have no info yet if it checks for overall HD size. Requirements here are between 20 and 40 gigs, depending on version.
You can also try to “lighten” the load a little with vlite. Just google for some how toos…
January 14, 2009 at 8:04 pm |
Have you managed to get it installed on your Apsire One? Please let me know.
January 14, 2009 at 8:05 pm |
Hmmm, that sucks…. leaves the vLite option to try.
January 14, 2009 at 8:09 pm |
Maybe I get around to it in the next few days. I’ll let you know.
January 14, 2009 at 9:09 pm |
Just stumbled upon this tutorial.
http://www.multimolti.de/blog/2009/01/09/shrink-windows-7-to-fit-on-asus-eee-pc-4gb-sdd/
January 14, 2009 at 9:57 pm |
I’d like to know how the OP Gary got this working.
January 14, 2009 at 10:08 pm |
[...] while you’re at it, you might want to check out a success story as [...]
January 15, 2009 at 12:14 am |
Anyone explain how to get wifi working on this? I successfully installed W7 on my Aspire One netbook (8GB SSD model). I can use wired LAN fine, but obviously need wifi to work. Acer’s support page only has XP drivers.
http://www.acerpanam.com/synapse/forms/portal20.cfm?website=AcerPanAm.com&siteid=7117&areaid=2&formid=3394#results
January 15, 2009 at 5:04 am |
[...] while you’re at it, you might want to check out a success story as [...]
January 15, 2009 at 10:01 am |
Ok, decided to use vlite one more time to shrink the size even further, got it down to 1.08GB (from previous 1.25GB).
Now I get this error during install:
windows could not collect information for [osimage] since the specified image file [install.wim] does not exist
The install.wim file is in fact there, nearly 1GB in size.
Would appreciate help on this.
January 15, 2009 at 2:27 pm |
“windows could not complete the installation. To install windows on this computer, restart the installation”
Basically MAKE SURE YOU TAKE OUT THE USB KEY AFTER INITIAL INSTALLATION and BEFORE it reboots or it will try to reinstall again.
January 15, 2009 at 9:28 pm |
[...] while you’re at it, you might want to check out a success story as [...]
January 16, 2009 at 12:39 am |
I’m good up to step 5. can you help wiht a little more detail for step 6 – 9
January 16, 2009 at 4:23 am |
It installs from a SD card without any difficulty.
If you want to see a video of the installation and what wireless drivers to use, you can see how I did it at qik.com/silencer and check out the “installing” videos.
January 16, 2009 at 3:26 pm |
I keep trying to reinstall w7 on my aspire one. I get an error telling me (2 hours in the install) that one of the system components cannot be installed.
I’m using vlite. I tired so many variations. I did leave manual setup there and games there.
January 16, 2009 at 5:16 pm |
Thanks for the how-to, works great! I have to say i’m impressed out how well Windows 7 runs (with my limited testing so far) on the Aspire One. Seems much snappier than my friends Aspire One with XP. Are people experiencing stability issues after a bit of use? I’m on the 160gb HDD with 1.5gb ram.
January 17, 2009 at 2:56 am |
if i do what ever you write right there, will it replace my Linux
January 17, 2009 at 2:22 pm |
I have installed Windows 7 beta using external dvd drive. Aspire One (SSD 8GB version). Install seemed to hang @ 84% expanding data during install. Tried forcing reboot with no success. Started again with clean hdd and it was slow but left running over night and installed ok.
Only 0.97 GB of 7.31 GB hdd available so have added 4GB SD readyboost. Not sure how much acer SSD is affecting performance.
Anyone any ideas? XP was terrible on Acer locking up etc compared to Asus Eee pc.
January 18, 2009 at 5:09 pm |
[...] How to Install Windows 7 Beta on an Acer Aspire One Netbook Having access to MSDN via the MVP program, I downloaded the beta version of� Windows 7 as soon as it became available, w [...] [...]
January 18, 2009 at 6:39 pm |
I cannot get passed the “Where do you want to install Windows” screen as it says it cannot install to the hard drive Drive 0 Partition 1, because it it not NTFS. Can you help?
January 18, 2009 at 6:51 pm |
It seems that I have sorted it by deleting the existing partition then creating a new one. Installing now, so thanks for the help. I assume that if Windows 7 doesn’t cut it for me, I can use the same method to install XP.
January 19, 2009 at 11:40 am |
I cant get the USB to show on diskpart, list disk does anyone know how to get it to show
January 19, 2009 at 4:52 pm |
Hi, i installed windows 7 on my acer aspire one, i have the xp version, all you have to do is download the windows 7 beta from microsoft and run it from within windows using magic disk, do a search on google and search magic disk it you will down load the virtual disk program, you mount the windows 7 iso and it will run like a program, very simple no need to do all that with usb, which is a great way to do it not downing the way that was posted just saying for some who are having trouble. thx any questions post and i will answer.
Chris
Source: 8 yrs sys admin.
January 19, 2009 at 6:41 pm |
@Chris
Is this just a Daemon tool? Can you actually boot from the virtual disk? If someone wants to do a fresh install then it doesn’t sound like MagicDisk would work.
January 20, 2009 at 12:05 am |
[...] How to Install Windows 7 Beta on an Acer Aspire One Netbook Having access to MSDN via the MVP program, I downloaded the beta version of Windows 7 as soon as it became available, w [...] [...]
January 20, 2009 at 2:37 am |
yes you install magic disk and you mount the iso on one of your virtual disks, i did a fresh install on my acer one, it was very smooth and easy. let me know. thx
Chris
sys admin
January 20, 2009 at 4:38 pm |
As an FYI, I was able to use MagicDisc to mount the W7 ISO and created the USB stick without issue. Only driver that was required (from what I can tell) is the WIFI, which I was able to get from Acer’s site and installed okay. Will let you know how it works out
January 20, 2009 at 7:37 pm |
Anyone had any luck with Wifi? I can’t seem to get it to work – doesn’t show up in the Device Manager and the driver doesn’t do anything
January 20, 2009 at 8:12 pm |
FYI,
Upgraded my BIOS to 3309 and was able to get my wifi working after the first boot. I then rebooted and now wifi is dead again. Device manager is showing an “Other Ethernet Controller” device with the yellow warning symbol. Going to re-install the driver and see what happens.
Link to the bios upgrade:
http://www.acerpanam.com/synapse/forms/portal20.cfm?recordid=5814&formid=3394&website=AcerPanAm.com&siteid=7117&words=all&keywords=&areaid=2
January 20, 2009 at 8:56 pm |
Hi Adam, I had the same issue with the wifi. Selecting the Atheros AR5007EG driver corrected it. Works everytime it boots and didn’t need to download anything from Acer.
January 21, 2009 at 6:00 am |
Thanks a lot, that was very helpful
January 22, 2009 at 9:06 am |
Worked wonderfully! Thanks so much!
January 22, 2009 at 6:43 pm |
Andrew,
Where did you get the driver for the Atheros AR5007EG driver from? Was that included in Windows 7?
January 22, 2009 at 9:40 pm |
Hi Adam, i’m pretty sure the driver was included with the Windows 7 installation. To install it I clicked update driver on the “Other Ethernet Controller” and instead of automatically searching I did the select from a list option. From there selected network device->Atheros->AR5007EG. My details may be a little off as i’m writing from memory. I searched around on the internet to find out the Atheros chip in the Aspire One and assume you probably have the same if you have the hard drive version. Come to think of it I also had an ethernet cable plugged in, perhaps it was pulling the driver or driver list off of that?? Hope that helps
January 22, 2009 at 10:45 pm |
Good post and comments. I’ve done this too and installed Win7 beta on my aspire one. Runs great, significantly better then Vista did on it (I played with installing that on it too last month). Few problems with the atheros wifi too, but got it working when I need it to. Only got one problem, a friend of mine did this to his aspire one too, and wants to go back to XP now, and we’ve run into a problem that we can’t figure out. We made a bootable usb key with an XP Pro image, he wiped out the recovery partition too, but it wont boot from it. We created the usb key using command prompt diskpart method in Win7, and then tried it again using PeToUSB too. The key is created fine, it should work, but when we boot the aspire one from it, it just immediately says “remove disks or media and press any key to restart”. It wont boot from it, and we can’t figure out why. I guess hes just stuck with Win7 for now. Anyone know if can call Acer and get a recovery disk or image, since he wiped out the recovery partition too?
January 22, 2009 at 11:54 pm |
XPGeek,
Try this method. http://www.liliputing.com/2008/04/install-windows-xp-on-mini-note-usb.html
You’ll need a full XP install disc, but it will allow you to install XP fresh
January 23, 2009 at 1:11 pm |
Thank you. That method was completely successful.
January 23, 2009 at 5:35 pm |
Nice turorial, just installing Windows 7 on my EEE 901 GO.
For those of you that are stuck with an pen drive that fails booting with the “no operating system” error: Make sure you install the boot code also into the MBR.
To do this, run “bootsect /nt60 /mbr”. This worked for me
January 23, 2009 at 5:37 pm |
Hm, seems the blog doesn’t like “less than” and “greater than” characters. That should read: Run “bootsect /nt60 x: /mbr” and replace x: with the drive letter of your pen drive.
January 26, 2009 at 4:20 pm |
I have just bought a new Lenova W700 and cannot stand Vista. I was thinking of downgrading to XP but I am now thinking of installing the W7 Beta. Installing the OS is the least of my worries.
My main concerns are compatibilty…
Drivers – will my Cameras,printers etc etc run on W7 using Vista Drivers?
Programs/software – will media players, creative suites etc etc work?
I have a load of other issues but thought best to keep it simple!
Any problems you guys/girls have faced would be appreciated.
Thank you in advance.
January 26, 2009 at 8:29 pm |
Hey. I jsut tried this guide and I got my first problem, like some others, when I should go to boot. (# avigate to the boot directory
cd E:\boot
# Using bootsect, we’ll make the USB drive a bootable NTFS drive, ready for a Windows 7 image (my drive was labeled G):
bootsect /nt60 G: )
I got a laptop with vista where I try to make my USB bootable. And I want to put windows XP on the USb pen drive. There is 2 hard drives on this computer, c: and d: and the DVD player is on E and the USB pen drive got letter H. So… Where should this boot be on? C,d,e or h?
Thx in advanced!
January 26, 2009 at 9:50 pm |
Foto:
Most drivers have to be selected individually, I have noticed that as I was installing 7, if the vista drivers didn’t work, XP drivers did. If the XP drivers didn’t work, Vista drivers did. I have not yet seen anywhere that one of the drivers did not work, but I have noticed that in most cases, if it was not in the OS’s library and needed to be installed then you would have try to install one then the other to see which one does work. I haven’t seen any pattern yet to indicate why a particular driver set is more preferable over the other.
January 27, 2009 at 9:42 am |
Installed Windows 7 Build 7000 successfully on my Aspire One 150X 3G. Booted from a external HDD (copied sources from DVD and then bootsec /nt60)
WLAN was a hassle too, sometimes it worked, sometimes not. Somehow it installed together with the Atheros AR5007EG a Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter.
My 3G-Connection works (T-Mobile Germany)!!!
First, I let devicemanager search from ACER CD (copied to a SD-Card) for the driver, installing a “Qualcomm Wireless HS-USB Ethernet Adapter 9212″
Second, I installed all programs from the 3G-directory (3G_Gobi, 3G_Gobi_AP, 3G_Gobi_FW)
Third, I copied my “T-Mobile Internet Manager 10″-directory from my XP-Image to “c:\program files”
Fourth, installed WTGService (“wtgservic-install”).
Fifth, set Service WwanSvc to automatic, Reboot.
Starting “T-Mobile Internet Manager 10″, it detects the device, sim-card and provider and i can connect
)
July 5, 2009 at 3:34 pm |
Hey Dieter, can you please post some instructions how you installed Atheros the AR5007EG together with a Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter. Also please tell me the driver version for this
January 28, 2009 at 3:05 pm |
I have installed Windows7 beta and its realy fast on the acer one
even my led for wlan is working ,the icon in taskbar stays gray thats the only problem with wlan so far
January 28, 2009 at 5:18 pm |
i did see it wrong that icon in the taskbar is working.
January 28, 2009 at 8:56 pm |
Just installed win7 on my acer one but the wlan makes trouble. I installed the drivers downloaded from the acer site but sometimes
it works sometimes not, its a bit chaotic…Had to install the touchpad driver too but that seems to be working fine. Any clue or tips how to get the wlan fully working?
January 28, 2009 at 9:47 pm |
i have installed vista32-7.6.0.154-whql driver and no problems
January 28, 2009 at 9:57 pm |
http://www.liliputing.com/2009/01/get-the-wireless-working-in-windows-7-on-an-aspire-one.html
read that
good luck
January 29, 2009 at 10:02 pm |
I’ve got an AAo with an 8GB SSD hard drive. I’ve upgraded the RAM to 1.5GB. When I try to install the Win 7 Beta it copies over the files, expands them, then sits in configuration for a LONG time, then gives me an error message that Win 7 cannot be configured to run on my hardware. Is it because of the 8GB SSD HDD? I have a 16GB SDHC card in the storage expansion slot, but the AAo doesn’t recognize that as base HDD space – I was hoping it would. Any thoughts? Thanks.
January 31, 2009 at 6:42 pm |
Followed these instructions, and worked perfectly! Not one hitch…not even a wireless problem!
I took a few pics if anyone’s interested.
http://ashift8xbr.tumblr.com/tagged/netbook/chrono/
February 2, 2009 at 5:59 pm |
[...] How to Install Windows 7 Beta on an Acer Aspire One Netbook: Gary Short explains how to install Windows 7 on your Acer Aspire One netbook using a USB memory stick. [...]
February 4, 2009 at 10:48 pm |
[...] doesn’t have a DVD drive, you can use either an external DVD drive or a USB drive. I followed the instructions posted on Gary Short’s blog on creating a bootable usb drive, however it didn’t work on my USB HDD (I’m not sure why). I [...]
February 7, 2009 at 2:23 am |
Dunno if someone said this already, and hopefully it helps someone… just download the Windows7 iso and mount it with Daemon Tools, partition some room with Partition Magic, install… blam…
February 16, 2009 at 1:20 pm |
It fit on my system without real issue (8gb Internal). Wifi was a matter of getting the newer Vista capable driver from Acer I think and a reboot or two. Wifi light doesn’t work but I think that was a disassmbly / reassembly of the netbook gone bad on my part (Yes, brand new, I had it open in 3 days
)
I disabled System restore after and killed the hibernation file for additional O/S space. Threw another SSD card into the spare slot for applications and moved the profiles there. It works decently and has the Aero Interface
http://www.energizedtech.com/2009/02/getting-windows-7-beta-to-fit.html
February 23, 2009 at 5:27 am |
how can i install win7 onto the sdhc drive instead of computers hd or ssd
March 12, 2009 at 11:39 pm |
Thanks for the alternate method to install XP on the Aspire One! Worked perfectly
March 23, 2009 at 12:47 am |
Classic Funny – This Works:
I have an AspireOne & thought I’d just try…
1. Mounting the latest Windows 7 .iso with Daemon Tools so it appears as a virtual DVD drive
2. Running setup from within XP on the AspireOne (no DVD, no external network, nothing)
3. It transfered the files as it normally does during setup, rebooted a few times, now it’s on W7
4. No, it did not ask for the DVD at any point.
Oh, and the atheros_v7.6.1.184 drivers do, indeed, work… just make sure you do ahve the toggle switch on the front right of the notebook set to enable, not disable, wireless.
April 8, 2009 at 3:51 pm |
Hey, thanks for the content. I really appreciated the step by step. Some of us, me for sure, need that kind of instruction. Hey, for those looking for a laptop, try out this free tool that I have found on the net. It helps people find the best price on what they are looking for.
April 9, 2009 at 3:27 am |
Can anyone give me some advise for this?
Im on step 8. When I try to open bootsect it pops up but then closes instantly.
I have no idea how to get it to run properly and have tried a few things with no success.
April 13, 2009 at 4:11 pm |
acer aspire one aoa150-1126
I’ve spent 30 some years traveling for a living and also just for fun! Always took a laptop along for biz, and occasionally took a small Winbook on personal trips. I found the Acer Aspire One while looking for something else. My unit has the 3 cell battery which will only go approx 2 hours at best. But for travel it’s great! It’s light, sturdy and the XP software is faster than Vista. Startup time is just about a minute! I can’t say enough good things about this unit. Be prepared to buy a portable cd/dvd for down loadning movies, programs etc… I recently found a very compact Sony drive for $100. In this case my total expenditure was $450 for both.
If your looking for a unit to take along on trips – this is it! No need to spend $800 to $1000 for HP or others – this one fills the bill!
April 19, 2009 at 7:02 pm |
I have tried to install a slimmed-down version of 7 (eee7). It boots (from USB-Stick) but then gives me the following message: “A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing”.
Any clues how to work around this ? Which drivers would I have to search for (or install).
AAOne110, 8GB SSD, 1,5 GB ram
April 23, 2009 at 2:38 pm |
Re: my previous post:
my mistake was that I had not formatted my SSD to NTFS. After I did, W7 installed and is now running fine (apart from the occasional bluescreen). Only remaining issues: the touchpad driver (XP) does not install, therefore the scrolling function does not work. Any solution for this ?
April 30, 2009 at 7:51 am |
Have just put W7 RC1 (Build 7100) onto my Acer Aspire D-150 Netbook. Runs like a dream. However I have lost the on-screen notifications when using the FN keys (i.e. brightness, volume, etc). Has anyone an idea of how to get the fix or drivers for to fix this ?
May 5, 2009 at 10:18 pm |
There’s a much easier way to load Windows 7RC1 than making bootable flash drives. Just load the ISO image files onto an SD card, boot up the existing OS and run Setup.exe from the SD card. It all works 100% with a whole lot less messing around.
May 11, 2009 at 6:10 pm |
The instrusctions work from windows XP with the following changes -
Do the complete instructions up to the point where gary says -
format fs=NTFS
The format instruction is not recognised in the windows XP version of diskpart.
Skip the format for now, and execute the rest of the instructions -
assign
exit
Now go to My Computer and double click on the drive letter of the newly created disk letter. A dialog will pop up asking you to format it, be sure to select NTFS and quick format. Now copy the files from the Daemon tools mounted Win7.iso virtual drive to the USB drive and your done.
May 16, 2009 at 5:38 pm |
[...] that difficult. Here are some guides, by OS (some linked for length): • Windows XP • Windows Vista • Mac OS X (courtesy of Ubuntu, funnily enough): 1. Open a Terminal (under [...]
May 21, 2009 at 9:45 am |
F12 key did not work to boot from USB – had to use F2 and select the USB as the primary boot. After that everything worked as a charm.
May 21, 2009 at 9:59 am |
I have just unistalled Win7 and gone back to XP.
After working with Vista / Win7 for over a year I have got sick it and just want a really basic, solid OS – XP.
May 21, 2009 at 10:37 am |
[...] Windows 7 Release Candidate on the machine by creating a bootable USB drive (I used a 16GB drive – instructions here – that I bought for $35 from Staples). One note on the instructions – be sure you use the F2 key [...]
May 26, 2009 at 3:11 pm |
you dont need a flash drive, optical or anything !!
download the iso, mount it with magiciso and follow the steps,
next time it boots up it will run the setup
any more help needed email me, tom@expouk.co.uk
May 27, 2009 at 4:05 pm |
@103:
no that doesnt work. it will work for the first few minutes, but after rebooting the setup still needs the disc, but it isnt mounted any more (because win is not running at all). i tried it, but no luck -.-
June 1, 2009 at 9:46 pm |
Thanks a lot man I’ve been looking for this tutorial for ages.
June 2, 2009 at 2:57 pm |
I have loaded windows 7 on my Acer Aspire one A0A150 netbook, its been working fine nothing bad has happend, although there is a very big problem with the Erecovery manager, the hotkey at boot does not work. :/
I have been using windows 7 for about two weeks now, I used the “Windows Compatibility” to start the acer erecovery on the windows 7 desktop, but got tons of problems, I dont wont to use recovery (I dont wont to lose windows 7 and its to unstable to go to xp), I wont use it for I dont wont to lose my hole system.
Any way, WIndows 7 has been working wonders, faster then xp and looks better then xp, with the magic of “ReadyBoost” the system runs great!
June 2, 2009 at 2:58 pm |
Sorry I have very bag grammar. :/
June 2, 2009 at 3:01 pm |
Bad**
June 2, 2009 at 3:01 pm |
What I got out of the unstable manager was, Windvd, Acer webcam and Adobe reader.
June 2, 2009 at 10:11 pm |
could i install w7 with an external usb dvd unit?
if not, why not?
June 9, 2009 at 7:16 am |
This worked beautifully for me. Thank you for writing this page.
My caveats:
-I was running Vista (Ultimate) on my mothership PC. This seemed to make a difference for others, so I mention it.
-Step 6/7/8 were vague to me upon first reading. Basically use a program (I used Alcohol 52%) to make the w7 .iso file a logical drive on your mothership PC. Then navigate to the boot folder on the logical drive you just created. Then the logical drive in step 8’s command line (bootsect) is the USB drive.
June 9, 2009 at 10:30 pm |
[...] How to Install Windows 7 Beta on an Acer Aspire One Netbook « garyshort.org (tags: acer aspire one dory windows7 install bootable usb) [...]
June 28, 2009 at 7:46 pm |
[...] Acer Aspire One [...]
June 28, 2009 at 10:00 pm |
To create a boot drive with 64bit version of Windows 7 on a 32bit system (sucha as Vista), you have to use a bootrecord from a 32bit install DVD (can be either Vista or W7)
June 29, 2009 at 5:43 pm |
I’ve got the RC running with no issues, but I don’t plan to still be using this netbook in the fall, so I won’t be upgrading it to the released version.
I’m going to therefore want to restore it to XP. I assume that now that my flash drive is bootable NTFS, I’ll be able to copy a Win XP set-up disc to it and go?
June 29, 2009 at 6:13 pm |
Yep, that’s right – cool eh?
Sent from my iPhone
July 2, 2009 at 10:22 am |
Bought an Acer Aspire one A150-AW (1gb Ram, 120gb disk, linux version) yesterday and put the standard Windows 7 RC 32-bit on it and have had absolutely no issues with any of the drivers etc (I did have it connected via a standard ethernet cable during the install to allow it to find any drivers it needs).
Its speedy enough to be very useable and I am really pleased – hope to get a cheap version of Windows 7 when its released (waiting to preorder in UK as it starts only 15th July).
I use a ide dvd-rom drive with the backplane of an external hard disk plugged into it and connected to the netbook via usb to do the install.
Having a 120gb disk helps as I blew away the linpus os (which is actually pretty good but not for me) and put win7 on a 30gb primary partition and left the rest for keeping my data separate.
Will Repeat – I am really happy with it!
I found the netbook online for just £149.99 and after using various cashback codes, cashback cards etc I reckon it will cost me around £130 finally (even after the delivery charges!!) – Super deal!
July 7, 2009 at 7:19 pm |
Can anyone help me? Everything went well with formatting my USB stick. Formatted to NTFS, prepared it to be a bootable drive, mounted W7 and then copied files to the 8GB USB stick.
I insert it in the Aspire One, turn it on, press F12, select USB drive, and then nothing happens? It takes me right to my usual OS selection screen and no installation ever comes up.
I almost had it! Please help!
July 11, 2009 at 7:56 pm |
I am stuck trying to convert back from linux xde to windows 7 on acer aspire one 8gb ssd. i have made bootable usb with windows 7; boots up get to select hard drive- but they are formatted for linux- so windows cant use – also tried using repair, command line to use diskpart tools to try reformatting the main ssd drive- but it apparently cant from within windows???
do i need a linux tool perhaps booting from usb? I dont care about wiping out the ssd starting over and formatting- thought that would be easy.
please advise!
thanks!
ps- running win 7 on quad desktop 4gb ram- way better than vista ever was! my acer one has only 512 mb but gonna try it anyway
July 28, 2009 at 10:55 am |
use this program on the above site to make a USB bootable with gparted, gnome partition editor, this way you can delete the ext3 filesystem and have an unpartitioned hdd
good luck!
July 14, 2009 at 4:03 pm |
Concerning the volume issue and general (Fn) failures on windows 7, the answer is very simple. Uninstall the launch manager (which is the thing that controls them) and re-install then with the compatability mode for the installer set to vista SP3. XP modes will NOT work!
September 20, 2009 at 9:55 am |
This definitely works on my acer aspire 5610. Thanks a lot!
July 26, 2009 at 10:51 pm |
For tose having problems getting the USB drive to boot… Google mbrwiz.exe
You have to mark the USB drive as active. I guess this books with bootpart in vista, but not xp. if you are using XP: (credit for this goes to bawana.org)
1.Set the USB drive to be the active partition with MBRWizard: Open a command prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd) and navigate to the directory where you extracted MBRWizard. Execute the following command: mbrwiz /list
2.You should see your USB Drive in the list. Make note of the disk numbers next to the drives.
3.Execute the following command to set the USB drive to active: mbrwiz /disk=(USB Disk Number here) /active=1 Answer “Y” to the confirmation
4.Execute another list to ensure the active status has been updated. The USB Drive is now ready to be set to be bootable.
August 2, 2009 at 3:19 am |
Please help me with the drivers…I need drivers for my Aspire One A110, my OS is Windows 7…the old drivers from XP SP3 is not working on 7…please help me..i really need the drivers badly..HOPING A REPLY FROM YOU GUYS…………..
August 25, 2009 at 4:31 pm |
Windows 7 32 bit great for Aspire One D150, install external DVD drive, drivers basic but everything works including wireless. Aspire One D150 will not install Adobe Illustrator and Indesign CS3 because the resolution is not big enough….
August 29, 2009 at 4:10 pm |
[...] Y por ultimo seguir las instrucciones que nos comparten aquí. [...]
August 31, 2009 at 8:26 pm |
I have a problem with this … when i try to install Win7 on a fresh partition it says “setup can’t create a new system partition or find an existing one ” … im trying to install it on an Acer Aspire One 150-bb .
If i unplug the usb when i hit Install a popúp says “a required cd/dvd driver device is missing . …. ” if i keep the USB plugged i get “setup can’t create a new system partition …..
DOes any1 have a solution to my problem ?
Thx in advance
September 5, 2009 at 7:19 pm |
Outstanding!
I’ve got genuine Windows 7 on order…they’re saying Oct. 22.
September 14, 2009 at 9:55 pm |
NO OPERATING SYSTEM FOUND? It’s real simple use the vista version of diskpart.
September 17, 2009 at 2:37 pm |
i have an easier way just extract the iso with winrar and after done extracting go to wherever you put it at and double click setup.exe or whatever it should be the only exe file though but go all the way through setup and next thing you know your on windows 7 for more detailed stuff just go to yogibear04.deviantart.com to contact me
October 9, 2009 at 4:49 pm |
I’ve had great luck with Windows 7…….waiting for the 22nd!
November 4, 2009 at 6:13 pm |
This is great and I saved the entire post, comments and all. Thanks.
But can you do me a favor?
Correct the typo where you say “Let’s create a … a USD drive.”
You don’t want people (noobs) wondering what a USD drive is, compared to a USB drive.
November 4, 2009 at 6:28 pm |
Sidenote:
I was going to create a thumb drive version of this since I have lots of 8GB chips (but Win 7 upgrade I just bought for $30 (download version) is only 2.3 GB, so a 4 GB chip is fine).
Anyway, for those who don’t have an optical drive, what I did was look on eBay for a DVD-ROM and a separate DVD-ROM USB powered housing.
I got an IBM Thinkpad DVD-ROM that would normally go into a notebook, for about $15 (they are really cheap nowadays, the ROM version, not the DVD-RW).
The USB powered housing was about $15 too. (Simply searched eBay for “Thinkpad DVD housing” in the title only box). Then the exact housing shows up, to fit the Thinkpad DVD-ROM.
End result, I have an excellent DVD-ROM optical drive, powered off the netbook’s USB port, for about $30.
A bonus benefit is that the external optical drive is really compact since it does not need a power adapter to work.
The alternative is you can look for a USB powered optical drive, but those are going to cost you about $50 to $75. My “workaround” DIY (do it yourself) is way cheaper.
November 10, 2009 at 10:39 pm |
@Mike…wat where d problems u had and aw did u conquer it…..cus am about to install the windows 7 full version….and i need a lot of help