Make a bootable USB drive to install Windows 7

Update for previous blog, from the following garyshort.org

Step 1 – Create a bootable USD Drive

1. The first thing you need is a USB drive. (Ensure you backup an existing USB drive as you will be wiping the drive.)
2. Open a command prompt as administrator.
3. Get the drive number by typing:
   diskpart
   list disk
   On my machine the USB disk was number 1.
4. Format the drive by typing:
   select disk 1
   clean
   create partition primary
   select partition 1
   active
   format fs=NTFS
   assign
   exit
5. Mount the Windows 7 iso using Daemon Tools or similar.
6. Navigate to the boot directory cd E:\boot
7. Using bootsect, make the USB drive a bootable NTFS drive, ready for a Windows 7 image (my drive was labeled G):
   bootsect /nt60 G:
8. 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. (All files)

Step 3 – Install on the Netbook

1. Plug in the USB drive and turn on the netbook
2. On start up press to select the bootable drive (On ASUS Eee PC press Esc at boot up for Boot selection.)
3. Select the USB drive and press return
4. The netbook will boot from the USB drive and the installation will begin
5. Install as normal.

Links:

See this blog for additional information on Windows 7 on Asus Eee PC 901.

Windows 7 and Asus Eee PC 901

Problem with the Black screen during boot up.

There is a conflict with the Asus BIOS and Windows 7. This occurs because the Operating system does not use the Netbooks screen as the first option during the login phase.

Quick Fix:
When the black screen has been displayed for a short while, lightly press the power button. This puts the Netbook to sleep. Lightly press the power button again wakes the Netbook and displays the login box.

Longer term fix:
Set the User account to auto login (Not recommended for secure systems.) and run a script to display the screen on the monitor.

Auto Login For Window 7 (and Windows Vista)

1. Go to start
2. Type netplwiz in the search box
3. Select the user from which you want to login automatically and uncheck the box “Users must enter a username and password to use this computer”.
4. Enter the password of the account in the box.
5. Click ok

Setup the display script

1. Just open notepad and save this code as a .bat file in the startup folder found in the start-menu:
   
   displayswitch /extend
   displayswitch /internal
   
   
2. Start menu location:
   C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Links: http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=58307

Installing and Configuring Eeebuntu on to an Asus Eee PC

Website with download and Forum: http://eeebuntu.org/

How to create a bootable USB memory stick with the Operating system ISO file.
Using UNetbootin for Linux or Windows.
http://www.liliputing.com/2008/12/how-to-install-eeebuntu-with-a-usb-flash-drive.html


Partitioning The Disk (preparing disk space screen)

You need to make some decisions here. Some Information about the Asus Eee 901:
/dev/sda is the 4GB onboard SSD
/dev/sdb is the internal removable SSD (8GB windows, 16GB Linux)
/dev/sdc is the SDHC/SD/MMC card if you have one in there
/dev/sdd is your USB Stick (if the SD slot is empty it's /dev/sdc)

I manually partitioned the eee. Here is the partition scheme I used:
/dev/sda1 is the entire 4GB section. I am mounting it as "/" and using ext2
/dev/sdb1 is 15002 MB of sdb. I am mounting it as "/home" and using ext2
/dev/sdb2 is the remaining 1135MB of sdb and is swap space. The swap space is large to allow for hibernation.
You can use ext2 to to lessen the number of writes to the SSD. Of course using a journaled files system is generally better



Switching between Ubuntu Netbook remix and the standard desktop

1. Right click on the Ubuntu circular icon in the top right, and click Edit Menus.
2. In the Menu section select Preferences under the System menu.
3. In the Items section scroll down and tick the Sessions option.
4. Then click Close.
5. Expand the System menu optin then Preferences and select Session.
6. In Startup Programs
7. Look for NETBOOK LAUNCHER, untick it then click close
8. Reboot your machine and you'll get a standard Desktop.

Acer Aspire One - Linux - installing VLC

The Acer Aspire One (Linux edition) runs a version of Red Hat/Fedora Linux V8.

The built in media player has a limited set of CODECs and so can not play all the available video formats (i.e. Divx & Xvid video formats). You can install the VLC video player which will play a large selection of different types of video files.

Firstly, we need to open up the interface to allow extra software to be added.

1. Go to the green Files pane at the bottom right of the screen and left-click on My Documents.
2. Now left-click on File & Terminal – you'll see a text window open with a $ prompt.
3. Type in xfce-setting-show and press Enter – up pops the Xfce Desktop Manager.
4. Left-click on Desktop, then select the Behaviour tab. Now tick Show Desktop Menu on Right Click.
5. Type Exit to close a Terminal screen.

Now, if you close all those open windows & get back to the standard Aspire One desktop, you'll find that, if you now do a right-click, you'll get a Menu appear!

Installing the VLC video player.

1. Right-Click on the Desktop and select Terminal and type in the following lines at the $ prompt.
   nu -
   (Your appropriate password)
   sudo yum install fedora-release
   sudo rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-8.rpm
   sudo yum install vlc python-vlc mozilla-vlc
2. When prompted answer Y & Enter, when complete close all open windows.
3. Right Click anywhere on the Desktop and go to MultiMedia -> VLC Media Player. (You might need to restart your Netbook.

Adding Icons to the Aspire One

It's all very well having the Advanced Menu, but for some apps you'd also like the fast access provided by the desktop. Here's how you make them appear. Press Alt-F2, type in xterm to open the command line (Terminal) window - and click on Run...

At the command line, type:
sudo mousepad /home/user/.config/xfce4/desktop/group-app.xml and hit Enter. This calls up the desktop's configuration file. Scroll through and you'll see how the entries are arranged.

Add to the Fun desktop section (Possibly 7) the following line to add a link to the VLC player.

"/usr/share/applications/livna-vlc.desktop"

Remembering to select a unique sequence number the number describes the order of the applications.

Save the file then restart your Acer Aspire. Click on the right-arrow button in the Fun section, and you should see a new VLC icon. Drag and drop it higher in the list if you prefer.

Links:
http://www.aspireoneuser.com/
Ten tweaks for a new Acer Aspire One.