How to install Windows on a netbook from a USB flash drive

The netbook can be very convenient due to its lightness and small size. However, due to the fact that netbooks are not equipped with an integrated optical drive, performing certain tasks (for example, reinstalling the OS) can be difficult. If you do not have a spare external CD drive, you can install a new OS using a bootable USB flash drive.

If you decide to test how to install Windows on a netbook, you will need a bootable USB flash drive (2 GB or 4 GB), which you need to prepare by downloading the ISO image of the OS you want to install from the Internet.

Then you can proceed directly to the installation process. The following guide will tell you how to install Windows XP on a netbook (Windows 7 may cause some difficulties due to the specific settings).

Insert your bootable USB flash drive into one of the USB ports on your netbook. Turn on the computer and press the "F9" key to open the boot device selection window. This key can be called "Fn" on some models. Select your flash drive as the initial download source.

Do not forget to delete all partitions on your hard drive. Of course, you can simply create separate partitions, but this is not recommended. This can cause a variety of system errors to be displayed at boot time. Form one large NTFS partition (quick creation will save you a lot of time) and follow the manuals that will consistently appear on the screen. These instructions will tell you how to install Windows on a netbook.

Several times during the installation process, the system will prompt you to restart the computer. If you try to do this, it will start to boot from the hard disk again and you will receive an error message. To avoid this, you need to press "F9" on reboot and select the "1" option to configure the GUI. Speaking of how to install Windows 7 on a netbook, it should be noted some specificity of this version of the OS, so this method may not work.

Once you finish installing XP, you may notice that you can not boot Windows from the hard drive. If you still have a USB drive, press "F9" again and select "GUI". After that, the OS should boot, and the question of how to install Windows on a netbook will be resolved.

If booting from the hard disk is still not possible, you should edit the boot.ini file:

Type MSCONFIG in the "Run" window, located in the "Start" menu, and select the "BOOT.INI" tab. Try selecting "Check all boot paths". This can solve your problem by searching and deleting the wrong boot settings.

Manual editing of the boot.ini file may also be necessary if it does not read anything like multi (o) disk (0) rdisk (o) partition. Most likely, the problem is that the wrong section is selected. This can be displayed as (0), (2) or something like this. In this case, you should back up and then edit the file.

Open System Properties by right-clicking on the My Computer menu and selecting Properties. In addition, you can type "sysdm.cpl" in the "Run" window, located in the "Start" menu. Go to the "Download and Restore" tab, then click on the button labeled "Edit" to open your boot.ini file in Notepad. It's a good idea to keep a backup - to do this, select "Save As" and save the file in a convenient place for you.

Now you can safely edit the boot.ini file, change the number of partitions or adjust other parameters. Save the changes to the file, after which you can download the installed OS after rebooting the system without your USB flash drive. Thus, to understand how to install Windows on a netbook is not so difficult.