Once it finally hit MSDN Subscriptions, I downloaded Windows 7 and went around installing it. One of the things I did differently this time is that instead of burning the ISO to a DVD and then booting my machine off it, I created a USB drive based install following these steps:
- Plug in your USB drive (thumb, hard disk, etc.). Must be >= 4GB in size
- Open a Command Prompt with Admin rights and run the following commands:
- DISKPART
- list disk [This will show a list of disks attached to your system. Note the # for the USB drive]
- select disk # [where # is the number of the USB drive selected above]
- clean
- create partition primary
- active
- format fs=ntfs quick
- assign
- exit
- Now mount your ISO or open it with WinRAR and copy all the contents from it to the new drive partition
- Use the USB to boot your machine (if your BIOS supports it) and start the installation
On my 3 year old notebook, the complete installation off the USB drive took just about 18 minutes from start to finish. I highly recommend that you use this technique to get up and running with Windows 7 fast.
Every single device on my machine was detected and drivers installed automatically. It also found the latest official nVidia drivers for my video card from Microsoft Update and downloaded them and installed too. I had a fully working machine in about 30 minutes and have started installing all the software I need. Kudos to the Windows team on getting this so right this time.
Tags:
windows 7,
tips,
rave
Categories:
Microsoft |
Tips |
Windows 7 |
Rave