How to: Install Windows 7 on a Netbook with No Optical Drive
Most netbooks or cheap laptops don’t come with an optical drive for CD’s or DVDs. That’s because netbooks have a really small area inside the case and there is no room to add a drive, also this keeps the price down which is what attracts customers, and the small portable foot print of course.
Only problem these optical driveless machines have is installing a new operating system like Windows 7, it does present itself as a challenge.
Naturally, Microsoft realized this and created a nice solution via its online store, netbook owners can now purchase a down-loadable copy of Windows 7 in .iso format.
OK now your wondering what the heck am I going to do with an ISO format download?
You can use software to create a virtual CD or once you have the downloaded ISO format of Windows 7 and you are still at the online store, I would download WUDT - Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. WUDT will take your downloaded Windows 7 ISO image and create a bootable USB device that can be used to install Windows 7 or you can create a Windows 7 installation DVD from the ISO file as well.
Remember that you may have to go into your BIOS to modify your booting order, otherwise your netbook could start up from the hard drive. Also you need to remember there is no clean upgrade path from Windows XP to Windows 7. For more information on that see Understanding Windows 7 upgrade paths and Chart we wrote.
Don’t forget to back-up all your important data you want to keep before upgrading.
Via jkontherun and windows blog
