I have a packard bell netbook (ZE6) which is less than a year old but slow as hell - Has got something like "windows 7 starter" or something on it. I bought it second hand last Autumn,

I would like to put Windows 7 (normal) on it - I have an IT mate who gave me an ISO file and genuine license but clearly it has no CD drive. Can I use a USB optical drive to install? Any issues with doing that. Anyone tell I've never had IT equipment without a CD-ROM before?

Assuming BIOS supports boot from USB, shouldn't have any issues. It's how I've installed 7/8 to my netbook too.

You can use a USB optical drive or you can convert the iso to put on a USB stick - Microsoft offer a free tool for Windows 7 to do this, all you do is tell it which iso to use and which memory stick and it does it all for you. I've used it a few times and it's worked fine.

John

You can use a USB optical drive or you can convert the iso to put on a USB stick - Microsoft offer a free tool for Windows 7 to do this, all you do is tell it which iso to use and which memory stick and it does it all for you. I've used it a few times and it's worked fine.

John

Interesting. Not aware of this feature. I have a cleaned out USB stick to hand

Just Google "Windows 7 iso too usb"

Download direct from MS :-)

Interesting. Not aware of this feature. I have a cleaned out USB stick to hand

This is it here:

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool

I find USB optical drives can be a bit fiddly on Netbooks, some of them are quite picky about which drive they work with whereas I've found so far this tool to be pretty reliable.

John

Aha - got this program but it says the ISO isn't valid - I'm sure its OK but I cannot tell. Damn! :( I have the DVD so going to have to try and get hold of a USB optical drive.

Changing W7 starter to W7 home premium won't make it any faster, but a clean install may make a difference if its had a lot of use and is full of crap.

You can boot from a USB device to reinstall as mentioned above.

How much memory does it have? If its only 1gb then an upgrade will make a big difference.

Its only 1GB. Going to see if there is a simple factory reset option. That would be enough. I only use it for VCDS but it takes an age to boot up.

What make ?

What make ?

Its a Packard Bell ZE6. All I can tell you from the outside it has an Intel Atom chipset, 1 Gb RAM, and Windows 7 starter. Currently uninstalling some hefty programs to see if that helps. Previous owner had photoshop 9 on it!

Now going through a full factory reset program from the manufacturer. That should sort it.

If the reinstall doesnt help, the only way is to double the ram and replace the HDD with an SSD; if you take this route then Win7 is marginally faster than XP; if not, drop back to XP and worry about XP's EOL next year when it happens.

Or install a flavour of Linux.

If I knew more about Linux, I'd be tempted as I literally only want this machine for VCDS. Saying that, as part of VCDS I also need excel for viewing logs, and notebook for copying fault codes, so guess sticking to windows is enough. Just hoping a factory reset restores the boot-up speed.

Thats what I was going too say, PB should have a reset function, but you found it.

A good clearout should restore the speed, if your feeling brave whip the ram cover off and let me know whats in there I've got three one GB laptop sticks sat here in front of me or run this after the install completes http://www.crucial.com/uk/systemscanner/

Does VCDS even run on *NIX?

Aye - the reset has worked. Took ages! Turns out photoshop CE9 was a default program as its still there! I am going to get rid of it though! Just clearing out some default programs before I put VCDS back on, along with MY choice of AV software...

Disabling the AV will certainly speed things up, just make sure you re-enable it again before you connect to the internet.

On this subject anyone got a spare 2Gb DDR2 laptop memory? - the one I've got in My Asus 901 has just died so I'm back on a spare 1Gb I had lying around...

On this subject anyone got a spare 2Gb DDR2 laptop memory? - the one I've got in My Asus 901 has just died so I'm back on a spare 1Gb I had lying around...

May have some , ill look later

May have some , ill look later

ta muchly