Installing a Window Operating System using a Flash Drive

Discussion in Computers, Electronics & Gadgets started by stacyje • Sep 5, 2014.

  1. stacyje

    stacyjeActive Member

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    I have an Acer Aspire one Laptop and it does not have a floppy nor a cd dvd and the operating system when I boot it up say not operating system found. I looked on Youtube and it say that you can install an operating system using a flash drive. I want to know has anyone tried this.
     
  2. deathbyprayer

    deathbyprayerActive Member

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    Yes you can. I have tried it a hundred times and I have to say it's better to install your OS from a flash drive since it's faster than a DVD. But if you're not really sure how you would do this I suggest you just let somebody do it for you because it's, well it's not really complicated but you have to have some basic knowledge of how computers work since you have to mess around with some BIOS settings. But since you already found a video tutorial you might as well just follow it and be careful.
     
  3. AresBlade

    AresBladeActive Member

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    A thousand times yes! You can and should install Operating Systems from USB drives if possible. As deathbyprayer mentions it's way faster and much more reliable than using dvd media to install it. There are tons of walkthroughs on YouTube and also lots of websites dedicated to doing it.

    Here's a good guide that explains the procedure.

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  4. sidney

    sidneyWell-Known Member

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    Ok, so if you guys say that it's easier to use a flash drive, then I want to buy a flash drive solely containing the Windows OS. How much space does a whole OS consume and I will buy the flash drive for it. Will a 4 or an 8 GB flash drive suffice?
     
  5. Nevi

    NeviNew Member

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    Hello, you might want to get a 8GB flash drive for the Windows Operating System since, it will take uo 4.5 GB space or more.
     
  6. AresBlade

    AresBladeActive Member

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    I think that's great advice with the price of a flash drive being so cheap now but I guess the actual requirement would depend on which version of Windows you are licensed for and installing. Most ISO's are well under 4GB (they usually don't fill the 4.7GB DVD capacity).
     
  7. sidney

    sidneyWell-Known Member

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    I see, thanks for your advice guys. But I read that you still need to tweak your BIOS settings so that it can read flash drives when it boots up with no OS? How do I do that?