With the release of windows 7 I was excited to see all the new features and how it handled, especially on a minimal spec computer, like a netbook. I’ve already tried Ubuntu and many other flavors of linux, and have been dual booting Ubuntu Netbook Remix and Mac OsX 10.5 for a while now. I had recently found out that Mac OsX Snow Leopard was recently made available on the Hp Mini and I had to try it, but it became available right before windows 7 was released. So what was I to do? Dual boot of course.
I’ve been following the progress made on running OsX on the Mini for a while and stumbled across a tutorial at mymacmini.com found here: http://mymacbookmini.com/guides/hp-mini-1000-2/snow-leopard-chameleon2rc3-efi-vanilla/
I followed it exactly to install Snow Leopard on the mini and couldn’t be more happy (more on that install later or check out the link above to get it up and running on your computer of choice. So lets concentrate on the windows 7 install now. The first thing you’re going to need is either a Windows 7 Disk or iso. If you’re a student, you’re in luck because you can get a Windows 7 upgrade for $29.99 from Microsoft. Windows 7 is also one of the cheapest deals The big M has offered, ever. Now of course if you want to go “other” routes, you can, but I can’t tell you where to go, argh matey ;)
So the first thing we’re going to do is backup your existing data. You can use online backup from services like Carbonite if you have a lot of data ($55 a year but worth it) or Microsofts online storage if you have a live account. Remember, msn, hotmail, live.com are all the same so one of those three and you’re golden if you don’t have more than 25 gb of data to back up. Just sign at at skydrive.live.com and start uploading. There’s also external usb drives, dvd backups, or even creating a new partition on your existing drive to backup. Personally I would use two methods just to play it safe, my favorites are online backups and external drives. The reason I say this is because all drives fail, it’s not a mater of if, but when. I’ll probably write about that experience at a later date.
Ok, we’ve chosen our backup option(s) and we’re ready to go right? Well let’s take a look at a few things first. We need to determine what we’re going to do to install windows 7, should we go with the upgrade option or should we do a clean install. Now I’ve done clean installs each time I’ve done it, but that’s mainly because I’m experimenting with dual booting Snow Leopard with Win 7 on the netbook so I’m basically starting with a clean slate, so that’s the method I’ll be covering here. If you would like to try your hand at doing an upgrade to 7 from your existing system, take a look at the chart below and decide if it’s worth a try.
So, now we know if you can upgrade, or if you need a clean install. Unfortunately if you are on XP you'll need a clean install. Thank goodness we made that backup of all your data. We'll start with the computer on, open your dvd drive, if installing from a disk, and put the disk in. Once the drive is closed, we can go ahead and restart the computer. When the computer reboots look at the first screen you see, usually it will show the manufacturers logo and show a few options, we want to look for the option that says change boot order, on my hp it was f9. If all goes as planned you should see the next two screens show up on your monitor.
Depending on your computer, you may be asked to select where you want to install Windows 7, sorry, no screen shot of that. Just pick your hard drive, or partition if you have more than one. Hit next and you'll be all set with the windows installation, now time to go get some coffee or watch a tv show.
Once the install goes through, it will tell you to reboot, don' worry though, if you aren't there it will reboot by itself. Once the reboot is done, it's time for your new windows installation to run some updates before letting you enjoy your new operating system.
Now we see an all too familiar screen screen by now as the installation finishes and reboots, bringing up the initial set up screen.
Now we get to set up our pc for the first time.
Now you're done! You should now see your beautiful windows 7 desktop and can start customizing it how you'd like.
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