   Windows 7 install w/o a DVD?
  I was thinking of getting a mini pc. Theres no disc drive, and has 16gb HDD. Is there a way to install windows 7 onto it?   
  The hard drive is too small to install Windows 7 on. The minimal requirements for Windows 7 are:Quote:    * 1 GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)    * 1 GB of RAM (32-bit); 2 GB of RAM (64-bit)    * 16 GB of available disk space (32-bit); 20 GB of avaiable disk space (64-bit)    * DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driverSince a 16GB hd doesn't really have 16GB of space due to different base numbers being used (see this page) you would need a larger HD. If your HD is a SSD, the next step up is 24GB which should be alright for the task, but a 30 or larger certainly won't hurt.As for installing Windows 7 on a computer without a optical drive, take a look at this thread. From the replies, it certainly looks promising enough to give it a try, assuming you get the HD issues fixed first. Good luck!   ;  You can put the installation data on a bootable USB device as well.  The information for that process is pretty easy to find via Google.   ;  I installed without a disk. Just mount the ISO and run the setup wizard if you have an OS already.   ;Quote:Original post by think_differentI installed without a disk. Just mount the ISO and run the setup wizard if you have an OS already.Really? Does nuke windows XP/Vista while the OS is running? cause being able to do that sounds strange.I was thinking about doing it on a laptop mini. The OS is likely to be linux. So i doubt that, even if wine can emulate, linux probably blocks that kind of HW access :(   ;  FWIW, I just installed Win7 into a virtual machine, and the fresh install took about 10GB. I think their 16GB min req is a bit on the safe side.   ;  I'm assuming any memory related specs are "To install this, and actually be able to do something".   ;Quote:Original post by AcidZombie24Quote:Original post by think_differentI installed without a disk. Just mount the ISO and run the setup wizard if you have an OS already.Really? Does nuke windows XP/Vista while the OS is running? cause being able to do that sounds strange.Why is that strange? The RC1 of Windows 7 is specifically geared towards upgrading. Microsoft is actually asking users to install the RC1 on top of an existing OS so they can determine if anything goes wrong. Yes, it will nuke the previous installation, but that's the whole idea. The idea of upgrading an OS.Toolmaker   ;Quote:Original post by Drew_BentonThe hard drive is too small to install Windows 7 on. The minimal requirements for Windows 7 are:Quote:    * 1 GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)    * 1 GB of RAM (32-bit); 2 GB of RAM (64-bit)    * 16 GB of available disk space (32-bit); 20 GB of avaiable disk space (64-bit)    * DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driverSince a 16GB hd doesn't really have 16GB of space due to different base numbers being used (see this page) you would need a larger HD. If your HD is a SSD, the next step up is 24GB which should be alright for the task, but a 30 or larger certainly won't hurt.As for installing Windows 7 on a computer without a optical drive, take a look at this thread. From the replies, it certainly looks promising enough to give it a try, assuming you get the HD issues fixed first. Good luck!You realize, right, that minimal specs are usually overstated?  It will probably take up far less than 16 GB.   ;Quote:Original post by AcidZombie24Quote:Original post by think_differentI installed without a disk. Just mount the ISO and run the setup wizard if you have an OS already.Really? Does nuke windows XP/Vista while the OS is running? cause being able to do that sounds strange.I was thinking about doing it on a laptop mini. The OS is likely to be linux. So i doubt that, even if wine can emulate, linux probably blocks that kind of HW access :(Sort of. IIRC, the setup program just copied the installation files onto a local disk and then set them to boot before restarting. After restart the installation continued as you would expect.Edit: I remember. You could only do a basic installation without the DVD (ie. just nuke the drive, no partitioning and whatnot). If you wanted to do any "Advanced" setup you had to boot from the disk.   