Quote: A new rumor has sprung up that suggests Microsoft is looking at a third alternative for sending out copies of Windows 7: USB drives. There are currently two known ways to move to Windows 7 without buying a new computer: via retail or via download.
The third solution would make it easy for users with netbooks without DVD drives, most of which are running Windows XP (as opposed to Vista), to upgrade to Windows 7.
Of course, installation from USB is much faster than from DVD, so such an option could end up being adopted by a larger demographic. USB drives are still more expensive than DVDs to mass manufacture, however, so I doubt Microsoft would be happy with that.
CNET quotes an undisclosed source in its speculative report: "Microsoft is considering offering Windows 7 on a thumb drive to allow netbook owners to more easily upgrade their machines." Microsoft confirmed in February that all editions of Windows 7 would run on netbooks but never disclosed how those who already own the low-end computers could get the operating system on their system.
The currently only known solution, downloading a copy and putting the installation on a USB drive, isn't a process many netbook users would be happy to do. If the USB drive option is skipped, most will likely have a friend or a tech support guy get the job done for them.
On another note, could this rumor somehow be related to StartKey, a Microsoft technology that was supposed to allow users to store entire Windows profiles and all their data on portable flash drives? Many criticized it in March 2008 but Microsoft has yet to acknowledge it, assuming it hasn't already been scrapped.
I just finished putting together my computer, installed Windows 7 Pro 64 bits. However, both of my hard drives (one SSD, one regular HDD) are showing up as external drives (plug-and-play). If I click the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon, I could actually "eject" both of my hard drives.
am trying to do a backup of my Win 7 system drive (C, but the backup utility is saying that it must backup by non-system drives (E: and H, which happen to have "System Volume Information" folders on them. They are not system drives. E: is my main utilities drive and H: is my games drive.Somehow, Windows thinks they are system drives, when in reality they aren't.Any ideas on how to change them? When I go in to Disk Management, they are not showing as system drives. They are all partitions on the same hard drive, but there are other partitions not included in the backup.
I recently had Windows 7 installed and now I can not use the DVD or CD drives. I have checked and the drives are installed and ok. I am using 32 bit. Also, I have NOD32 and Ariva anti virus plus Malware.
I have installed windows 7 on a sata drive. I also have 2 IDE drives connected to the motherboard but I cant find either with Windows 7. There are no operating system on these drives just backed up files. When I disconnect the windowes 7 drive and reconnect my old drive with XP running on it, both the IDE drives are visible and working normally.
I have tried clicking refresh on the devise manager but the drives are not found. My floppy drive and dvd drive are visble and working properly. Anyone any ideas?
No drives were found.click Load Drivers to provide a MASS STORAGE DRIVER FOR INSTALLATION.Ok im helping a friend with their computer but have run into a brick wall where can i find a mass storage driver for a hp pavilion dv6-2150us Serial:cnfo146518Product: wa779ua#abarying to install windows 7 home premium 32bitut i get the following during setup No drives were found.click Load Drivers to provide a MASS STORAGE DRIVER FOR INSTALLATION
in 7 doesn't see any USB flash drives. Check in disk management - not showing up there either.AND........If I switch HDDs & revert to XP - same thing. No usb flash drives appear. And in control panel > disk management they do not appear as unassigned also.
Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.2 OS Version: Processor: Processor Count: RAM: Graphics Card: Hard Drives: Motherboard: Antivirus: None
I have developed a problem where, when I use a SD-Card, Memory Stick or an external Hard Drive (USB connection) to my Computer running Windows 7, I am unable to add any files to either as I am told that the items are Right Protected. In the past I did not have this problem. I also have a similar problem when I try to run some other programs.
It appears that Microsoft has disabled the Autorun feature for USB devices in Windows 7. If you create an appropriate Autorun.inf file on your USB drive, Vista (and XP?) will happily run the program it points to when you plug the device in, but in Windows 7 that is no longer the case. I've read a few news articles explaining that this is by design, out of security concerns.
While I understand and even agree with the reasoning, I was wondering whether there was a way (perhaps in the Group Policy editor, or some Registry hack) to override or bypass this?
I have just created a nice autorun feature to enable me to mount a TrueCrypt-encrypted container on my USB stick, but that no longer works in Windows 7. (Can't use BitLocker as I still need uncrypted access to the root of the drive in order for BitLocker to allow Windows 7 to start on my fully encrypted C:-drive).
I have purchased a Sony Vaio laptop day before yesterday.I forgot to get the drive partitioned at the store and so decided to to it myself and i made a blunder.I wanted to allocate 60GB to C Drive and rest to the new Drive, but i allocated it the other way.But My when i open the My Computer, there is no partition as such although in Control panel it is being displayed as 50 GB free and upon right clicking I have an option to delete that 50 GB disk but i am not sure if upon deleting it whether i loose this space.Also my HD was 320 GB which now shows to be only 232 GB ( C DRIVE).Where have i lost this good amount of space?I have tried fragmenting but it executes in cycle reading % consolidation.Once it reaches 100 % it starts again from 1%.Thrice it happened and then i stopped the operation and did the restoration but i don't see any change.
I just installed a new Intel X-25 160GB SSD drive in my laptop, replacing my Vista WD Hard Drive, then installed Windows 7 Ultimate on it.
Everything went well, it seems pretty fast and all, however, I noticed that Windows still had the defrag scheduled, which I cancelled.
I was under the impression that Windows 7 was "SSD Aware" and would do things differently in the background when an SSD drive was installed. Is there something I have to do to tell the O/S that I'm using an SSD?
I'm trying to get rid of all of the CD drives that are showing up under "devices with removable storage." The go from CD Drive ( F: ) all the way to ( X: )...is there a way to get rid of these?
Looking to set up a Raid0 with 2 x 1 TB drives. Only problem is the drives are from 2 different companies. 1 is a HITACHI Deskstar 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0gb/s, the other is SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s. Am i able still able to combine these 2 drives to make Raid0 array?
I have 2 windows 7 computers in my network and I have a Dlink DNS-323 mass storage devide. my wifes computer has no problem accessing the external hard drive. On my computer I have the red X on both drives in the DNS-323. If i try to access this drive from an application such as Itunes, it tells that the path is invalid or something close to that. I then have to go to Windows Explorer and double click on both drives.
I have noticed a large growth in the use of SSD drives instead of Hard Disk Drives due to the boost of speed and now wounder: Do SSD Drives become fragmented like Hard Disk Drives?
I installed Win 7 Home Premium and I am having trouble spinning up my CD Drives (both of them). They were working under Win XP.If I attempt to install a game, the CD does not spin up.
i have a 2tb hdd..installed windows 7 now i want to split my hdd into 3 mayb 150gb for system (C1000 for work rest for random stuff...(gaming, etc etc)but when i go into mang. i can only split it to 900gb....so now i have a 1000 sys n 900 on another...C...D drive.....i dont need a 1000 sys.....so what can i do?
I'm trying to install windows 7 32bit from a "family pack" upgrade disk (home premium) that I bought like a few hours ago. The disk definitely isn't scratched or dirty.I have a similar problem, that is, when I get to the part where I am supposed to find the drive to install it on (in this case my /C drive) it shows nothing (the list of drives is empty).I bought this computer used and it has a non genuine version of windows 7 (32bit professional)(so I know the computer is able to run windows 7) but I have been having some troubles with that (randomly restarting) so I decided to install a genuine copy of windows 7.
So when I got my P6TDeluxe and two 75gb SAS drives a year ago I was planning on installing Vista x64 onto the SAS drives and call all my data from my terabyte drive. Brilliant, I thought, until vista was unable to install on the drives (let alone detect them during installation).
My question for you is this:
Will Windows 7 recognize the SAS drives as raw partitions that can be used as an install point
Can't seem to find anything on the web including ms/technet about selecting certain drives to be used by the vm. The integration options for drives doesn't allow the user to choose which drives. Is it all or nothing?
Is there a way to select certain drives only for use in vm integration?
Would only like for the vm to see & use the host windows 7 drive.
i built me a gaming computer with windows 7, its up and running. I have a old Dell with Windows Xp that i have had for 5 years. I want to put that hard drive in my new computer. is this possible? will there be any conflicts? I want to make it so maybe in bios i can select witch OS to boot up. Or maybe it defaults to Win7 and i can switch to WinXp whenever i wanted.
I've recently purchased a PC with 1 64GB SSD and 1TB HD. Contrary to instructions the seller uploaded everything onto the SSD at C: and not just the OS. He now says I should use a disk partitioner to transfer the files. Also to reset my BIOS.
I have a machine that already has Windows 7 installed.I am buying a SSD to place my OS, and a few games on.How do I uninstall Windows 7 from my original drive (That has OS + Data on it), and install it on the SSD?Should the same disc work? Or would I have to go out and buy a completely new OS just because I have a new hard drive?
I currently have a dual boot of Windows Vista Ultimate on one hard drive and Windows 7 RC1 on the other and was planning on
upgrading to Windows 7 ultimate. I have could either upgrade my Vista hard drive which would be easy or I could upgrade the release candidate Windows 7 which is a fresh install on a new drive. Which should I put Windows 7 on?
when i plug my iphone into my asus laptop nothing happens, or if i plug my camera in via usb nothing happens but if i plug my usb reading light it works, so it seems to be not reconizing any device been happening for 5 weeks now
Well I`m wondering what`s the best way to install Windows 7 in my case. I currently am running Vista 32bit on a system with 3 mechanical drives one of 500gb which i`d like to keep and 2 older and smaller drives which eventually I`d want to get rid of. I just ordered the following:
Windows 7 Professional - Retail version A 120Gb SSD HD A 1TB mechanical hard drive.
What`s the cleanest way for me to install Windows 7 64bit? I was thinking of unhooking all drives except for the new SSD, install Windows 7 onto it and then after hooking back up the old Windows Vista 500gb drive and formatting it. Is that the best way of doing? Or is there a cleaner/better/easier way?
