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Boot Dell Mini 10 from external USB CD ROM drive
Hi!
Quick question really. I'm looking to buy the Mini 10, once the 6 cell, 720p display, GPS options make it to the UK Dell store. However, I'd like to install WIndows 7 when I get it, so I was wondering:
Is it possible to boot the Dell Mini 10, to Vista / Windows 7, from an external USB CD or DVD ROM drive?
I've never tried this in the past, with other machines, but I know that there are problems booting Windows from external HD drives. I'm just not sure if the same problems apply when using an external CD drive.
Your thoughts are greatly appreciated!
Regards,
mroshaw
ejn63
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87.5K Posts
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April 16th, 2009 13:00
You can boot the system from a CD or DVD to do an install, yes. You can't run the OS from a CD or DVD, though - though Linux can work that way, Windows cannot.
mroshaw
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April 16th, 2009 13:00
Awesome, thank you!
dwlovell
196 Posts
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May 5th, 2009 09:00
Have you had a chance to try this since your received the Mini 10? I have one on order and have the same question!
mroshaw
22 Posts
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June 5th, 2009 14:00
Yes, worked a treat!
BTW, Windows 7 RC1 works amazingly well on the Mini 10. I have the 530 processor, HD screen and the extended battery. Looks absolutely beautiful and runs like a dream - even supports Aero, which I wasn't expecting. All the standard Dell drivers and software install perfectly, once downloaded from the support site.
Chuffed to bits with the machine!
dqdewalt
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July 2nd, 2009 07:00
A Bart boot cd will allow you to run Windows XP from a CD/DVD. I use it to fix hardware related problems.
http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/
You can also have Bart on a USB stick.
Mini 10 running Windows 7 RC1 was not as easy as the Latitude D520 or E5500 to install. There were many drivers that weren't found and I had to download some XP drivers (dell only lists XP drivers for the Mini10) from Dell.com. The second Microsoft update loaded the video driver that allowed Aero. Without that driver, it's horribly slow because the video isn't accelerated. I've used it for a month and I'm not sure that Win7 is good for the Mini yet because of the lack of drivers, of it being unresponsive when in the screen saver for awhile or coming out of the screen saver takes a long time to recover, being unresponsive sometimes when transferring data from SD card and lock ups in IE8 in general.
It's possible the many new versions since RC1 came out have fixed issues with the Mini 10 and Win7 but it runs well on other systems including a old 2001 AMD XP+1900 with 750 meg of RAM. Win7 is a good OS on any system I have tried except the Mini 10.