My method to install Windows 7/8 on a slow computer

[samuel]

Ok guys, how many times a friend of yours asked you to upgrade his old pc memory and install for him the holy windows 7/8? And how many of you just don't have a single optical disk around and, even an optical driver in your computer? You say to him proudly: don't worry, I have le USB Windows Stick!

You stick the stick into le USB port aaaand....voila: it boots but with just @ USB 1.1 speeds, unimaginably slow, making imposible to do anything about it.

Maybe you already know what to do, maybe it's already on the internet (I'm sure it is) but this is what I do:

Aproach my PC to friends PC and, in a very romantic way,swap the SATA cable so that my PC can recognise it. Disable all my other HDDs/SSDs,start both PCs in the same time, boot from le USB stick, install windows normaly in my PC but AFTER first restart when installing Windows, power off both PCs, swap back SATA cable, boot from HDD in friends PC and surprise surprise, it continues to install and no Windows Genuide error!

This method I descovered myself and I was very proud wen I saw it working.

[Giac]

Interesting fix bro. However are you sure the Windows installation doesnt start to curate the install for the particular setup in your machine? Or does this happen AFTER the 1st reboot?

 

 

I still remember when everyone was raving about USB 1.1 "High Speed"

[samuel]

Interesting fix bro. However are you sure the Windows installation doesnt start to curate the install for the particular setup in your machine? Or does this happen AFTER the 1st reboot?

 

 

I still remember when everyone was raving about USB 1.1 "High Speed"

Trust me, it works! I did it a milion times. Make sure both have ahci enabled.

[Giac]

Trust me, it works! I did it a milion times. Make sure both have ahci enabled.

Pretty cool then. Maybe this should be stickied in the Windows section?

[orangecat]

I'm sure ti works but that seems like allot of work why not just take the HDD out completely from the friends PC and put it in your PC.

[MrPete1985]

What about installing the OS on another PC then running sysprep.

[samuel]

I'm sure ti works but that seems like allot of work why not just take the HDD out completely from the friends PC and put it in your PC.

most times it will just bsod after startup logo. that's because of the incorect drivers installed by windows by default. even if it works, it will give you the genuid thing.

[samuel]

What about installing the OS on another PC then running sysprep.

does it work on w7?

[SirReallySam]

Cool idea bro, it seems so simple and yet I've never thought of it XD that's what you awesome people on the forum are for I suppose :D

[MrPete1985]

does it work on w7?

Should work, there is an option to generalize the OS.  I had to do that the other day for my system because some USB drivers got messed up.  Ran sysprep and generalized the system, fixed the problem right up, didn't need to reinstall anything.

[JordanMac]

I tried this with a friends 9 year old dell that was painfully slow, i took his hard drive out and put it into my computers hotswap bay then installed windows 7 onto the drive. when i put it back into my friends computer it wouldn't load the system. i just assumed that this process didn't work because of the different hardware but maybe it was because it was a dell.

[crazy_demon_01]

I think i tried this a while back and since me and my mate had different chip sets it didn't work.

[KimS]

I always throw the HDD from the slow Pc in the HotSwap Bay on top of my NZXT H2, Boot from DVD, do the Installation, after reboot start from the HDD, which is still in my Pc, because the rest of the Installation will be faster though and when it Comes to Driver installations and that Kind of stuff i put it back in the original pc.

worked always fine for me

[wkronbaek]

Very easy way easier to handle for their old pc: Install linux instead : P

But good guide, not sure how often necessary though.

[Gorgatron]

My honest solution for older and slower computers is to switch to Linux (distro depends on level of experience with Linux) and not use Windows again.

[cnelson3225]

Ok guys, how many times a friend of yours asked you to upgrade his old pc memory and install for him the holy windows 7/8? And how many of you just don't have a single optical disk around and, even an optical driver in your computer? You say to him proudly: don't worry, I have le USB Windows Stick!

You stick the stick into le USB port aaaand....voila: it boots but with just @ USB 1.1 speeds, unimaginably slow, making imposible to do anything about it.

Maybe you already know what to do, maybe it's already on the internet (I'm sure it is) but this is what I do:

Aproach my PC to friends PC and, in a very romantic way,swap the SATA cable so that my PC can recognise it. Disable all my other HDDs/SSDs,start both PCs in the same time, boot from le USB stick, install windows normaly in my PC but AFTER first restart when installing Windows, power off both PCs, swap back SATA cable, boot from HDD in friends PC and surprise surprise, it continues to install and no Windows Genuide error!

This method I descovered myself and I was very proud wen I saw it working.

 

USB 1.1 and SATA? Not sure about that one...

[samuel]

USB 1.1 and SATA? Not sure about that one...

What do you mean?