Just did a fresh wipe of HP Pavilion to Windows 7, but USB & wireless don't work!
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I just bought an HP Pavilion notebook, and not wanting Windows 8.1, I decided to install Windows 7. I used Tuxboot to make a bootable USB stick drive to run GParted, which allowed me to repartition to the hard drive in NTFS, from which I was able to install my old copy of Windows 7 Home Premium from another USB stick drive. I fully understand that I need to load in a bunch of drivers, and I downloaded them and put them on yet another USB stick drive. The key here is that the BIOS properly recognizes when a bootable stick drive is attached. So I am all ready to run the driver EXE files, but I need to somehow get those files onto the hard drive. However, in Windows, the USB stick drive is not recognized! And of course, the wireless modem is not recognized as well, so I am stuck as there is no way to get those driver EXE files onto the hard drive! I tried using Tuxboot to run FreeDOS & Clonezilla, but I couldn't seem to get the job done (in FreeDOS, there only seemed to be the A: & C: drives, corresponding to the OS & stick drive, without there being a drive corresponding to the hard drive.) I have entered this same question to the HP Support forum, but since I repartitioned the hard drive, they will probably tell me too bad, we will only support you with our buggy and INCREDIBLY CRAPPIFIED install of Windows 8.1. Of course, if anyone can give me pointers applicable to the HP system, that would be great - but I am looking here for advice on how to use FreeDOS or Clonezilla or whatever else to just get me to the point at which I can get the darned files from the USB stick drive onto the hard drive, after which I presume that those driver EXE files will do the trick.
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I just bought an HP Pavilion notebook, and not wanting Windows 8.1, I decided to install Windows 7. I used Tuxboot to make a bootable USB stick drive to run GParted, which allowed me to repartition to the hard drive in NTFS, from which I was able to install my old copy of Windows 7 Home Premium from another USB stick drive. I fully understand that I need to load in a bunch of drivers, and I downloaded them and put them on yet another USB stick drive. The key here is that the BIOS properly recognizes when a bootable stick drive is attached. So I am all ready to run the driver EXE files, but I need to somehow get those files onto the hard drive. However, in Windows, the USB stick drive is not recognized! And of course, the wireless modem is not recognized as well, so I am stuck as there is no way to get those driver EXE files onto the hard drive! I tried using Tuxboot to run FreeDOS & Clonezilla, but I couldn't seem to get the job done (in FreeDOS, there only seemed to be the A: & C: drives, corresponding to the OS & stick drive, without there being a drive corresponding to the hard drive.) I have entered this same question to the HP Support forum, but since I repartitioned the hard drive, they will probably tell me too bad, we will only support you with our buggy and INCREDIBLY CRAPPIFIED install of Windows 8.1. Of course, if anyone can give me pointers applicable to the HP system, that would be great - but I am looking here for advice on how to use FreeDOS or Clonezilla or whatever else to just get me to the point at which I can get the darned files from the USB stick drive onto the hard drive, after which I presume that those driver EXE files will do the trick.
It is generally a bad idea to transfer an installed copy of Windows to a different system. If you don't have a Windows installation DVD you can ask your friends if they have one and enter the license key of your old system (you are not allowed to use it on your old system anymore). If you still want to go on with your procedure, you may boot from a Linux live CD/DVD or bootable USB stick. Then mount a partition of your hard drive writable. Finally you are able to copy data from an USB stick to that partition. When the live Linux recognises your network card, you can also download the drivers directly to the mounted partition.
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It is generally a bad idea to transfer an installed copy of Windows to a different system. If you don't have a Windows installation DVD you can ask your friends if they have one and enter the license key of your old system (you are not allowed to use it on your old system anymore). If you still want to go on with your procedure, you may boot from a Linux live CD/DVD or bootable USB stick. Then mount a partition of your hard drive writable. Finally you are able to copy data from an USB stick to that partition. When the live Linux recognises your network card, you can also download the drivers directly to the mounted partition.
This was a Windows 7 Home Premium distribution that was downloaded from a largely unknown Micro$oft webpage. I had a license on my old notebook and needed to do a complete reformat & reinstall, and did not have the OEM disc handy; I used the key from that OEM (which I fortuitously had e-mailed myself), and was eventually given a new key to stop the stupid messages. (I used that new key for this latest install.) The system using that hard drive has been discarded, although the hard drive for that has converted into an external drive via an HDD Box; it will no longer be used as a boot drive, and will be reformatted when the files from there have been properly offloaded. I will try that Linux Live.