Maybe Linux!
Comments
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David_Aston wrote: »"copy the three files within and paste them to the root of your newly bootable USB Flash drive."
This is the point I'm stuck at from "Always" response.
Norman, when I went to the Rufus link in Always post, it appeared in the form which his/hers showed, and I followed those instructions.
Your own link looks promising, but is different.
esuhl, I'm sorry, I don't know about mounting to directories.
Norman Castle is writing about something else completely .Utilising Linux.
But I am simply updating your machine's Microsoft Windows licence from Vista to Vista + Windows 7.
This will allow you to activate Windows 7 or Windows 10 on your current machine.0 -
David_Aston wrote: »Thanks guys. Via "computer", it is called USB Disk (J:), so I will have a go at pasting the three opened items into same, and see what happens.
You can right click on each of the files and choose 'Send to J:'0 -
David_Aston wrote: »esuhl, I'm sorry, I don't know about mounting to directories.
I thought you were talking about GNU/Linux systems rather than Windows.
In both GNU and Windows, storage devices have to be mounted to a directory (aka folder).
Windows usually mounts USB drives automatically to a virtual directory identified with a drive letter, e.g.
\.
Unix/GNU systems mount storage devices in your chosen directory in the filesystem. So you might mount a USB drive to /mnt/USBdrive1, or to ~/esuhl/USB or... anywhere you like really.
Because GNU/Linux systems vary so much, it's possible that a base installation will automatically mount USB devices, but it's equally possible that you'll have to manually mount the device by creating an empty directory and using the "mount" command.
http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man8/mount.8.html
A fundamental principle of Unix/GNU is that "everything is a file". So you will see hardware devices (such as hard drives) listed in the /dev directory. But you can't access the hardware device in /dev directly, which is why they must be mounted to the filesystem.0 -
Must be brief. Using my ancient IPad!
The DOS screen appears to have verified the flash drive.
Sadly for me, it shows an expectant flashing cursor,
C:\_
Could I dare to ask what to put in?0 -
David_Aston wrote: »Must be brief. Using my ancient IPad!
The DOS screen appears to have verified the flash drive.
Sadly for me, it shows an expectant flashing cursor,
C:\_
Could I dare to ask what to put in?
Did you choose the USB Flash drive as the drive from which to boot?
If so, type DOSFLASH and hit the Enter key.0 -
I believe I selected The flash drive, entered DOSFLASH, returned, and watched it verifying the flash memory, prior to it producing the flashing cursor.0
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So, I retreated out of that DOS page and restarted the computer normally.
Now, I intend to do a full format on a Kingston 8 gig flash drive I have. (I did note that 8 was the largest recommended size for this job, and the one I have been using is a 16 gig cheapo from Wilkinson's. No offence to them.)
Then, follow your "Rufus" steps Always, and see if it works this time.
I am grateful for everyones help and comments up to now, and certainly will attempt the Linux route if I have to.
As a postscript, it is an awful long time since I have stared at a dos screen on a computer!0 -
David_Aston wrote: »So, I retreated out of that DOS page and restarted the computer normally.
Now, I intend to do a full format on a Kingston 8 gig flash drive I have. (I did note that 8 was the largest recommended size for this job, and the one I have been using is a 16 gig cheapo from Wilkinson's. No offence to them.)
Then, follow your "Rufus" steps Always, and see if it works this time.
I am grateful for everyones help and comments up to now, and certainly will attempt the Linux route if I have to.
As a postscript, it is an awful long time since I have stared at a dos screen on a computer!
No, don't do that.
Let's check if you have flashed your BIOS.
Download, save this application
Once saved, right click on the application and choose Run As Administrator'.
You'll see a screen like this;
Click on the Advanced tab to see the screen above.
Which version is shown 2.1 or 2.0?0 -
Bless you, always
appears to be 2.1 as in your example.
Look, I have to rejoin my Missus downstairs, or blood will flow!
I am so grateful for your help. If anything comes to mind for me to try tomorrow I will certainly get stuck in then.
By the way, your Rufus seemed to be an earlier, and in fact more option laden version to the one I have downloaded. I did attempt to follow your instructions with the smaller Kingston flash drive. Same result as it happens.
Cheers for now.
Dave0 -
Since you still have a few days before you need to activate Windows 7... Why not install VirtualBox, and install some GNU/Linux distros as virtual machines?
https://www.virtualbox.org/
This allows you to run GNU/Linux inside a window running on your Windows 7 system. The benefits of this are that it doesn't mess up your actual hardware settings, and you can try out a few different Linux distros to find one that works for you.
If anything "goes wrong" inside the Linux virtual machine, you can just close it, and you're back to your fully working Windows 7 machine.
Just a thought...0
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