Question: Windows 7 on 16GB SSD

[drkrishall]

I am really having trouble getting down to the 8900MB free space threshold in order to install Windows 7. Why have i not heard of anyone else mentioning it? Am I doing something wrong?

The error during installation reads: Windows Setup is unable to locate a valid hard drive to store temporary installation files. To install Windows, create more free space on the hard drive or add a new hard drive.

I extracted the .iso file using powerISO. Copied those files to an 8GB USB Drive, then ran the install app (in xp environment) on my mini from the thumb drive.

Anyone help? Thanks for your time!

[Cal]

I think most of us did a fresh install, so we avoided that problem

[drkrishall]

So I need to boot from the USB drive?
Sorry
-n00b

[Cal]

Yeah, you'll have to create a bootable USB drive from the iso, or burn the iso to a disk and use a USB cdrom. If you have a usb cdrom drive, use the second method.

If not there are several how-tos on the web for how to create the bootable usb memory stick. I'd give you better directions but i used a Mac trick that only works if you have a Mac and windows in a virtual machine. its not to hard though.

[visvam]

I went through this same exact thing last night, but finally prevailed. The key was getting the available space on the SSD to just over 9GB. Here is what I did:

• Downloaded the official 32 bit .iso from MS to the mini using IE
  Unpacked the .iso on to an 8GB usb memory stick using PowerISO
  Using Add/Remove Programs in the control panel I got rid of anything that would get me closer to have over 9GB of free space. Works is a good candidate.
  Finally, I used disk cleanup to get me over the threshold of free space - right-clicked on local disk (C > properties > disk cleanup.
  Double click setup.exe from within the unpacked code on the 8GB usb memory stick.

After doing this I passed through the portion of the install that was getting hung up on not having enough disk space. I know have Windows 7 running beautifully on my mini. I did update the drivers for audio and touchpad recommended by xacked - http://myhpmini.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=15.

Hope this info helps.

[chaynes66]

Visvam, after you did the install, how much free space was left on the ssd?

[visvam]

After I deleted the windows.old file (~2GB), I had about 7 GB free.

[whiba]

If I go the bootable usb route, I assume I don't need to worry about uninstalling any software I may have installed on XP, right? It's going to wipe everything and install 7? I'm planning on doing this later this week and don't want to waste time messing with uninstalling stuff if i don't have to.

[aperry]

FWIW, I struggled with the same issue. Here are a couple of things I learned:
1) I don't know why, but apparently a 4GB SD card isn't treated the same way as a 4GB "flash drive". I could not get the former to boot, therefore I couldn't install Win7 from an SD card.
2) For some reason the installation failed when I tried installing from an external hard drive. Everything worked well until toward the end of the install when I got some kind of error stating that it could not install on "this hardware". Since it was toward the end of the install, this left me without a valid OS.
3) I finally got this working with the following unlikely configuration: I took apart the external hard drive (PATA) and plugged an internal DVD drive into the connector. That allowed me to convert an interval DVD drive into an external USB DVD drive which I could use with the Mini. I was able to perform the full installation using the my "new" external DVD drive.

My initial OS size was about 9 gigs. I killed the hibernate and page file and now I'm down to about 6 gigs. Windows 7 is a fantastic OS for this computer. I can't believe how smooth Aero is.

Aaron