Is there a way to install Vista on an old PC that has no DVD drives?

[Ant]

Hello.

I have an old Dell Dimension 8250 test PC that I would like to install
Vista onto. However, it has no DVD drives. I cannot even boot from
external USB drives (3.5" disk drive, external HDDs, and DVD burner
drive -- CMOS doesn't see them and found out PC doesn't support bootable
USB devices).

However, I do have enough HDD space (30 GB free on second partition) to
copy Vista DVD (or make an ISO file) onto it through network (will take
a while).

Thank you in advance.
--
"Ants can lift up to 50 times their own weight. And your monitor is
missing. Time to bring out the bugspray." --BBspot's Geek Horoscopes
(2/28/2003)
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phil/Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address: (e-mail address removed)
( ) or (e-mail address removed)
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

 

[David B.]

Just buy a DVD drive, you can get one for under $20, or remove the drive
from your external enclosure and temporarily install it in the Dell. If the
PC is that old it likely isn't going to be usable with Vista anyway.

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Hello.

I have an old Dell Dimension 8250 test PC that I would like to install
Vista onto. However, it has no DVD drives. I cannot even boot from
external USB drives (3.5" disk drive, external HDDs, and DVD burner
drive -- CMOS doesn't see them and found out PC doesn't support bootable
USB devices).

However, I do have enough HDD space (30 GB free on second partition) to
copy Vista DVD (or make an ISO file) onto it through network (will take a
while).

Thank you in advance.
--
"Ants can lift up to 50 times their own weight. And your monitor is
missing. Time to bring out the bugspray." --BBspot's Geek Horoscopes
(2/28/2003)
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phil/Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address: (e-mail address removed)
( ) or (e-mail address removed)
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

Vista needs a modern, well specified system. What you are planning is a
waste of time and money..

 

[Bob Knowlden]

I'll agree with another poster that installing an internal DVD drive is the
sensible approach. That, unless you really want to do a lot of messing
around.

Here's an example:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129023

(No the cheapest, but it has free shipping at the moment, so it may have the
lowest net cost.)

support.dell.com gives you the particulars for your system (It's fairly
easy. You screw a couple of rails to the drive, and then slide/snap it in
place.)

Dell seems to like having ATAPI drives jumpered as "cable select".

 

[Bill Sharpe]

Hello.

I have an old Dell Dimension 8250 test PC that I would like to install
Vista onto. However, it has no DVD drives. I cannot even boot from
external USB drives (3.5" disk drive, external HDDs, and DVD burner
drive -- CMOS doesn't see them and found out PC doesn't support bootable
USB devices).

However, I do have enough HDD space (30 GB free on second partition) to
copy Vista DVD (or make an ISO file) onto it through network (will take
a while).

Thank you in advance.

I tried installing Win 7 beta on a five-year-old Dell laptop that I had
upgraded from 256 mb to 1 gb memory. It worked, but I got a 640 by 480
display, no Internet, and no sound. Gave up, of course.

Suspect you will be disappointed if you proceed.

Bill

 

[Curious]

Win7 Beta runs fine on my over 2 year HP laptop with 1GB of Ram.
What is the native resolution of the screen on you old Dell laptop?
What happens when you try and increase the resolution?
I believe you can order a set of VISTA installation CDs from MS for a
minimal price provided you have a valid Vista retail product key.

 

[Chad Harris]

Hi Phil--

The advice you got from Mike was very sound, and here's why. I have an old
Dell Dimension 8100 and a new duo core. I've had a good time comparing how
Vista worked on both of them, and since December the various builds of
Windows 7 up through the most current available. You didn't state what your
RAM, is but I have a good --it's comparable to what mine used to be out of
the box.

From Dell's Website the specs on your box are:

Pentium 4; CPU 2.66GHz, 512Mb of RAM, nvidia geforce4 mx420, Creative SB
live! Series (WDM)

I just want to give you a few remarks that may guide your choice. Mike's
statement about cost is pretty relevant, so you might want to think this
through, particularly now that a couple things are in play.

I ran Vista since its Beta, and I've run Windows 7 for over 4 months on my
Dell, but here's the upgrading I had to do so you might want to keep the
"cost versus a new box at the prices available now" (just as Mike said) in
mind. Another compelling reason is this--chips that are coming out now are
going to make netbooks with duo core or multicore architecture dirt cheap.
They are already all over the place between $300 and $400 and soon there
will be deals from Bell South and Comcast, etc. to sell you a netbook for
$50.

Light and Cheap, Netbooks Are Poised to Reshape PC Industry
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/technology/02netbooks.html

"Most of the netbooks sold today run on an Intel chip called Atom, which is
a lower-cost, lower-power version of the company's standard laptop chips."
There is an even cheaper chip coming into netbooks called ARM based on cell
technology, but it is really adapted to running Linux and not Windows Vista
or Windows 7.

To make my Dell run better, I added a GB of RAM, upgraded the original
popsicle stick of a 64MB (yep that's what they shipped for 3 grand back in
the day of 2001) and then to boot with my Nvidia GeForce card to see the
Aero Candy features like Shake, Peak, Glass, et. al. I had to add a new PSU
(they're very proprietary for Dell so I had to order it out of California
and that was over $100). If you upgrade the RAM, and you could run it with
512 MB but it won't be as fast as more RAM, the RAM for that older Dell is
quite expensive compared to RAM for newer boxes now. Fry's doesn't even
carry it any more, but you could find it on the web. A newer Video card will
cost you a couple hundred bucks plus, and keep in mind you're MOBO on that
Dell prevents you from running PCI Express video cards. I don't know if
you've replaced your hard drive, but after 7.5 years mine finally needed to
be replaced so I bought 2 of them on sale. You aren't going to be able to
run SATA Hard Drives on that Dell--trust me, because I tried. (You're
limited to ATA). Your MoBo will limit you. I tried to setup RAID with a
RAID adapter card, and the RAID splash screen isn't going to come up on that
Dell.

So these are the potential expenses you have. Your HD may never fail, but
that's unlikely. You would need to add the other components. I found it
fun to do; but again there's the cost benefit, and other people might call
fun nuts.

Currently my old Dell runs the latest build of Windows 7 loading web pages
in the ballpark of a duo core, depending though on the amount of graphics
but in general it's just not as fast. I'm not about to add anything else to
it, it's been fun but I'll build a new PC first or wait for the next great
corner turner in hardware.

BTW pay attention to the prices that you can get new notebooks and netbooks
for now, and that NY Times add. That's where Mike Hall was going with the
cost comparison, and most people would go.

Good luck,

CH

 

[Ant]

Vista needs a modern, well specified system. What you are planning is a
waste of time and money..

Well, it is for basic testings to see of my softwares work correctly.
--
"Yo mama is so poor, I saw her fighting an ant for food." --unknown
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phil/Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address: (e-mail address removed)
( ) or (e-mail address removed)
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

 

[Ant]

Hmm, I'd like to avoid installing any new hardwares for an old PC and I
am only instaling Vista once.

I'll agree with another poster that installing an internal DVD drive is
the sensible approach. That, unless you really want to do a lot of
messing around.

Here's an example:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129023

(No the cheapest, but it has free shipping at the moment, so it may have
the lowest net cost.)

support.dell.com gives you the particulars for your system (It's fairly
easy. You screw a couple of rails to the drive, and then slide/snap it
in place.)

Dell seems to like having ATAPI drives jumpered as "cable select".

--
"Yo mama is so poor, I saw her fighting an ant for food." --unknown
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phil/Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address: (e-mail address removed)
( ) or (e-mail address removed)
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

 

[Chad Harris]

I forgot to mention, I installed a new Sony Internal DVD after I got an
External DVD when Vista was beginning its Beta and realized I could not boot
Vista from an external DVD. But remember the other things I had to do to
that box to make Vista run well (more expensive RAM, a new Video Card if you
want to see the Aero eye candy (if not you don't need it) and a new PSU to
allow it to boot with the new video card. You can get DVDs cheap, but I
wanted mine to last so I sprung for a top of the line Sony and I've loved
it's performance.

CH

 

[Chad Harris]

If that's the case keep in mind what I installed and why I installed it.
But bottom line if you don't care about Aero glass, your HD is running okay,
then all you need to install on that box to run Vista reasonably well (it's
not obviously going to be as fast as a multicore box with a bunch of GB of
RAM--we all know that) is a relatively expensive internal and make sure it
is an internal DVD drive. And believe me you can run Vista doing that
reasonably well and have fun doing it. And as you said, you are intending
to use the old Dell as a "test box" so go for it. Get the cheap internal DVD
drive.

CH

 

[Chad Harris]

Yep Bob--

Dell default ships its optical drives jumpered as Cable Select. As you know
most optical drives have a diagram on the back as to how to cable them; some
diagrams are clear and some are pathetic.

http://i42.tinypic.com/1znqyr5.png

CH

 

[Mike Torello]

Hmm, I'd like to avoid installing any new hardwares for an old PC and I
am only instaling Vista once.

It's quite probably that you will then have to uninstall it - IF it
will even install.

WHERE are you going to find Vista drivers for your existing hardware?

 

[Chad Harris]

I found drivers that worked for peripherals, the sound card, the video card,
and the Nic cardwhen I bought a Dell Dimension 8100 in 5/01 with little
problem.. They aren't always called "Vista drivers." If he doesn't care
about Aero eye candy Glass, Peak, Shake (LOL shake is good for a late night
monologue--it just makes me laugh--I want to see a MSFT commercial from
their ad shop showing softies sitting around doing the Aero Shake LOL again)
he doesn't have to upgrade that vid card which for all I know may exhibit
Aero eye candy--either it will or it won't.

The drivers worked perfectly on Vista, and every build of Win 7 in the wild
to date although I'm using some newer peripherals now. Just because HP or
Brother or XYZ company says they aren't putting out drivers for Vista or Win
7 or Win 8-10 doesn't at all mean that their hardware won't work with
existing drivers. Sell baby is the name of the game, and sometimes these
companies pray on vulnerability that doesn't check to see if they can make
the drivers work first.

CH

 

[Chad Harris]

Win 7 All Builds run very well and is not slow at all although not as fast
as multicore boxes I'm comparing it with on a 5/1/01 Dell Dimension 8100
with 1GB RAM added, new vid card, new PSU. Vista ran just fine on it
without the new video card, but to use Aero eye candy and Aero shaky shake
LOL and Aero snappy snap LOL again, you may need to upgrade the original
video card.

BTW if anyone wants the Aero Windows 7 features to run in XP or Vista,
including Aero Shimy Shimy Shaky Shake and Shimy Shimy Aero Snap, there is a
free utility that will do it::

Make Aero Windows 7 Eye Candy including Peeky Peek, Shaky Shake, and Snappy
Snap work on Vista or XP:

http://fogelsoft.extra.hu/progs/aeropeek.zip

Dot Net 3.5
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FD-AE52-4E35-B531-508D977D32A6&displaylang=en

CH

 

[Gary M]

If your old computer already has a Windows operating system installed then
you should be able to run the setup from within the running Windows. Just
copy the files from the disk (via your network as you mentioned) onto your
internal hard drive, or a usb memory key if you have a large enough one and
run the setup from there.

That's how I installed Windows 7 beta onto my computer. You do not need to
be able to boot from anything other than your internal hard drive.

 

[Ant]

If your old computer already has a Windows operating system installed
then you should be able to run the setup from within the running
Windows. Just copy the files from the disk (via your network as you
mentioned) onto your internal hard drive, or a usb memory key if you
have a large enough one and run the setup from there.

Doesn't that only do an upgrade over the OS? I remember Vista over XP
only did upgrade and not a clean install.
--
"The ants are back Ted!" --Dougal from Father Ted TV show.
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phil/Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address: (e-mail address removed)
( ) or (e-mail address removed)
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

 

[Adam Albright]

Vista needs a modern, well specified system. What you are planning is a

waste of time and money..

Microsoft claims their crap OS can run on a 800 mhz computer with 512 mb
ram!

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8250/specs.htm

Microprocessor type
Intel® Pentium® 4 microprocessor that runs at 2.0 GHz internally and 400 MHz
externally; or 2.26, 2.4, 2.53, 2.66, 2.8, or 3.06 GHz internally and 533
MHz externally

Vista needs a modern, well specified system. What you are planning is a
waste of time and money..

WRONG! Vista is a waste of time and money!

http://news.digitaltrends.com/news-article/19643/texas-adds-anti-vist

Texas has added a rider to its state budget requiring written authorization
before buying Windows Vista.

In Texas, apparently, the state government doesn't like Windows Vista. In
fact they dislike it so much that a State Senator has added a rider to the
state budget that would require any state body, with the exception of
schools, to have written authorization before buying Vista.

The rider, proposed by Juan Hinojosa, was adopted without objection, and the
budget is expected to be passed this week.

Senator Hinojosa told the San Antonio
"We have a lot of problems with the Vista program."

"It had a lot of bugs. It takes up a lot of memory. It's not compatible with
other equipment, and it's supposed to be an upgrade from the XP program that
is being used by state agencies, and it's not."

 

[Curious]

I had vista 32 HP running without any significant problem on my laptop with
512MB, however, I could not use Aero till I upgraded to 1GB . And I only
did the upgrade because my son upgraded his laptop from 1GB to 2GB to better
play games.
AFAIK you can order a set of Vista installation CDs from MS as long as you
have a retail vista package and it's product key.

Vista needs a modern, well specified system. What you are planning is a
waste of time and money..

Microsoft claims their crap OS can run on a 800 mhz computer with 512 mb
ram!

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8250/specs.htm

Microprocessor type
Intel® Pentium® 4 microprocessor that runs at 2.0 GHz internally and 400
MHz
externally; or 2.26, 2.4, 2.53, 2.66, 2.8, or 3.06 GHz internally and 533
MHz externally

Vista needs a modern, well specified system. What you are planning is a
waste of time and money..

WRONG! Vista is a waste of time and money!

http://news.digitaltrends.com/news-article/19643/texas-adds-anti-vist

Texas has added a rider to its state budget requiring written
authorization
before buying Windows Vista.

In Texas, apparently, the state government doesn't like Windows Vista. In
fact they dislike it so much that a State Senator has added a rider to the
state budget that would require any state body, with the exception of
schools, to have written authorization before buying Vista.

The rider, proposed by Juan Hinojosa, was adopted without objection, and
the
budget is expected to be passed this week.

Senator Hinojosa told the San Antonio
"We have a lot of problems with the Vista program."

"It had a lot of bugs. It takes up a lot of memory. It's not compatible
with
other equipment, and it's supposed to be an upgrade from the XP program
that
is being used by state agencies, and it's not."

 

[Chad Harris]

While Senator Hinojosa's problems were not specified, many of the problems
he referred to could be easily solved if the crackers in Texas got some help
from people who know what they're doing from the MSFT campus or from
somewhere in Austin.

This falls in the broad category of what I call Vista paranoia without
actually testing and using Vista. This whole scheme of "a lot of problems"
touted predominantly by people who don't have a minimal amount of computer
skill was very unfortunate. Part of it was propelled by 3rd party driver and
hdw manufacturers dragging their feet on drivers, predomininatly 64 bit
drivers too long after Vista RTM'd in 2007.

Another force is that since there has been about half the time between
Vista's RTM and the iminent release of Windows 7, with its release of RC1
to the public a short time away given the CPU efficiency and stability of
the Beta of Windows 7, many people, governments and medium/large enterprises
included are now electing to wait for the RTM of Windows 7.

I help a number of "friends"/and aquaintances with their boxes who have
dissed Vista without really trying it, only to find that every one of their
problems were solvable in minutes and the problems were with them not Vista
or MSFT.

This reminds me of the Mohave project.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/mojave-experiment/

CH

Vista needs a modern, well specified system. What you are planning is a
waste of time and money..

Microsoft claims their crap OS can run on a 800 mhz computer with 512 mb
ram!

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8250/specs.htm

Microprocessor type
Intel® Pentium® 4 microprocessor that runs at 2.0 GHz internally and 400
MHz
externally; or 2.26, 2.4, 2.53, 2.66, 2.8, or 3.06 GHz internally and 533
MHz externally

Vista needs a modern, well specified system. What you are planning is a
waste of time and money..

WRONG! Vista is a waste of time and money!

http://news.digitaltrends.com/news-article/19643/texas-adds-anti-vist

Texas has added a rider to its state budget requiring written
authorization
before buying Windows Vista.

In Texas, apparently, the state government doesn't like Windows Vista. In
fact they dislike it so much that a State Senator has added a rider to the
state budget that would require any state body, with the exception of
schools, to have written authorization before buying Vista.

The rider, proposed by Juan Hinojosa, was adopted without objection, and
the
budget is expected to be passed this week.

Senator Hinojosa told the San Antonio
"We have a lot of problems with the Vista program."

"It had a lot of bugs. It takes up a lot of memory. It's not compatible
with
other equipment, and it's supposed to be an upgrade from the XP program
that
is being used by state agencies, and it's not."