Installation of Windows 7 on 02 and E2
Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2022 5:47 pm
First things first, to save you a tremendous amount of heartache and hassle:
OQO Model 02/E2 do not support installation of Windows from USB in any form.
You can boot a USB flash drive all day long but your Windows installer (whether XP, Vista, or 7) will error out during setup with a 0x7b STOP error in XP or a boot/bcd error on Windows 7 (related to missing storage drivers, etc.) Even manually attempting to load the storage drivers will fail. You must install Windows from an external USB CD/DVD drive.
Another point of note: A USB DVD drive with external power may be needed. The OQO 02 USB 2.0 port did not provide enough amperage to drive my shitty $15 Amazon Special external drive that I bought for this task (since I haven't used anything that required a physical disk in years). I had to splice the USB cable and route the +/- wires to my variable power supply set to 5.0VDC in order to complete the installation process.
Step 1: Configure BIOS Options
To boot into the BIOS on the 02, press FN and BSP/DEL during POST.
Open the "Boot Configuration" menu and change the first boot option to CDROM. Navigating around the BIOS is kinda clunky but relatively straightforward. Arrow keys, +/- keys to change values, etc. Don't forget to use the SHIFT key when using +/- to change values.
Press ESC then "Write to CMOS and Exit"
Reboot the system with your DVD drive connected and Windows 7 disk inserted, and go through the standard Windows 7 installation procedure.
--- More to follow ---
OQO Model 02/E2 do not support installation of Windows from USB in any form.
You can boot a USB flash drive all day long but your Windows installer (whether XP, Vista, or 7) will error out during setup with a 0x7b STOP error in XP or a boot/bcd error on Windows 7 (related to missing storage drivers, etc.) Even manually attempting to load the storage drivers will fail. You must install Windows from an external USB CD/DVD drive.
Another point of note: A USB DVD drive with external power may be needed. The OQO 02 USB 2.0 port did not provide enough amperage to drive my shitty $15 Amazon Special external drive that I bought for this task (since I haven't used anything that required a physical disk in years). I had to splice the USB cable and route the +/- wires to my variable power supply set to 5.0VDC in order to complete the installation process.
Step 1: Configure BIOS Options
To boot into the BIOS on the 02, press FN and BSP/DEL during POST.
Open the "Boot Configuration" menu and change the first boot option to CDROM. Navigating around the BIOS is kinda clunky but relatively straightforward. Arrow keys, +/- keys to change values, etc. Don't forget to use the SHIFT key when using +/- to change values.
Press ESC then "Write to CMOS and Exit"
Reboot the system with your DVD drive connected and Windows 7 disk inserted, and go through the standard Windows 7 installation procedure.
--- More to follow ---