the experience of installing Windows XP on Asus Eee PC 701 4G

You might have seen this netbook Asus Eee PC 4G 701. It is very cute with 7.0″ screen and by seeing its physical appearance, you will immediately fall in love with this laptop. Most chic out there would appreciate this, since it is small and so light to carry, plus the color is white. Sounds like Mac huh? But then when you try to use the OS environment that comes along with this laptop, you might pause a moment and think if you would love this laptop. Well, it has Xandros Linux OS. It is not that user friendly compared to Windows.

Until my office mate who has this laptop asked for my help why she can’t install Smart Bro on it. She already rushed to Smart’s Service Center with hopes that she can use her Smart Bro plug-it on her Xandros Linux Asus Eee PC laptop but then the people there just advised her to download the modem software in their website http://smart.com.ph/bro/corner/Downloads.htm Of course for a Nursing graduate who is not that 100% techie who would want to go in a hassle of downloading the plug-it software?

Good thing she asked for my help! lol (hahahaha) I am not trying to be a hero here but I am a Computer Engineering graduate and I just want to help. AT first I did not know the model of her laptop. I asked and she did not know model. I just knew that the OS is Linux and that she can’t use her Smart Bro. I told her to reformat the laptop and install Windows 7.

So together with my team mates, we went to Figaro after our shift and that was the moment that I was able to check her laptop. It is Asus Eee PC 701 4G. I then found out that the laptop has no DVD ROM and the storage is only 4GB. One thing for sure, we can not install Windows 7 on this laptop.

While checking on her laptop and trying to connect to Figaro WiFi, the laptop suddenly froze. We did simple troubleshooting like power cycling, but when it was turned on, it won’t accept the password and it failed to start the Xandros home screen. My office mate began to worry. She was positive with her password that it was correct but the laptop won’t accept it. She was really worried. I convinced her to let me bring her laptop at home so I can further work on it. Glad that she trusted me.

Since I do not have an external DVD ROM, the only way I can install Windows XP on this laptop is by the use of USB Flash disk. I thought that by saving the WinXP installer files in the USB and by making the USB as first bootable device would make it work but I was wrong. I then found out that I need to make the USB bootable.

I used WinSetupFromUSB software. What does this software do, it will reformat your USB file and install grub4DOS bootsector to make the USB bootable then copy the WinXP installer files. In other words, it is like making an installer CD to a USB. You can download WinSetupFromUSB through this link: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/120444-how-to-install-windows-from-usb-winsetupfromusb-with-gui/ Download the stable version.

Once you have the bootable USB with the WinXP installer files, you can then reformat your Asus Eee PC. You need to download and install the drivers for this laptop at the Asus Support Website: http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx

So I am ready to return my office mate laptop. Windows XP is better than Xandros Linux OS for a Nursing graduate chic like my office mate. I am happy that it is now running!