In desperate need of help
 

Hi there I do hope someone can help as I am close to throwing my laptop out the window. It is an HP Stream Notebook with 28GB Hard drive.

I have recently installed Linux Mint Cinnamon 18.1 on the system but now I want to go back to windows 7. I have the iso file for win 7 and a USB pen drive, but no matter what I try I cannot get it to boot from the disk, I have tried the included software USB image writer to make a bootable USB but I get the message "No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key"

Also when I try and download or install any software on Linux to create a bootable disk it never installs I always get an error message or a screen about grub etc. It's really frustrating me I hope someone can help! I have a limited amount of data aswell so can't download any large files.

Thanks in advance!

I have an hp stream 11, actually I have two. Spam ESC after pressing power to get to "options" for the UEFI/bios. Disable secure boot, enable CSM, change USB to first in your boot priority and save. The SDHC card reader on the side is NOT bootable. The usb ports are. 64 bit computer and kernels >= 3.19+ (or massively backported) for the click pad to work. It's a pretty nice machine, although massively under spec'd since I got my first one in 2014, the second in 2016 (display model for cheap).

The first question is, have you wiped out Windows 7 in the process of installing Linux Mint Cinnamon 18.1?

The message "No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key" is the BIOS/firmware's way of telling you that, it cannot find an OS to start, from your USB. As the "master boot record" on your USB has to contain the correct information for said OS, to start. GRUB is installed to the "master boot record" and can start Windows as well.

You should use Windows based software, to copy your ISO for Windows 7 to your USB stick/device.

Thanks for the replies, I tried to follow your reply shadow_7 and I had already done everything you said apart from enable CSM which I don't see anywhere. I say I wanted to go back to windows 7 but I actually started off with windows 10 and yes I have wiped that now to install Linux, I have no other machine with windows on to use to make a bootable USB. I also have no ISO for windows 10 either, I wanted to downgrade as my hard drive was filling up too quickly after windows updates etc. so wanted either Linux or an earlier version of windows but I just don't get Linux and none of my wifi connections work apart from my iPhone hotspot intermittently. I think you are right jsbjsb001, is there no way to make a bootable USB for win 7 using Linux? I looked up winusb but I can't get it to download and install, I can see it on the main 'home' section of my files but when I try to install it I get the message from the installer: Error Dependency is not satisfiable: libwxbase2.8-0 (>= 2.8.12.1)

The USB is formatted as FAT32 I think, should it be NTFS?

Legacy support is enabled in boot options.

I wasn't necessary saying you could not use Linux to install your ISO image onto your USB. But, you would be far better off doing it, using Windows itself instead.

The software you would use to install your ISO image onto your USB stick should take care of the file system for you. As the ISO image is a complete snapshot of the file system and everything it contains (files, folders, etc).

Best of luck!

Thanks, could you tell me what software I should use to make the bootable USB as I used "USB Image Writer" which is included in Linux and that doesn't seem to have worked. Also how do I install WinUSB as the messages I am getting from the terminal are jargon to me, I keep getting a screen pop up about grub etc. when I follow the installation instructions I found online, which then warns me if I try and quit.. so I guess I'm doing something wrong.

Just another question, just to clarify, are you wanting to install Windows 7 (or 10, if so, which one?) to your PC?

If you would like to install your ISO image onto your USB, I can only once again, suggest you find a Windows PC and install software written for it, to install your ISO image. I think there are some apps around, that would do it, don't know which ones though?

I want to install windows 7 as 10 takes up too much space and also I have no iso for windows 10 and no CD/DVD drive.
I am travelling in oz at the moment though so finding a PC to do that from might be difficult.. I might just take it to a pc repair place and have them do it although I resent paying to have it done! Any version of windows would do for now though as then I can connect to my wifi again and make the relevant boot disk for the version I want - I find Linux way too confusing!

Joel87,

Your post is very confusing.

You initially give us the impression that this HP Stream had W7 installed when you bought it.

Later you tell us that it actually came loaded with W10, which you subsequently wiped and then installed Linux Mint.

Now you wish to install W7.

The machine is designed to take W10 and it will automatically recognise and activate a W10 iso installed via a bootable USB stick.

This recognition is done via an embedded product key which is stored on a chip on the motherboard.

Trying to install W7 on this machine will not work since it will not be recognised and I guess that you probably do not have a valid product key for the W7 iso.

I suggest that you download the W10 iso from Microsoft at:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/soft...d/windows10ISO

and then create a bootable USB drive.

You probably need access to another Windows machine, then choose a suitable method from:
https://www.techsupportall.com/how-t...dvd-installer/

If you wish to make W10 look more like W7 then simply install Classic Shell later:
http://www.classicshell.net/

From experience, I can tell you that it is much easier and faster to install W8.1/W10 than W7.
The W7 Windows Updates take years off your life!

My hp streams came with windows 8.1. You can create bootable USB devices with rufus under windows or dd under linux from .iso images. Legacy and CSM are basically one and the same, it helps your UEFI behave as bios (aka Predictable / Familiar). Some distros are UEFI only now, so don't be afraid to re-enable secure boot and disable legacy. When you spam ESC you can then press F9 to get to a selectable list of bootable options, to include any USB devices. Spam ESC, F9, then arrow down 3 times for the one hp stream 11 that I dropped and broke the LCD on. The HDMI out doesn't work until an OS is running.

Thank you for your reply this makes a lot of sense, I wasn't trying to be misleading with my original post I guess I should've stated my original operating system. The reason I was reluctant to go back to Win 10 is that after it updates I am left with less than 10GB of hard drive space, which then eventually goes down to around 3GB although I've only installed a couple of small applications, it is then hard to delete the temp files and free up space and the system ends up running incredibly slowly, so I thought that an earlier version of (windows or linux) might be a better option.

Joel87,

If you go down the Linux route, then these links may assist you:

Linux Mint on HP Stream 11:
http://farrin.me.uk/linux-mint-on-hp-stream-11

Linux Mint 18.1 (try using MATE or Xfce as opposed to Cinnamon):
https://www.linuxmint.com/

GalliumOS on HP Stream 11:
http://thepurdman.com/install-galliu.../#.WLTGjleoL7g

I had a stream 11. IMO, it's far better device in Linux than Windows. However, as far as your actual question, do you perchance have access to an external optical drive? You could burn the Win7 ISO and then boot from it to reinstall. Or did you upgrade to Win10 to get it digitally entitled for that? In my experience, Windows 7 ISO's are very un-usb stick friendly. Unless you have a USB reinstall from the OEM (I have one for Dell that I took to work, which is actually 2 usb sticks in 1 enclosure, 1 set as a pxe boot the other as a pxe cache), I've never gotten an .iso of pre10 to actually boot and install PROPERLY from USB. However, I haven't tried THAT hard either...

However, if you decide to stick with linux, and you use an OS that makes the non-free Broadcom firmware & drivers available then you'll have NO issues with the Stream 11 and Linux. Even if you use something where it's not available at install, it's not INCREDIBLY hard to get working. The rest of the hardware works absolutely perfectly out of the box with everything I ever threw at it (Debian + backports, Debian testing, Mageia, Arch, Fedora).

IMO, the touchpad actually works SIGNIFICANTLY better in linux than I EVER got it working in Windows.

I don't mean this in a rude way, but aren't there Microsoft forums that could help you? You can't be the only person looking to install Windows on a computer that doesn't have Windows on it (whether it's Linux or just a blank hard drive, the status is essentially the same, in this case). I would think that Microsoft must have customer service, or ways to help people accomplish this. I can't imagine they recommend people boot Linux to create Windows boot drives, so there's got to be some way around this.

The problem is the only operating system I have is Linux, so right now that is the only platform I have available to do anything on. In this instance I don't think a Microsoft forum would be much help as I am trying to do everything in Linux!