Need help with installing win7-64 on a linux industrial PC (no BIOS access)

[peter-h]

Could not think of a better forum

The box is a DISTEC LTD (UK) ESI 604, FWIW. Made ~10 years ago. 1.8GHz Atom, 4GB RAM.

It boots into linux and every imaginable key combination fails to enter the BIOS. I spent time on the phone, too, nobody knows. They say DEL at bootup but no luck. Even tried PS/2 keyboard instead of a USB one in case the BIOS doesn't support USB keyboard/mouse.

I bought a blank SSD hoping it would make the BIOS say it can't boot, but nothing happens.

Maybe I just need to make that SSD bootable, but not sure how to do that. I can connect it to a running PC, but how do I make it start up and look for a DVD in my USB DVD drive? I have a win7-64 install DVD and the proper legit code. I obviously don't want to change that PC's boot record to boot from this SSD instead from its existing drive c: !!

I think there must be a way to get linux to reboot but from the DVD drive i.e. change the boot options. I am not a linux person though...

Thank you for any ideas.

Why am I doing this instead of buying some box on Ebay for 300 quid? Because I just need a basic fanless box for a project and don't like throwing away a nice working box

[coromonadalix]

some had success by creating a bios error with killcmos  loaded at boot, and some system would give you some basic bios access

or removing  the coin battery  for a day, or shorting the battery lead on the board  once the cell is removed  for a few seconds



on a other intel platform similar (if you can find one)    you could create a bootable drive with the windows setup media, format the drive, and let it install all the way  up to the 1st reboot

disconnect everything and continue on the other pc,  but if the bios is very crippled, you may not be able to boot .. 

was it booting on a flash card ?


i can not find specs for your system, do you have more details, pictures ....   some logo while starting it,  bios model / brand  like award / phoenix  etc ...

maybe you could or can find a very similar board, non crippled copy / dump the bios and flash a new bios in your crippled system

i did it for embedded systems, i only lost the parallel port on one occasion   loll

[squadchannel]

Run the Win7 installer on the other computer, enter the license key, set aside the entire HDD space for Win7, and let it install.
If it is the Win7 installer, it will reboot once immediately after all copying is complete.
After rebooting, do not Win7 to boot (go into BIOS, etc., and turn off the power), then move the HDD to the target computer and boot it, and the installation should continue as if nothing had happened.

It was a long time ago and I have forgotten.

[coromonadalix]

yeah   you have this setup ---- bios invocation mode ...  forgotten too

[squadchannel]

could just take it apart and remove the batteries.

[peter-h]

YES!!

Removing the CMOS battery did it. It was down to 2.8V anyway so I replaced it.

Took a few attempts though; one has to power up the thing with the battery actually shorted at the time. Now it is happily loading windoze.

Thank you all. Yes; should have thought of it