Boot Option (solved)

[barrynew]

I have an older PC core2 quad 6700 which cannot boot from USB and has no DVD/CD installed. It is running Windows 8.1 is there anyway to wipe windows 8.1 and install peppermint without installing any extra hardware?

Thanks

****Solution******

[/b]

My machine was an  older HP machine from 2008. Pressing F2 in the bios, no options for booting from USB. Solved by disconnecting every sata drive and by accident I left the USB boot pen drive in the machine and accidentally pressed the power button.  Booted up, and  hot plugged in the drive during the install and the system recognized it. Must be an undocumented boot feature. Found the solution by accident! system is working great. Little slower on the old hard drive, but soon plan to convert to SSD.

Also the physical device I installed was an old DVD writer which came with the machine, but only media I had was an CD-R. which explains the lack of space.

Planning on using this machine as a media center using MythTV with Hauppauge tuners with a Kodi front end.

Code: [Select]

inxi -Fz
System:    Host: barry-KJ294AA-ABA-m9252p Kernel: 4.13.0-26-generic x86_64 (64 bit)
           Desktop: N/A Distro: Peppermint Eight
Machine:   System: HP-Pavilion product: KJ294AA-ABA m9252p
           Mobo: ASUSTeK model: Benicia v: 1.01
           Bios: American Megatrends v: 5.19 date: 01/31/2008
CPU:       Quad core Intel Core2 Quad Q6700 (-MCP-) cache: 4096 KB 
           clock speeds: max: 2667 MHz 1: 1600 MHz 2: 1600 MHz 3: 1600 MHz
           4: 1600 MHz
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GT218 [GeForce 210]
           Display Server: X.Org 1.19.5 drivers: nouveau (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on NVA8 GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.0.2
Audio:     Card-1 NVIDIA High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel
           Card-2 Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.13.0-26-generic
Network:   Card: Intel Wireless 7260 driver: iwlwifi
           IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 750.2GB (2.3% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST3750640AS size: 750.2GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 681G used: 9.4G (2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 7.51GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 39.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 178 Uptime: 7 min Memory: 604.1/6969.0MB
           Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.2.35 

[pin]

What boot options do you have? Can you boot from a SD card? Or is the internal hard drive the only boot option?

You could try this https://www.raymond.cc/blog/doing-the-impossible-boot-computer-from-usb-or-cdrom-even-if-bios-not-supported-using-plop/
Note: I haven't used it myself

EDIT: Another option can be found here https://askubuntu.com/questions/484434/install-ubuntu-without-cd-and-usb-how

The Hard way:  you can always pull out the hard drive install the OS on another machine and put it back into your PC   

[Crazy Tux]

I'm not sure but what about an external CD/DVD drive? Will this be recognised as an USB drive or as it should be as a CD/DVD drive???

I found this on the internet: https://www.raymond.cc/blog/doing-the-impossible-boot-computer-from-usb-or-cdrom-even-if-bios-not-supported-using-plop/. Not sure it will help you but you could try it.

And what about this:
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16822/boot-from-a-usb-drive-even-if-your-bios-wont-let-you/

[barrynew]

I located a DVD and installed it, but the download was 1.2 gig, way to large for the DVD.

Appears only option for me is to remove the hard drive and mount it on another machine  which supports usb boot, and then install Peppermint.

Thanks for the help, Microsoft really missed the boat on windows 8.1, it sucks! Worse GUI design ever.

[murraymint]

A DVD holds 4.7GB. You must have found a CD-R.

[PCNetSpec]

Personally I'm amazed there's a Core2 system out there that can't boot from USB
(are you sure it's not just disabled in the BIOS, or the boot priority is just wrong ?)

What makes you think this is the case ?

Do you know the make/model of either the PC or the motherboard ?

Are you using the 64bit ISO and not the 32bit ISO ?

[DAMIEN1307]

really dumb question for me to ask but did you either press f2 key or delete key on the system on first boot (with USB already plugged in) and then in the bios, change the boot order for the USB to boot first?...DAMIEN

[PCNetSpec]

Would be helpful if you could state what the solution was, so others with the same issue can benefit