This OEM copy I brought from a web site which I shall not mention and they have been doing business for years. I have had no trouble activating the copy over the phone with Microsoft and the only difference with this copy with retail is the packaging. Originally I used this copy fresh on my desktop system that I built and I had never had any problems installing it.

Anyways lets get back on track.

I managed to boot up from my USB HDD using a program called WinSetupFromUSB and it managed to get me into the XP setup. The problem is now when it asks me to select a section of the HDD I do not know which one to chose as the drive letters do the match to the one in Windows 7. For some reason drive C: has just 100mb according to XP setup yet in Windows 7 it says a more correct size of 100GB. Normally this would not be a problem but I would like not to affect the Recovery section of the drive just in case all things go tits up and end up bricking the notebook.

I have decided to leave the notebook as it is. With the rubbish copy of Window 7 Starter where you can not adjust the network settings and Wallpaper LOL!!

Thanks for the advice and posts and I will be contuine to use this form as it seems to be really active and replies came quick.

So you bought an oem version of a retail disk technically branded for system builders? Although of questionable legality I know that New egg sells such copies. I suppose as long as it is a legal serial number and it doesn't say dell, hp, etc on it then you should be able to use it. If you built your own system then I suppose that you are a system builder but they intend for those buyers to resell what they put it on. I'm not going to get into that. I don't know anything about using winsetupfromusb because I've never used it. When it comes to installing windows if it isn't from MS I wouldn't trust it not to cause problems. I take it that you aren't interested in getting an external cd drive drive? Do you have any other files on that usb drive? Do you have the installation files in the root of the drive or in a folder. I wouldn't have any other files on the drive & you should leave the file structure as is (ie don't put the files in a folder that you created).

It's interesting that it won't let you change the wallpaper. Have you tried right clicking on the file that you want to use as the wallpaper? It sounds to me like this is some specially created version designed to be as simple as possible. My guess on that would be that your system doesn't have the resources to do what you are wanting it to do kind of like it is some specially designed portable device. In which case you might be disappointed in the lack of performance that xp can provide on such a system. Does that make sense? In other words if that computer isn't designed for a full sized OS then even Xp might not work too well on it. Are you sure that it isn't windows mobile? I might be able to help you more if you told me the make/model of the computer as well as the system specs.

Specs directly off the web site: NP-N210-JA01UK (Black not white)

Operation System: Genuine Windows 7 Starter
Processor: Intel ATOM Processor N450 (1.66Ghz, 667Mhz, 512KB)
Main Chipset: Intel NM10
Memory: 1GB DDR2
Display: 10.1" WSVGA (1024x600)
Graphics: Intel GMA3150 (Shared Memory)
Sound: HD (High Definition Audio)

Yes all the installation files are in the root folder and files that enables it to boot is on the HDD too. I don't see the situation improving if I do get a USB CD/DVD drive and I am going to see the same results on the XP setup. In fact I feel that this process has saved me money in buying USB CD/DVD drive.

Looking at the specs I would of thought it was able to run XP. Unless the ATOM Processors are not that good as I am unaware of thier abilty or the shared memory affects it quite a bit.