Installing WoeUSB in Zorin

So.. I finally installed Zorin on a fresh SSD this weekend..
The installation went FAST and EASY and I'm proper chuffed with the OS,
it's Brilliant!

Now it's just to come to terms with a new working environment,
and become acquainted with the unfamiliar
(the perceived quirkiness of Linux from a Windows User perspective).

Some tasks are quite intuitive, and straight forward, whilst others are very non-intuitive, and cryptic.. for example : installing applications without an auto-installer, and using command lines (which I can go a lifetime without using in Windows).

This latter complication underlies the topic.

In preparation for installing Zorin -- I flashed a USB Boot ISO using BalenaEtcher,
which worked perfectly. I also flashed a Kill-Disk Boot USB for erasing the original SSD with Windows 10, so Windows 7 could be installed. Another USB Boot Win7 ISO was made using Rufus, and I assumed it would work just as well as the Etcher made Boot USB, and I went ahead and erased the SSD with Kill-Disk, then tried to boot with the Win7 ISO -- But it Failed to Boot.

I suspect the BIOS (from 2015) needs a firmware update to recognise Rufus boot files..
unfortunately Lenovo has ended all support for the L450 laptop, and no firmware updates are available.

I find myself without a Windows machine to try another Windows Boot ISO programme. There is only a Linux machine now.

WoeUSB is a programme designed to flash Windows USB Boot ISOs in Linux.
However it has no auto-installer, and is a pig to manually install.
I managed to load all the dependencies for WoeUSB, and still unable to install the application.

Without WoeUSB there is no possibility of installing Windows 7 on the old SSD,
and this is not good -- since I still need Windows for work.

If anyone here is familiar with WoeUSB --
some installation advice would be very much appreciated.

Cheers!

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So, You have installed Zorin first and now You want install Windows, right? For a Dual.Boot System, it would be easier to install windows first and then Zorin. But okay.

For Linux USB Tools there would be:

  • Popsicle
  • Impression
  • Gnome Multi Boot
  • Fedora Media Writer
  • BalenaEtcher

With these You could try to create Your bootable Windows Stick.

This Program wasn't really neccessary I would think. When You install Windows, You would have choose the Drive and delete it during the Installation. Because these Disk Erasers can damage an SSD with the overwriting Processes. Don't have to but can.

I installed Zorin on a fresh (separate) SSD
and I need to Install Windows 7 on the old SSD

I prefer to swap drives rather than having multiple OS on a single drive
it takes only seconds to swap the drives.. quite easy.

It is not possible to install older versions of windows when new versions are already installed. Kill-Disk is the most effective tool for wiping an SSD clean for a fresh installation.

BalenaEtcher did not work for creating a Windows boot USB
Have not tried the others -- so I will do that next.

I created a new Boot USB with Windows 7 ISO using Impression..
then tried again to boot from the usb.

The Boot Menu pops up (as it did with the Rufus Boot USB)
and selecting "Boot from USB" by hitting ENTER simply returns to the Boot Menu -- again and again.. without saving.

Unsure if this is a Bios error, or a boot error (?)

In either case -- it is clearly not possible to install Windows from USB on this laptop, no matter which programme is used to flash the Boot USB.

Inexplicable -- given that the Zorin Boot USB worked perfectly.

Have you installed or had Windows 7 on that laptop before now?

Just doing a check online, there seems to be a "WoeUSB-ng" available for 22.04 (which is what Zorin 17 is based on) and seems to do what you're needing it to do. I haven't used it, so I can't comment on it, but there are some instructions here that may help you:

Thanks for the link!
I installed WoeUSB-ng using Terminal
I will have another go tomorrow and see if I have any success this time.

I reloaded the BIOS default settings, but this had no effect.

In the worst case.. I will need to buy a second laptop with Win7 already installed.

No -- the laptop came with Windows 10 installed.
do you think the hardware may be incompatible?

It's a possibility, seem to remember problems with the W7 ISO not having drivers for more modern machines.
Think there is a workaround but it means altering the ISO.

If you can put up with W10, use that instead.

I can put up with Windows 10 as one of three OSs used for specific tasks,
the other two being Zorin and XP. Zorin will be the primary OS for everyday work, then Win10 for Photoshop 2020, and Illustrator (offline with W10 popups disabled). Lastly XP for running old 32 bit programmes.

I Finally got the boot installer to run after borrowing a colleagues Windows 10 laptop to flash a new Boot USB with Rufus; then found that the destination SSD (an old Maxtor Z1 from 2015 which came with the laptop) has no DRAM + an MBR partition scheme. so installation was aborted.

I've ordered 2 new SSDs with the necessary GPT partition
so when these arrive -- I can finish the job.

My old computer came with Windows 7 on it, but that was 2012, when computer's stopped coming with their installation disks. My OS became corrupted eventually, and had to be re-installed. This was also the era when installing an OS by a CD, was still the norm, not flash drives.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to re-install Windows 7, from a disk I burned with the Windows 7 installation media on it. This was caused by a lack of CDROM driver required, that wasn't on the Windows 7 installation medium.

I then tried to install via a burned ISO to a USB flash drive, but again, this was circa 2012, and the BIOS wasn't designed to boot off of a USB flash drive. Regardless of the fact that the machine only used USB 2.0 ports was moot.

This left me in a no win scenario, since I couldn't even get my CDROM driver from the net, that Windows 7 needed, but for some odd reason, never came with in the first place. And I couldn't boot off of a USB drive.

This was in the end, what forced me to use Linux, and I am so glad that I did. Linux is a freedom that you don't get, with Windows or MAC. I started with Zorin OS 9, never looked back! I do agree, Linux does rely more heavily on a terminal prompt then Windows did.

But if you had been using Linux for as long as I have, you'd realize, that Linux has come a long way since even 2012! As the years go by, Linux is requiring less and less terminal usage, as the GUI gets improved in distro's, like Zorin OS.

I'll be honest, when I first started using Zorin OS 9 back, I entered a whole new world, and it was a struggle learning Linux at that time. But I was stuck with it, I persevered, and I didn't give up, and I just kept plugging along. I kept doing that, until I became proficient in Linux.

And here I am, still using Linux, and I never touched Win10 or Win11 with a 10-foot pole, and proud of it. Give yourself time, you will get there, as we all have, and you will learn to love Linux, over Windows or MAC. Just a bit of a learning curve, and we are always here to help you.

Welcome to Zorin OS, an OS that works for you, not for corporate monopolistic corporate greed.