I'm trying to revive a 2008 Fujitsu AMILO Notebook Pi 3540 that came without a hard drive. I installed an HDD from another laptop, and the BIOS detects my bootable USB drive normally. However, when I start the Windows installation, setup stops at a blank command-prompt screen with only a blinking cursor. I've already tried common troubleshooting steps and watched several setup guides without finding a solution. I'm considering Windows 7 or a lightweight Linux distribution such as antiX or Lubuntu, but I'm creating the bootable USB using only an Android phone and may not be setting up the MBR correctly. What should I check or change to get the installer to boot properly?
1 Answer
Try removing the hard drive temporarily and booting from the USB by itself. If the installer starts, the HDD or its partition table may be interfering. If the laptop only reports “Operating system not found,” check that USB boot is enabled and that the drive is selected explicitly in the boot menu.
Without the HDD, the laptop reports that no operating system was found, so I’m not sure whether it is actually starting the USB installer.