(2015-07-18, 04:17)roadie Wrote: I thougt that windows will be on the ssd. So I should put open elec on a usb? How do I launch it from the Usb? As in how do I select it without opening windows? Lol. Bit of a noob at times
What I did is keep windows on the ssd and install openelec onto a USB stick.
Openelec is an entire operating system, just a very basic one designed only to run Kodi. That way you turn on your device and it boots directly to Kodi - you cannot run anything else in this mode. Take a look at
www.openelec.tv for further info on openelec.
Essentially think of the USB stick like an external drive, which you can boot from. Windows and openelec are entirely distinct and separate operating systems and do not interact with each other.
Choosing which drive to boot from has to be setup in the bios and isn't really something you would constantly be changing. It requires you to press the F10 key on your keyboard at boot up and select which drive will be 1st in the boot order. If you take a look at the earlier posts in this thread, noggin describes how to set this up.
If you're not bothered about ever running windows on this HP unit, then instead of installing openelec onto a USB stick, you can install it to the internal ssd. If you do this, it will wipe the entire ssd and windows will be gone!
I think it's handy to have a windows licence and I didn't want to wipe it, which is why I have openelec running from the USB stick on mine.
There are a few alternatives;
1, You could buy another M2 ssd and swap it with the existing internal one. That way you could install openelec onto the new internal ssd and if you ever changed your mind you could just swap the ssd modules back over and have windows up and running again.
2, Buy the HP special sata cable (and screws) and install an internal 2.5" (laptop style) hdd or ssd. You could install openelec to this and again set this BIOS to boot from this drive. Windows would remain untouched on the internal M2 ssd.
3, Backup windows (including the licence key) and install openelec to the internal M2 ssd. Again noggin has detailed this earlier in the thread. This doesn't require buying anything else (assuming you have something to store the windows backup onto). ***PLEASE NOTE*** make sure you double check your backup is successful. This will wipe windows and you could potentially lose it if your backup hasn't worked.
I suggest whatever option you choose it is sensible to make a backup of the windows install onto a separate device (USB stick, external HDD, network or another PC). It is possible you could accidentally wipe the windows install from the M2 ssd, if you chose the wrong option when installing openelec.
Of course, as others have already mentioned, you could just install the windows version of Kodi and use that. If you want Kodi to start at boot up from windows this can be setup with another piece of software - I just can't remember what it's called at the moment! I'm sure if you do a search or ask, someone else will be able to help with that.
I hope this info helps and doesn't confuse you further. Good luck and let us know how you get on!
