How To Install Windows on the Zotac Zbox nano – The Correct Instructions

I have a new WorkStation at home.  It is the Zotac Zbox CI520 nano.  It is a great little system, however the User’s Manual and installation guide that comes with this unit is missing some very important information.

Without this information, you may end up doing what I did: Spend five hours creating and recreating the Windows installation files, thinking you were doing it wrong or the Zotac Zbox nano is not reading your USB flash drive and/or portable DVD drive correctly.

When I tried to search Google for an answer, there was no correct information, at least not on my Google.

So that you will never have to go through five agonizing hours like I did, below are the correct instructions you will need and not the very wrong instructions provided by Zotac.

Installing an operating system

This model of the Zotac Zbox nano does not ship with an operating system preinstalled.  The user must install the operating system before the Zotac Zbox nano can be used.  The following operating systems are supported:

• Windows 7
• Windows 8

Follow the instructions below to install an operating system:

1. When starting up your Zotac Zbox nano, hold down the delete key until the BIOS Setup screen fires up.
2. Hit the right arrow key until you get to the “Boot” screen.
3. Hit the down arrow until you get to the “Boot OS” selection.
4. Change from “Legacy only” to Win8 (or Win7 if appropriate).
5. Press F10.
6. Continuing with instructions as in the User’s Manual

And that is the correct way to install Windows on your Zotac Zbox nano.

<sarcasm>Thank you, Zotac, for making your easy setup instructions so accurate.</sarcasm>

Once I have finished installing all of my programs, and have used my Zotac Zbox nano exclusively for three days, I will write up what kind of hard drive and RAM I installed, with a brief review.