Thread: Step by Step Guide on: How to install windows 7 using a usb flash drive

Heres is a short and sweet idiot proof on how to get windows 7 to install from an usb pen drive or usb memory stick or flash drive! (whatever they are called these days)

I recently purchased a second hand netbook that had no cd/dvd rom drive but it did have a dvd with windows 7 and drivers with it, now seeing as i currently do not own a external dvd rom the only was to re-install windows 7 completly with drivers is via a usb flash drive.


Step 1: Format the Drive

The steps here are to use the command line to format the disk properly using the diskpart utility. [Be warned: this will erase everything on your drive. Be careful.

1. Plug in your USB Flash Drive

2. Open a command prompt as administrator (Right click on Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt and select “Run as administrator” (or CMD)
3. Find the drive number of your USB Drive by typing the following into the Command Prompt window:
diskpart
list disk
The number of your USB drive will listed. You’ll need this for the next step. I’ll assume that the USB flash drive is disk 1.



4. Format the drive by typing the next instructions into the same window. Replace the number “1” with the number of your disk below.
select disk 1
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=NTFS (this part may take a few minutes)
assign
exit


When that is done you’ll have a formatted USB flash drive ready to be made bootable.

Step 2: Make the Drive Bootable

Next we’ll use the bootsect utility that comes on the Vista or Windows 7 disk to make the flash drive bootable. In the same command window that you were using in Step 1:

1. Insert your Windows 7 DVD into your drive.

2. Change directory to the DVD’s boot directory where bootsect lives:
d:
cd d:\boot

3. Use bootsect to set the USB as a bootable NTFS drive prepared for a win7 image.
Assuming that your USB flash drive has been labeled disk F:\ by the computer:
bootsect /nt60 g:



4. You can now close the command prompt window, exit .

Step 3: Copy the installation DVD to the USB drive

The easiest way is to use Windows explorer to copy all of the files on your DVD on to the formatted flash drive. After you’ve copied all of the files the disk you are ready to go.

Final thoughts
Remember to enable usb boot from your bios or hit f12 key to access bios boot menu when your ready to use your usb memory stick for the install.

It works fine for me, also you should note that not all windows backup dvds have a boot directory called "boot" I would advise on looking through the directories first to find the correct directory.

A far easier way to do this is to use the tool that Microsoft provides for this purpose

Microsoft Store Online

Works on Windows 7 all versions, Server 2008/R2, Vista, even Windows Home Server 2011. Great tool