This guide works 100% for Vista & Windows 7 unlike most of the guides out there. I
have seen many sites/blogs that have “Install Vista from USB guide” but either with
incomplete steps or not working guide. I have also seen some guides that don’t’ use
proper commands in this guide. After spending many hours I have come up with this
100% working guide.
I just did this method on one of my friends machine and installed the new Windows 7
BETA. The main advantage is that by using USB drive you will be able to install
Windows 7/Vista in just 15 minutes. You can also use this bootable USB drive on
friend’s computer who doesn’t have a DVD optical drive.
The method is very simple and you can use without any hassles. Needless to say that your
motherboard should support USB Boot feature to make use of the bootable USB drive.
Requirements:
Follow the below steps to create bootable Windows 7/Vista USB drive using which you
can install Windows 7/Vista easily.
1. Plug-in your USB flash drive to USB port and move all the contents from USB drive to
a safe location on your system.
2. Open Command Prompt with admin rights. Use any of the below methods to open
Command Prompt with admin rights.
*Type cmd in Start menu search box and hit Ctrl+ Shift+ Enter.
Or
*Go to Start menu > All programs > Accessories, right click on Command Prompt and
select Run as administrator.
3. You need to know about the USB drive a little bit. Type in the following commands in
the command prompt:
First type DISKPART and hit enter to see the below message.
Next type LIST DISK command and note down the Disk number (ex: Disk 1) of your
USB flash drive. In the below screenshot my Flash Drive Disk no is Disk 1.
4. Next type all the below commands one by one. Here I assume that your disk drive no is
“Disk 1”.If you have Disk 2 as your USB flash drive then use Disk 2.Refer the above
step to confirm it.
So below are the commands you need to type and execute one by one:
SELECT DISK 1
CLEAN
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
FORMAT FS=NTFS
ASSIGN
EXIT
Don’t close the command prompt as we need to execute one more command at the next
step. Just minimize it.
5. Next insert your Windows7/Vista DVD into the optical drive and check the drive letter
of the DVD drive. In this guide I will assume that your DVD drive letter is “D” and USB
drive letter is “H” (open my computer to know about it).
6. Maximize the minimized Command Prompt in the 4th step.Type the following
command now:
7. Type another command given below to update the USB drive with BOOTMGR
compatible code.
BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H:
Where “H” is your USB drive letter. Once you enter the above command you will see the
below message.
8. Copy your Windows 7/Vista DVD contents to the USB flash drive.
9. Your USB drive is ready to boot and install Windows 7/Vista. Only thing you need to
change the boot priority at the BIOS to USB from the HDD or CD ROM drive. I won’t
explain it as it’s just the matter the changing the boot priority or enabling the USB boot
option in the BIOS.
Note: If you are not able to boot after following this guide means you haven’t set the
BIOS priority to USB. If you got any problem in following this guide feel free to ask
questions by leaving comment.
How to Install Windows 7 From USB
Drive without Windows 7 ISO DVD
We have published article on How to install Windows 7 on Vmware Player. That guide
is useful if you want to make yourself free from need of dual boot. Now here is another
scenario what if you don’t have DVD-ROM and you are running Windows XP
Since Windows 7 ISO size is around 2.24 GB so its obvious that you will need to burn
windows 7 iso on DVD and another issue is you can’t start windows 7 installation by
mounting ISO file on windows XP as Windows XP upgrade to windows 7 is not
allowed. In such situation installing windows 7 from USB pen drive is feasible
solution.
Here is small guide on how to install windows 7 from USB flash drive or USB pen
Drive for Windows XP users.
Requirement:
MBRwiz Download and Extract it on your hard drive (Diskpart utility for Windows XP
doesn’t detect USB drive as Disk hence we need to use this free utility to make bootable
USB drive).
1. Connect your USB Flash Drive to your computer Format USB drive
2. To Format USB Flash Drive Go to My Computer -> Right click on USB drive and
select Format from context menu.
3. Now go to Start Menu->run->cmd (Open Command Prompt) and Type following
command
4. Mount Windows 7 iso as drive (You can use Freeware MagicDisc download from
here).
5. Type Start->run->cmd
Now dir to directory where you have extracted MBRWiz and run following commands
mbrwiz /list (note down disk number of your USB Pen drive)
mbrwiz /disk=X /active=X (X is Disk Number of your USB Drive)
exit
CD boot
7. Now copy all files from drive where you have mount Windows 7 iso
8. Now reboot your computer and press F9 to get your BIOS screen and select USB
drive as your boot drive.
9. If every thing goes fine, Your Windows 7 Installation should start from your USB
drive.
Use a USB Key to Install Windows 7—Even on a Netbook
• First, you’ll need the DiskPart utility on the system you will use to prep the thumb
drive. This is a free disk partitioning utility that is likely already installed on your
Windows system. If not, you can download DiskPart here.
• Launch the DiskPart utility by typing diskpart at the Start Menu.
• Then run the list disk command to check the status of your drive.
Video
• Now run select disk 1 where the "1" is actually the corresponding number of your
USB drive.
• Run clean.
• Once the thumb drive is clean, you can run create partition primary.
• Now make the partition active by entering active
• Then you need to set up the file system as Fat32 by running format fs=fat32
quick (quick, of course, specifies that you want to perform a quick format to
speed up the process).
• Entering the assign command gives the USB drive a drive letter, making it easy to
access from Windows Explorer
• Then you can copy everything from the Windows 7 installation DVD onto the
USB key (a simple drag and drop will do).
• Now you can insert the thumb drive into the system you want to install Windows
7 onto and boot the system. The installation will now proceed as usual—but
faster.
. Format Your USB Key
Plug in your USB key and back up any existing data stored on it. You’ll need to format
the key before you can make it a bootable device.
Type “list disk” to reveal a list of all your active disks, each of which is associated with a
number. Make a note of which one is your USB key, based on the capacity. In our
screenshot below, our USB drive is Disk 6 (8GB).
Next, type the following commands, one at a time:
Select Disk # (Where # is the number of your USB disk. We typed “Select Disk 6”)
Clean (removes any existing partitions from the USB disk, including any hidden sectors)
Create Partition Primary (Creates a new primary partition with default parameters)
Active (Sets the in-focus partition to active, informing the disk firmware that this is a
valid system partition)
Format FS=NTFS (Formats the partition with the NTFS file system. This may take
several minutes to complete, depending on the size of your USB key.)
Assign (Gives the USB drive a Windows volume and next available drive letter, which
you should write down. In our case, drive “L” was assigned.)
Insert the Windows 7 install DVD into your drive, and view the files that it contains.
Copy all of the files here to a folder on your Desktop. We put the disc contents in a folder
named “Windows 7”
Bootsect.exe /nt60 L: (where ‘L’ is the drive letter assigned to your USB key from the
previous step)
Bootsect infuses boot manager compatible code into your USB key to make it a bootable
device.
Copy all of the extracted ISO files into the USB drive. You don’t need to do this from the
command prompt. Just drag and drop the files from the “Windows 7” folder into the drive
using Windows Explorer.
Your USB key is now all ready to go! Plug it into your target system and make sure you
enter the BIOS (typically with F2 or F12) to temporarily change the boot order to allow
booting from the USB key before your primary hard drive or optical drive. On the next
restart, your system should automatically begin speedily loading setup files off of the
USB key and entering Windows 7 installation.