How to Install Windows 7 From a USB Drive
Installing Windows from a USB flash drive has several
advantages – First of all, the overall speed of the installation process will
increase significantly, carrying a USB stick is much more convenient than
a DVD, and finally it becomes possible to install the OS even on
those systems that do not have a DVD drive, such as a netbook.
In
this post, I will show you how to load the Windows installation on to your
USB flash drive and make it bootable just like the DVD.
Tools
Required:
- USB flash drive with a minimum capacity of 4 GB.
- Windows 7 set-up DVD.
Now,
just follow the below steps:
Step-1:
Plug-in
your USB flash drive and backup all the existing data in it.
Open
the command prompt. If you are using Windows 7/Vista then open it with
administrator rights.
ie:
Go to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Right-click on “Command
Prompt” and select “Run as Administrator”.
Step-2:
In
the command prompt, type in the following command:
DISKPART
This will start the Microsoft DiskPart utility as shown below:
Step-3:
Now issue the following command:
LIST DISK
This will show you a list of available disks on your system. Disk 0 is usually the hard disk. In my case, Disk 5 is the USB drive (this can be a different one in your case). Now issue the command as shown below:
SELECT DISK 5
NOTE: In the above command, 5 is the USB drive number on
my system. If you have a different number on your system, then you need to
replace 5 with that number.
Step-4:
Now
issue the following list of commands one by one as shown below:
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
ASSIGN
EXIT
Minimize
the command prompt and proceed to the next step.
Step
5:
Insert
the Windows 7/Vista installation disc and note down the “drive letter” of
your DVD drive. In my case, it is “H:”. Now type the following list of commands
as shown below:
H: CD BOOT
BOOTSECT.EXE
/NT60 M: (NOTE: M: is your
USB drive letter)
EXIT
Step-6:
Copy
the contents of your Windows 7/Vista installation disk into the USB
flash drive.
That’s
it! Your USB stick is now ready to boot and install the OS for you. Don’t
forget to enable the “USB Boot” option and change the “boot priority to USB
device from hard disk” in your BIOS settings.