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Thread: Installing Windows 7 from a USB flash stick

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    Default Installing Windows 7 from a USB flash stick

    Someone may want to try this.

    from

    Installing Windows 7 from a USB flash stick
    by David M Williams
    Sunday, 03 May 2009

    Microsoft has made Windows 7 release candidate 1 available. Yet, it is a DVD image - what if you want to try it on a netbook or an ultra-slim laptop without a built-in optical drive? Here is how to make a bootable USB memory stick to install it from.

    Windows 7 is available now for MSDN and TechNet subscribers as well as members of various other Microsoft programs. It will be made available on May 5th for the general public to try out also.

    The method of installation is to burn the .iso image file onto a blank DVD disc. You can boot from the DVD you have made, or you can run it from within an existing Windows installation. Yet, if you do not have an optical drive on your computer of choice then booting from DVD is not really an option.

    You can extract all the files to a USB stick using a free open source program like 7-Zip. This allows you to run the Windows 7 setup program from your DVD-challenged computer by plugging in the USB stick.

    Of course, that only works if your target machine already has a version of Windows installed on it. It won’t give you the most flexibility, either – because you’re running the setup from within Windows you won’t have options to repartition the hard drive if so desired (to collapse two partitions into one, for instance.)

    What would be really helpful is a bootable USB stick. So, here’s how to make one.

    First, download the Windows 7 .iso image from MSDN or TechNet, or from Microsoft’s download site when it comes available.

    Next, insert a USB stick. Be sure to back up anything you wish to retain because anything already on the USB stick will be lost during this process.

    Format the USB drive using the NTFS file system. You can do this by double-clicking “My Computer” or “Computer” (for Vista users) and then right-clicking on the drive that represents the USB stick. A quick format is fine, the important thing is to ensure you specify NTFS and not FAT as the file system.

    We must next resort to the command line. Click Start/Programs/Accessories. Right-click on the “Command Prompt” icon and opt to Run as Administrator. Windows Vista may bring up a UAC window asking for confirmation; allow it.

    Type the command DISKPART and press enter. This launches a program to manage disk partitions on your computer. It will take a brief moment to scan your hardware before any prompt is displayed.

    Type the command LIST VOLUME and press enter. The program will display a list of drive volumes (or partitions) on your computer. Find the volume number assigned to your USB stick. You will be able to identify it because the drive letter will be listed and its type will be marked as removable.

    We want to work on the USB drive. Assuming the volume number is 3 type in the command SELECT VOLUME 3 and press enter. Be sure to change the number 3 to whatever the volume number is for your USB stick!

    To be bootable, a partition has to be active (as opposed to passive.) Type the command ACTIVE and press enter. You will receive a confirmation message that the current partition – your USB stick – has been marked as active.

    Type EXIT and press enter.

    Leave the command prompt window open because we will return to it momentarily.

    Open the folder where you downloaded the Windows 7 .iso image. If you already have a tool to extract ISO images into folders then use it. Otherwise, download and install 7-Zip and then use it to extract all the contents of the Windows 7 image into a new directory.

    To make things simple, move the new folder to the top of your C:\ drive and call it something like “Win7” without any spaces.

    Return to your command prompt. Type in the command CD \Win7 and press enter to change directory into the folder you have just made.

    Now for the finishing touches!

    Although not widely published, the Windows 7 disc contains a tool to make disks bootable. Logically enough, it is in the “boot” subdirectory. So, type in CD BOOT and press enter. Your command prompt should now indicate you are working in the C:\WIN7\BOOT folder.

    The tool we’re interested in is called BOOTSECT. Technically, this program isn’t really there to make USB drives bootable (although it can do it.)

    The stated purpose is to update the master boot code on hard drives to upgrade them from Microsoft’s older NTLDR technology as used by Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, to its newer BOOTMR booting technology as used by Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

    We’re not actually updating a boot sector on a hard drive but that doesn’t matter, this tool still works perfectly for our purpose.

    Remember what your USB drive letter is – or check now if you forgot. For this example I’ll assume it is drive letter G:.

    Type the command BOOTSECT /NT60 G: and press enter. Be sure to replace the G: with your actual USB stick’s drive letter.

    A message will display that the target volume will be update with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode, and then shortly after a message that this was successfully achieved.

    There is just one final step. Copy all the extracted Windows 7 files and folders to the USB stick. Make sure you copy them to the root of the USB stick; don’t copy the Win7 folder you made above but rather the contents of that folder.

    You now have a bootable Windows 7 USB stick that you can use to boot any computer or laptop or netbook from. You may find you have to set your target computer to boot from removable media but that’s the simple part. All the hard work is done and now you can try out Windows 7 without a DVD required.



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    I love these, i am starting to get a real good collection of these USB OS

    Thanks mate
    When you do things right, people won't be sure that you have done anything at all

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    Why is there no mention of recommended USB stick size ? does it need space to unpack things while preparing new system ? I would have thought this would be the first and most important bit of information.

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    The Win7 RC1 iso is 2.35 GB. No need to have space to unpack since win7 is normally installed from a dvd that can't be written to.

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