Guide | How To Install Windows 7 from a USB Drive

The associated guide may contain user-generated or external content.

Shadow King

Level 1
Thread author
Jun 11, 2012
114
Hi friends! today I am going to tell you all how to install windows 7 from 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:




1. USB flash drive with a minimum capacity of 4 GB.
2. Windows 7 set-up DVD.



Step-1: Plug-in your USB flash drive and backup all the existing data in it.

Step-2: Open the command prompt. If you are using Windows 7/Vista then open it with administrator rights*.
* Goto Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Right-click on “Command Prompt” and select “Run as Administrator”.

Step 3: In the command prompt, type in the following command:
DISKPART

This will start the Microsoft DiskPart utility as shown below:
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

FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK

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
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.
 

Ink

Administrator
Verified
Jan 8, 2011
22,490
Alternatively, an easier method using the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/913.using-the-windows-7-usbdvd-download-tool.aspx
 

Coffeeman

Level 3
Verified
Nov 24, 2012
202
Some nice tutorial, but this is a pretty nice piece of software, much more simpler and powerful than MS USB/DVD tool: -LINK.
No offense to ShadowKing for his post!
 

Exterminator

Level 85
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Oct 23, 2012
12,527
Thanks for the tutorial :)

I agree with Earth,I just use the Windows 7 USB/DVD Tool which I also use for Windows 8
 

jumpmango

New Member
Apr 1, 2013
12
Although I use Novicorp WinToFlash software, it is nice to know other alternative method using dos command to achieve it. Nice lesson!
 

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