Install Windows 7 from USB device
Install Windows 7 from USB device
Jun 23The Windows 7 downloaded image that many online software retailers supply is simple too large to install from a single CD, being about 2.2Gb
This short guide has step-by-step instructions on how to install Windows 7 from any USB device with more than 2.3Gb free space.
You will obviously need an original Windows 7 DVD or image file.
If using an image file it will need to be mounted on a virtual drive so you can access the files inside.
There are many free tools available for this, but I use Daemon Tools.
You will also need a Vista or Windows 7 PC as Windows XP doesn’t have the “diskpart” or “bootsect” tools.
I just downloaded Windows 7 and wanted to install it on a notebook.
There were two main problems with this:
- The downloaded Windows 7 disc image was 2.23Gb
- The notebook I intended to install windows 7 on doesn’t have a disc dirve!
I have a few spare USB drives laying around, so my 4Gb pen drive was the ideal candidate to install Windows 7 from.
Here’s what I did…
1. Insert the USB Flash Drive
2. Open the command prompt as
(Start-> All Programs-> Accesories, right click on the “Command Prompt” and select “Run as …”
3. To find out what number corresponds to the USB Flash Drive you should type the following in the “Command Prompt” window:
diskpart
list disk
list disk
The number corresponding to your USB will be appear in the list (see the USB and the capacity of)
This number will need in the next step. The USB Flash Drive is usually disk 1.
5. Format the USB drive by typing the following commands in the same window. Attention, replace the number “1″ on disk 1 to the number of your drive as emerged from the above list.
select disk 1
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs = NTFS
assign
exit
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs = NTFS
assign
exit
When you enter this, you will have a USB Flash Drive formatted to be bootable.
6. So, let’s make the USB bootable
The application called “bootsect” is on every Vista and Windows 7 disc and will help here. Using the same command prompt window from Step 2:
1. Put the Windows 7 disc in the drive of your computer or mount the image.
2. Change the drive in the command prompt to that of your drive. Suppose that the DVD drive is E:
e:
cd e:\boot
cd e:\boot
3. We will use the bootsect to define the USB as a bootable NTFS drive.
Suppose that the USB Flash Drive is G: \, your position in G: \ put the letter of your USB.
Enter:
bootsect / nt60 g:
4. You can close the command prompt,now the USB is bootable.
7. Copy all Windows 7 files to USB flash device.
Copy all files from DVD and paste it in the USB flash drive. Just copy all the files, you’re ready.
Now just set your BIOS to boot from your new USB version of Windows 7!