Create a Bootable Vista or Windows 7 USB Flash Drive
This is a simple guide to creating a bootable USB flash drive for a Vista or Windows 7 installation, you may know of a USB flash drive to be called a pen drive, thumb drive, USB drive or a memory stick. Hopefully that brief explaination has clear the air as to what we are taking about.
The guide below is a step by step walk through for creating a bootable USB flash drive for the purpose of installing a Vista or Windows 7 OS. First thing is make sure we have everything need to perform this simple task. So lets get this party started and check the list below:
* a USB Flash Drive with a capicity of 4GB or higher
* Microsoft OS Disk for Vista or Windows 7
* A computer running Vista or Windows 7
STEP 1 is to Format the Flash Drive:
1. Plug your USB Flash Drive into the computer’s USB port that you will format
2. Open a command prompt as administrator ( click Start > All Programs > Accessories > Right Click Command Prompt and select “Run as administrator”
3. Find the drive number of your USB Drive by typing the following into the Command Prompt window:
diskpart
list disk
The number of your USB drive will be listed. You’ll need this for the next step. I’ll assume that the USB flash drive is disk 1.
4. Format the drive by typing the below block of instructions into the same window. Replace the number “1” with the number of your disk .
select disk 1
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=NTFS
assign
exit
When that is done you will have a formatted USB flash drive. Now we have to make it a bootable USB drive.
Step 2: We make the USB Drive Bootable
Next we’ll use the bootsect utility that comes on the Vista or Windows 7 disk to make the flash drive bootable. In the same command window that you were using in Step 1:
1. Insert your Windows Vista or Windows 7 DVD into your drive.
2. Change directory to the DVD’s boot directory where bootsect lives:
d:
cd d:\boot
3. Use bootsect to set the USB as a bootable NTFS drive prepared for a Vista or Windows 7 image. I’m assuming that your USB flash drive has been labeled disk G:\ by the computer:
bootsect /nt60 g:
4. You can now close the command prompt window, we’re done here.
Step 3: Now we copy the installation DVD to the USB drive
The easiest way is to use Windows explorer to copy all of the files on your DVD on to the formatted flash drive. After you’ve copied all of the files the disk you are ready to go.
Step 4: Set your BIOS to boot from USB
Hopefully you know how to do this for your computer. This is where you’re on your own since every computer is different. But try and see if the below instructions help, if not you will need to find the manual or Google the information.
BIOS utilities are normally available only from a power-on restart. So shut down your computer by turning off the power switch, let it sit for a minute then turn it back on. Watch your PC ‘s screen very carefully as it boots up, for the key to press to get into the BIOS. Often, it’s DEL, F2 or F10.
If the OS starts to boot, you are too late. You have to try again by shuting the power off again to get another shot. Once you are in the BIOS, you will need to look through the screens to find the one that has the “load defaults” option. It’s usually not that difficult to find.
There is another method called WinToFlash that’s a bit easier than the above. You can find the procedure here.
via Kevin’s blog
