Hi everyone,
Those days gone when we used to carry floppy disks to copy small documents, text files here and there. Now, we prefer USB thumb drives or pen drives for copying documents, multimedia files. Over the last few years USB drives have been quite cheap to buy. And these days when we have operating system size grown into GBs we have to burn the DVD disc every time we want to install the OS. But using USB thumb drive we install Windows 7 without wasting any DVD disc. Many of us who try different builds and format the machine often; for such users installing from USB drive is peace of mind. No need to burn the DVD every time. Also, the netbooks are getting very common for eg. Asus Eee PC. As netbooks don’t have built-in DVD drive, installing from USB drive is the most convenient option than hunting for USB Optical drive.
So, what do we need to install the Windows 7 from USB drive ? A USB thumb drive with capacity 4 GB or more and of course Windows 7 DVD media. Right now we have Windows 7 Beta build 7000 having total DVD media sizing just over 2.4 GB.
Let’s start by pluggin the 4 GB USB thumb drive.
Open the elevated command prompt with administrator privileges and type the following commands.
C:\Windows\system32>diskpart
Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7000
Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: AVIRAJ
DISKPART> list disk
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
——– ————- ——- ——- — —
Disk 0 Online 149 GB 0 B
Disk 1 Online 3834 MB 0 B
DISKPART> select disk 1
Disk 1 is now the selected disk.
DISKPART> clean
DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk.
DISKPART> create partition primary
DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition.
DISKPART> format fs=fat32 quick
100 percent completed
DiskPart successfully formatted the volume.
DISKPART> active
DiskPart marked the current partition as active.
DISKPART> exit
Leaving DiskPart…
C:\Windows\system32>exit
Now, just copy the files located on Windows 7 DVD Media.
Make sure in the BIOS you have selected USB Boot option. Otherwise you won’t be able to boot from the USB thumb drive.
Next step, plug in the USB thumb drive into the notebook or netbook, where you want to install Windows 7. It will boot from the USB thumb drive. Installing from USB drive improves installation time vs installing from DVD Media as optical media is lower that USB.
Using this same USB thumb drive you can install Windows 7 on any computer that supports booting from USB. And now on you won’t be wasting the DVD disc for burning any new build of Windows 7. Just replace the media files on the USB thumb drive and install the OS. 🙂
Enjoy
Same response like my previous, I am not sure about offcial supported way of installing Windows XP from USB Drives, but there are several guides available on different sites that helps you install Windows XP from USB Drives.
Hi, after i install windows 7 through USB how can i bring the USB to its original state ?
thanx
I am not sure about offcial supported way of installing Windows XP from USB Drives, but there are several guides available on different sites that helps you install Windows XP from USB Drives.
PingBack from http://www.techdreams.org/microsoft/how-to-install-windows-7-using-usbmemory-stick/1309-20090208
Hello Pratik,
Try this utility to create bootable USB stick http://wudt.codeplex.com/
This has saved lot of time for everyone.
@alittlegeek Thanks much for the feedback. Readers will definitely read the comments and hopefully it will be useful for them.
Hello Jawad,
Thanks for the feedback. In case you are creating the USB on Windows 7 machine, you do not need to run bootsect command. In the diskpart I have run the "active" command, which will make sure that the USB has active partition that will boot the WinPE using BOOTMGR.
In case you need to create bootable USB Device then I would recommend using "Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool." It is available to download from store.microsoft.com/…/ISO-Tool and works well on Windows XP.
@Steven
Thanks steven. This supports both 32-bit and 64-bit. The only thing is you need to create 2 folders and for each platform copy those files on the root folder i.e. X: where X=drive letter.
my internet is fail thats why im install windowsXPfor usb.
while i was updating on the last stage i got the blue screen of death!!! why?
Just boot in windows, open explorer, right click on USB drive and format.
Hey Man,
You saved my life as my DVD drive failed to detect bootable media. Thanx a ton.
Mayur Tendulkar | Microsoft Student Partner
AWESOME tutorial man.
Thankyou
Worked perfectly. I used an 8Gig SD card for my Asus EEEPC 1005HA… its running awesomly! Thanks for the tutorial.
may i know why,when i type in list disk,cmd cant show out the 1 for thumb drive…?
my thumbdrives are 4GB and 8GB kingston datatraveler.
Good article. Can we add to it to make both 32-bit and 64-bit edition available on, say, an 8GB Thumb Drive?
I’m lost, I’m not tech savy, please help. I downloaded windows 7, per upgrade, then moved, had my internet re-installed, when comcast re-installed internet and re-booted, I had NO operating system. I went to a different PC, and downloaded the windows 7 backup media, 3 files,
setup box 1 & 2 and Win7 HP retail. How do I turn these files, into bootable on a usb thumb drive, I am completely lost, Microsoft won’t help me. I don’t know what to do please, if anyone can help me, with really remedial step by step instructions,PLEASE!!!!
e-mail me. aaquimusic@gmail.com please!!!!
Hi ,
in my case I use an USB disk with existing data. so I can’t format.
And it is already NTFS.
So just copy the files (use 7zip to open directly the .iso) to the root of the disk.
and then, with X: as the USB disk
CD
Thanks man, it works great. I copied the win7 installer to a microSD and I totally rocks. I had some trouble with the ntfs formatting of the microSD (USB connected), but found some info about it in other sites. Now I am playing with win 7 in a machine with no DVD-Rom, he.
Hello,
Custom install or upgrade saves your old windows files….in a file on you c: called
windows.old
If its there, chances are you can still recover some of your data, otherwise you’ll need to get a data recovery software and an extra drive and probably some cables depending on how savvy you are.
Cheers.
How do you install Windows XP via Flash Drive without using third party?
How do you make a usb flash drive bootable for XP
Well a nice post with simple guidelines, but you can make this more easily by using a tool called WinSetupUSB, you can visit
http://www.alittlegeek.com/how-to-make-multiboot-usb-with-windows-7-xp-livexp-and-linux for more detail and full walkabout and video guideline. This article also describe how to make windows seven/xp and live xp multiboot usb disk.
my usb drive is not getting detected in diskpart … when i enter list disk
I like your post, but i have 2 questions.
1st : what if we have windows xp installed, and we want to create windows 7 usb installtion drive. BCoz diskpart—>list disk wont detect removable drives in XP.
2nd : you missed to make the usb drive bootable.
e.g bootsect.exe nt/60 (drive letter of usb disk)
Please reply
Thank you very much, keep up the good work
Aviraj,
Thanks for the nice reference for loading os from usb. do you know how to install image.wim from usb drive.
Hello Sir,
my name pratik
i wanna use my pendrive as bootable device
& i wanna install windows 7 using by my pendrive.
i using ur tips step by step but my pendrive is not display in list disk. but my pendrive is detect in windows ok.
so how can i do this plz sit rply me.
I tried this but when I tried copying the files (windows server 2008r2) from the dvd to the usb drive I got "invalid MS-DOS function." I found on another site that to get around this you can select all files on the dvd and send them to a compressed folder on your desktop, then open the compressed folder and copy those files to the thumbdrive. stupid but it works…
Thanks this is good
hi sir!! i tried doing it but the problem is it cannot be detected by my computer.. i tried it on the other computer and it didnt work also. pls help me.. thanks.. just send it to my email.. jhotypelayo19@yahoo.com
Wow man, this is awesome. In matter of minutes your USB Drive can be prepped and be ready without a single hassel. Worked very easy and eliminates the problem on this link http://www.withinwindows.com/…/use-the-windows-7-usbdvd-download-tool-with-custom-isos
thanks, it is working. now can you tell me how to install an application(like MS Office 2007) with Installation of Windows 7 using usb drive. i am trying to it but it is not working.
rnkprmntwin@yahoo.com
thanks for the info. i'll try to my flash disc.
what if the comp does not show a thumb drive on the BIOS menu?
After bumbling around with a miriad of instructions … I was HAPPY to find these. Clear, easy to follow, and best of all they work!