Bootable USB Drive Recipe

One of the questions we have been getting in the first few dates of the Windows 7 Tour in Ireland is about making a bootable USB Drive to install Windows 7 from. For those that don’t know how to make a bootable USB key, here is the recipe:

Creating a bootable USB device:

Start\run\diskpart.exe

DISKPART> list disk

Select the USB device from the list and substitute the disk number below

     when necessary

DISKPART> select disk 1

DISKPART> clean

DISKPART> create partition primary

DISKPART> select partition 1

DISKPART> active

DISKPART> format fs=fat32

DISKPART> assign

DISKPART> exit

xcopy X :\*.* /s/e/f Y :\

where X:\ is your mounted image or physical DVD and Y:\ is your USB device

Now all you need to do is plug the device into your target box's USB slot and boot it. This may require hitting F10/F12 to load the one-time boot menu and selecting the USB Key.

cheers

Will_2   Will_Signiture2

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