Trouble formatting a USB as a boot device. (Many many errors)

Raindeux · 04 Apr 2012

My laptop is a Dell Inspiron N5010. I have a copy of a Windows 7 Ultimate x64 ISO file on my desktop. Not just the ISO file. It, supposedly, has everything needed to burn Windows 7 Ultimate x64 on a DVD. Unfortunately, I have no blank DVD's and no money to buy some. I do have a 32 gig flash drive however. So I did some research to see how I can change it to become a bootable device. Hmm where to begin... It didn't work at first, so after a lot of googling I ended up reformatting the USB to NTFS. Then copying the Windows files on the drive. In my laptop's BIOS I changed USB to primary boot device. Plugged it in and, didn't work. I changed my SATA Mode to ATA instead of AHCI, which someone said would fix it. It didn't. Just for an fyi, when I plug in the USB, and just let it load, it says "BOOTMGR is missing". Someone said I didn't format the USB right and gave me a website on how to walk through it. At some point I was in the command prompt, and after selecting the disk my USB is labeled as, and cleaning it out, I tried to make a partition, or something like that, but it said I had insufficient space. Even though I JUST emptied the entire thing. Another person offered a windows-to-USB program that would walk me through the whole process. But when I selected the ISO file from my desktop I got an error message saying "Invalid ISO file, please select a valid ISO file and try again." A computer tech guy said that on my laptop I could pres F11 and it would bring up a system restore menu and it would act like a recovery disk. Nothing pops up. I'm very frustrated at this point, I've wasted a good 12+ hours on this thing, and I've got nothing to show for it. If there's something I'm leaving out, or a question you want to ask for more info feel free to ask. Any help is welcome. :\

Edit: To be clear, my laptop is out of commission, I'm researching and typing this from a desktop. I have the files on this desktop.

AddRAM · 04 Apr 2012

You can`t just copy the files, you have to burn them to it. I use PowerISO. There is a tutorial on here on how to do it. I would download the iso from here and use it.

Official Windows 7 SP1 ISO from Digital River « My Digital Life

Raindeux · 04 Apr 2012

I have to buy PowerISO in order to burn the files to my USB? Are there any free programs I could use to do that?

Golden · 04 Apr 2012

Hi,

You don't need to pay anything - use this, its free:

Microsoft Store Online

Regards,
Golden

AddRAM · 04 Apr 2012

The Official ImgBurn Website

Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

http://www.mydigitallife.info/offici...digital-river/

joodoo · 04 Apr 2012

Is the partition marked "Active"?
Open a command prompt as administrator >
Type:
diskpart > enter
list disk > enter
select disk * > enter (*= USB drive}
clean > enter
create partition primary > enter
select partition 1 > enter
active > enter
format > enter
assign > enter
exit > enter
Extract the files from the .ISO to the USB device.
Should be bootable (works for me).

Breezy

gregrocker · 04 Apr 2012

Everything you need is here: Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

Raindeux · 04 Apr 2012

Golden said:

Hi,

You don't need to pay anything - use this, its free:

Microsoft Store Online

Regards,
Golden

Thank you. I'll use that!

joodoo said:

Is the partition marked "Active"?
Open a command prompt as administrator >
Type:
diskpart > enter
list disk > enter
select disk * > enter (*= USB drive}
clean > enter
format > enter
create partition primary > enter
select partition 1 > enter
active > enter
assign > enter
exit > enter
Extract the files from the .ISO to the USB device.
Should be bootable (works for me).

Breezy

Everything there worked except the format stage, which is odd. First time I tried it I got an error on the create partition primary step, now it does that after it fails to format... When I entered format I got a message saying "There is no volume selected. Please select a volume and try again." Then after that I went ahead and entered create partition primary anyways, and it said "Diskpart succeeded in created the specified partition. And do I extract the files from the file location to the USB, or do I burn them? Im confused on that part.

AddRAM said:

The Official ImgBurn Website

Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

Official Windows 7 SP1 ISO from Digital River « My Digital Life

Yes, that 2nd link is what someone recommended to me, and on step one it said invalid ISO file, please select a valid ISO file. :\

gregrocker said:

Everything you need is here: Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

Wait that wont swipe THIS machine will it? It just downloads the files or what?

Edit: Now I've got a new problem. After trying this, My USB isn't formatted. And when I right clikc the USb drive in Computer and select format, I select NTFS, and after 20 minutes it says its unable to complete the formatting....

gregrocker · 04 Apr 2012

What do you mean by

Wait that wont swipe THIS machine will it?

You use the steps given to do a booted Clean Reinstall on the machine you want.

The tutorial shows you how to reinstall Win7 perfectly on factory preinstalled OEM - but the steps can be used for retail as well.

If the Win7 download tool doesn't format the stick correctly, then use Universal USB Installer with Win7 in dropdown menu - it never fails.

Raindeux · 04 Apr 2012

gregrocker said:

What do you mean by

Wait that wont swipe THIS machine will it?

You use the steps given to do a booted Clean Reinstall on the machine you want.

The tutorial shows you how to reinstall Win7 perfectly on factory preinstalled OEM - but the steps can be used for retail as well.

If the Win7 download tool doesn't format the stick correctly, then use Universal USB Installer with Win7 in dropdown menu - it never fails.

But now my USB isn't even formatted, and it fails to format every time I try :\

Doing that command prompt screwed something up.

And I mean Im typing this from my desktop, with the ISO files on it. I want to put it on a USB so I can use it on my Laptop which is broken. Downloading those files isnt gooing to mess with my desktop will it?