Windows 7: How do you create a USB boot drive

I am sure this question has come up before and is very easily answered but I really need some help!!! Please could someone tell me how to make a bootable usb drive with windows 7. Please can you make the instructions really clear because I don't want to muck up!!!



Any help much appreciated

P.S. Hope I have got this in the right part of this forum!!!

I had picked the wrong link - sorry.

Hello Music Guy123
Is this what your looking for - USB Windows 7 Installation Key Drive - Create

Danny

You can follow the steps to make a USB drive bootable.

1)Insert the USB (4GB+ preferable) stick to the system and backup all the data from the USB as we are going to format the USB to make it as bootable.

2) Open elevated Command Prompt. To do this, type in CMD in Start menu search field and hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter. Alternatively, navigate to Start > All programs >Accessories > right click on Command Prompt and select run as administrator.

3) When the Command Prompt opens, enter the following command:
DISKPART and hit enter.
LIST DISK and hit enter.
Once you enter the LIST DISK command, it will show the disk number of your USB drive.

4) In this step you need to enter all the below commands one by one and hit enter. As these commands are self explanatory, you can easily guess what these commands do.
SELECT DISK 1 (Replace DISK 1 with your disk number)
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
FORMAT FS=NTFS
(Format process may take few seconds)
ASSIGN
EXIT

Don’t close the command prompt as we need to execute one more command at the next step. Just minimize it.

5) Insert your Windows DVD in the optical drive and note down the drive letter of the optical drive and USB media. Here I use “D” as my optical (DVD) drive letter and “H” as my USB drive letter.
6. Go back to command prompt and execute the following commands:
D:CD BOOT and hit enter. Where “D” is your DVD drive letter.
CD BOOT and hit enter to see the below message.
BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 H:
(Where “H” is your USB drive letter)

6) Copy Windows DVD contents to USB.

You are done with the USB bootable drive. You can now use this bootable USB as bootable DVD on any computer that comes with USB boot feature

Have a look at this article Create Windows 7 and Windows 8 Bootable USB Drive or DVD Using Official “Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool” from Microsoft - Tweaking with Vishal
This should be the simplest. Good luck.

My problem is that I don't have a windows instalation DVD, is there any way I could get one/make one for either free or cheaply???

Do you have a genuine Windows 7 key? If you do have, then you can borrow the particular version Windows 7 media from a friend and make an ISO.

Yeah i do, do you mean borrow the disc and use my key to activate it or what...I am just a bit confused!!!

Yes. Only your key is unique. The Windows disk is not unique.

Have another look at the link I posted at the beginning of the thread. It will show you how to create a installation usb from your friends disk which you can install from then activate with your key

Danny