Windows 7 - Trying to make USB boot drive, having issues

I'm using YUMA to create a multiboot drive out of my 16gb Patriot XT flash drive. I'm using the Windows 7 SP1 x64 image provided by digital river and a Backtrack 5 Gnome x64 image. This isn't my problem though.

When I boot my computer without the USB drive in any port, it pops up in the boot menu. When I plug in any USB flash drive, though, and then go into the boot options, it's gone. Essentially the only time it will give me the option to boot from a flash drive is if there is no flash drive in the port. It doesn't matter whether the drive contains a bootable image or not.

Boot order is as follows:

HDD
USB
CD/DVD
etc.
etc.

Legacy USB support is disabled since enabled causes booting with the drive in at all to lockup during POST.

Any ideas on what could be causing this?

If you disable Legacy USB Support, you will not be able to boot from the USB device. So enable it. There are no two ways about it.

Redo your YUMI from scratch again. Choose to format the pendrive to FAT32 during the process.. This time include only the Windows 7 install ISO. ( You can add anything else later.)

Make sure that the ISO file name contains no spaces.

Once you create it, use the onetime boot menu to boot from the pendrive.

Are you able to get the YUMI Boot menu and choose Windows 7 install?

Read through the Known issues YUMI - Multiboot USB Creator (Windows) | USB Pen Drive Linux and take corrective action as indicated therein in case you encounter problems mentioned therein. 1. You should make the ISO contiguous 2. During the Windows install process, you should plug out the pendrive, before the first Windows start.

For creating only the Windows 7 installation pendrive, I would recommend that you use Universal USB installer Universal USB Installer – Easy as 1 2 3 | USB Pen Drive Linux which is much simpler and devoid of any issues.

You may experiment with YUMI at your leisure later.

Thank you, I'll try this.

I also get an error message during installation of the image:



Is this a problem? And if it is, how do I fix it?

Installing the image? Where? Why?

I am afraid you are adopting a wrong procedure in creating the bootable pendrive.

In step one select your pendrive and tick format to FAT32.

In step 2 select Windows Vista/7 Installer.

In step 3 browse to the location of the Windows 7 ISO and select it.

Click on Create.

Your bootable pendrive to install Windows 7 will be ready in a few seconds.



( If the downloaded ISO is corrupt, you will experience problems. If it is not a genuine ISO you will experience problems. Use only genuine software.)

I think you misunderstand: That's what I did - when I go through all of that process YUMA automatically opens up a 7zip window and starts extracting the ISO files to the disk.

Could the issue (with the error) be that YUMA doesn't recognize the pre-patched copy of windows?

I tried booting the USB from another computer - as with my laptop it automatically locks up during post once I press the boot options key.

I tried formatting it and then trying again from scratch, no difference.

Tried installing only Backtrack, no difference

Confirm your ISO or download another, write to stick using Universal USB Installer
with Windows 7 in dropdown.

Boot using one-time BIOS Boot Menu key under USB, Removable or HD's. Keep HD set first to boot in BIOS.

Hi,

I've used YUMI several times with Windows and Linux distros and have never seen this problem.

As suggested by Greg, try a different USB stick to rule that out.

Regards,
Golden

Problem is that I only have 1 USB drive large enough.

However, I'm going to try Universal USB Installer rather than YUMI and see if that works.

OK, I have not used YUMI for Windows 7 installation, so I missed out on the 7zip part.

But I had an inkling that you may not be using a genuine original ISO and that is why I added a last sentence to my previous post "( If the downloaded ISO is corrupt, you will experience problems. If it is not a genuine ISO you will experience problems. Use only genuine software.)"

And it turns out , you are using a patched ISO. You will have no problems if only you use a genuine official ISO as vouched for by Golden above.

With a patched ISO, I am not sure whether you will be successful even with the Universal Installer. On your own now.

The ISO is official and being distributed by Microsoft's official partner for digital distribution - Digital River. It is not a cracked or non-genuine copy of windows. It is an official, genuine copy produced by Microsoft and distributed officially on the Digital River website.

Download Windows 7 Integrated With SP1 ISO – Official Direct Download Links

However, considering it happens even solely with Backtrack I don't think that was the root of my issue. It appears to be a BIOS bug, at this point, although one reproduced on 2 separate computers with 2 separate BIOS'.