Windows 7: Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

Introduction

I'm trying to use this tool to install an OEM OS on a Notebook using my flash drive and I am also getting the "The Selected file not a valid ISO file". Will try the suggestion in post #4 to get around the fact that Microsoft made this tool to read only "perfect" ISO images and not adulterated ones such as those put out by PC makers.

I currently have Windows 7 Ultimate on my Dell 1010 Mini NB and am wishing I'd left XP SP3 on it as it is now sooooo slow. It isn't that fat to start with and I guess this was just too much for the poor thing.

The alternate and sensible course would be to buy an external USB CD/DVD drive but I am trying to save money here.

Thankfully my NB is merely a standin for my actual PC if that ever fails for whatever reason.

If anyone has any quick solutions to that invalid ISO error I'd love to hear it.

You can actually just drag-n-drop all the files from the mounted ISO (use MagicDisc or a similar program) to a USB drive. See method #2: USB Windows 7 Installation Key Drive - Create

I'm sorry to sound totally thick here. This area is where I fail the test miserably...LOL, I've never been good at disk images and bootable-anything.

By "all the files" - all what files? An ISO image is just that...I can't see any files therein.

If I simply dragged and dropped the contents of the OEM CD to my USB drive, is that what you mean? The Notebook itself can be booted from a USB drive - I just tell it to during bootup by clicking F12 and selecting that option. But I guess the secret is making the darn thing bootable in the first place.

I already downloaded MagicISO and the MSFT Tool can't read the ISO it makes either. (I usually use ImgBurn).

So I should use what method? Sorry but I'm a bit confused.

Ignore...it looks like the diskpart method is working.......LOL. I was just hoping that there was an easy way of getting that Microsoft tool to recognize OEM and other tailored OS images.

Yeah, I haven't had good luck with that tool either. Since RTM, I haven't burned any DVDs, but I always use the manual method of creating a bootable thumb drive.

The Microsoft tool works fine if it's an unadulterated CD/DVD such as an OS one has downloaded from Technet or any Microsoft-made CD/DVD, but the minute anything such as Dell or HP or whatever is included then it fails saying it's not a valid ISO image.
Pity.
I did see a way to persuade it to work on the web but it failed for me so I'm using method 2 in the link you provided and it seems to be working OK albeit taking several hours. (I just love Vista/Win 7's high-speed file transfer system although I could probably blame the USB drive in this case).

Thanks so much for your help.

P.S. The 3 hours 22 minutes it originally said it would take has shot down to 1 hour 10 minutes, so there's hope yet that it'll be done in my lifetime.

Well, I don't know. Although I have set USB as 1st boot in the notebook it isn't booting from it.....looks like I'm stuck with the status quo.

Can you manually boot from the USB drive using the popup boot menu?

Make sure the USB drive is clean (use the clean command), and active.

I did all that during the diskpart process. Should it be FAT32 or NTFS? ATM it's FAT32.

I can't manually boot from it either.

I have always used NTFS, but I don't know if it matters.

Try using method 1 of the tutorial: USB Windows 7 Installation Key Drive - Create