How to install Windows 7 from USB flash drive

[cookie66]

Hello, right now i'm running Ubuntu 10.04, and I want to uninstall it, and install Windows 7 from a flash drive. How can I do this from Ubuntu?

 

[karlsnooks]

cookie,
Please fill out your system specs so that we can better assist you.

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HOW TO FILL OUT YOUR SYSTEM SPECS


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That is an abbreviation for User Control Panel.
Click on UserCP.
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You can copy and paste from the output of Speccy, Speccy - System Information - Free Download to fill out much of the info. Be sure to use the Other Info section of your System Specs for such info as your optical drive, your wireless adapter, your speakers, etc.

​

 

[Night Hawk]

For one right off the bat you would "boot up live from" the installation key made up for that if you are able to boot from flash drives not run the installer while in another OS. From that point you then select the drive/partition where 7 will go onto.

First things first however. Once you have your system info taken care of you would need to wipe the drive period to see a new MS primary created either by way of the 7 installer or by a 3rd party drive tool like GParted live which you should be familiar with. The Windows installer however will create the 100mb System reserved partition ahead of the C primary for the BCD store and bootmgr file.

The second image attached here shows how that looks when viewed from a live distro since this is usually hidden from view in Windows unless assigning a drive letter to in in the Disk Management.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello cookie66, welcome to Seven Forums!





You don't need a third party program to do a wipe "secure erase" to the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) the Windows installer will do it natively, if that's what you choose to do though it would be advisable to clean the HDD of the Grub boot-loader before you install Windows 7 so you don't have any conflicts, have a look at the info below.

Be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

   Information

After you have made backups of everything you care to save and you want to do a real wipe "secure erase" to the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) have a look at this tutorial at the link below, it over-writes everything, all the old Windows code including the old Windows drivers, everything all data, giving you the best possible space to install Windows 7 to; it goes hand-in-hand with a clean install.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

How to Do a Clean Installation with Windows 7

​

 

[cookie66]

Well, when I try to install Windows 7 from Ubuntu 10.04, I click Install, and an error comes up. "Windows setup cannot find a location to store temporary installation files. To install Windows, make sure that a partition on your boot disk has at least 686 MB of free space" :huh: Then the installer closes.

 

[karlsnooks]

Simple. Make sure that you've got a partition with the needed free space.

 

[cookie66]

Simple. Make sure that you've got a partition with the needed free space.

How do I do that?

 

[karlsnooks]

Delete what you don't need. Move things around.

My god, man, you can't be serious with that question.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Simple. Make sure that you've got a partition with the needed free space.

How do I do that?

Like this.

Be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

   Information

After you have made backups of everything you care to save and you want to do a real wipe "secure erase" to the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) have a look at this tutorial at the link below, it over-writes everything, all the old Windows code including the old Windows drivers, everything all data, giving you the best possible space to install Windows 7 to; it goes hand-in-hand with a clean install.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

How to Do a Clean Installation with Windows 7

USB Windows 7 Installation Key Drive - Create

​

 

[youllbelost]

No one mentioned the "windows 7 USB DVD Download tool." I use it everytime and it works just fine. You just need an ISO image for the working.

Hope this helps.

 

[Night Hawk]

You can follow the guide Bare Foot Kid added into the post there and download the shareware version of UltraISO to create an ISO if you lack an optical drive on the intended system like a netbook type install. That will also prepare the flash drive if needed with a reformat something not seen with the MS tool.

 

[cookie66]

Ok, so I made the Flash drive bootable, and Windows 7 on it, but when I boot from the flash drive, it says "NTLDR is missing

Press any key to restart" Do I need to uninstall Ubuntu first, maybe??

 

[eldinv]

No one mentioned the "windows 7 USB DVD Download tool." I use it everytime and it works just fine. You just need an ISO image for the working.

Hope this helps.

The OP wants to do this from within Ubuntu.

 

[eldinv]

Ok, so I made the Flash drive bootable, and Windows 7 on it, but when I boot from the flash drive, it says "NTLDR is missing

Press any key to restart" Do I need to uninstall Ubuntu first, maybe??

How did you make a bootable flash drive?

Did you wipe the disc?

Did you set your computer to boot from flash drive in the bios?

 

[eldinv]

You can follow the guide Bare Foot Kid added into the post there and download the shareware version of UltraISO to create an ISO if you lack an optical drive on the intended system like a netbook type install. That will also prepare the flash drive if needed with a reformat something not seen with the MS tool.

I know you can install UltraISO in Linux using Wine, but has anyone tried this process in Linux and actually get it to work when installing Windows 7?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Ok, so I made the Flash drive bootable, and Windows 7 on it, but when I boot from the flash drive, it says "NTLDR is missing

Press any key to restart" Do I need to uninstall Ubuntu first, maybe??

For the thrid time!

You don't need a third party program to do a wipe "secure erase" to the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) the Windows installer will do it natively, if that's what you choose to do though it would be advisable to clean the HDD of the Grub boot-loader before you install Windows 7 so you don't have any conflicts, have a look at the info below.

Be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

   Information

After you have made backups of everything you care to save and you want to do a real wipe "secure erase" to the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) have a look at this tutorial at the link below, it over-writes everything, all the old Windows code including the old Windows drivers, everything all data, giving you the best possible space to install Windows 7 to; it goes hand-in-hand with a clean install.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

How to Do a Clean Installation with Windows 7

​

 

[eldinv]

LOL classic!

 

[cookie66]

I used Wintoflash to put the Windows 7 files on the flash drive, and I did that on a a Windows XP system. I don't know IF I want to wipe out the drive, because what if I can't get this going? Then I have a wiped out hard drive, with no OS.

 

[cookie66]

My flash drive was formated to FAT16, so I'm formating it to NTFS, and doing the process again.

 

[eldinv]

No it doesn't need to be, you are not following suggestions!