Solved How do you create a USB boot drive

[Music Guy123]

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!!!

 

[whs]

I had picked the wrong link - sorry.

 

[xxxdannyxxx]

Hello Music Guy123
Is this what your looking for - http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2432-usb-windows-7-installation-key-drive-create.html

Danny

 

[Johnrai]

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

 

[jumanji]

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.

 

[Music Guy123]

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???

 

[jumanji]

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.

 

[Music Guy123]

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

 

[ignatzatsonic]

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

 

[xxxdannyxxx]

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

 

[Music Guy123]

Alright, will now go find a windows installation disk!!!

 

[xxxdannyxxx]

Alright, will now go find a windows installation disk!!!

Let us know how it goes

 

[gregrocker]

Easiest method to write USB flash installer is to use Universal USB Installer – Easy as 1 2 3
with Win7 in the dropdown menu.

Follow the steps in the Perfect Reinstall link in my signature picture below to get a perfect install.

 

[Johnrai]

I appreciate it, however I provided an alternative, that instead of a software disk part can be used.

 

[Johnrai]

Please let us know Music Guy 123 how the installation goes.

 

[Music Guy123]

cheers, am going to try with an xp installation disc as have that... will see how it goes, thanks for the help though!!!

 

[Bill2]

cheers, am going to try with an xp installation disc as have that... will see how it goes, thanks for the help though!!!

Lol, it wont work with XP....but best to learn from failure.

 

[gregrocker]

I don't think I've ever gotten XP installer to boot on a flash stick. But then I always had CD drives available.

At one time Win2Flash advertised it wrote XP to stick, but it never worked for me. However an OP I was helping got it to write the Win7 Repair CD to stick and it worked fine.

 

[Music Guy123]

why not, although i do believe u!!! I used wintoflash with what i thought was a winxp disc. I am not really sure what the disc was for, I am worried if i boot with the usb, winxp will over run my system!!! There is no iso on the usb or disc, I have screen printed the files from my usb, what will happen if i boot from it??? Thanks for your help.

 

[Bill2]

Try following this method.

How To Install Windows XP From A USB Flash Drive Articles - OCIA.net

Make sure that disk is XP.