Solved Install Windows 7 to a thumb drive bootable or iso file system

[loninappleton]

I'm confused about the difference in install modes of Windows 7 to the Novicorp Win2Flash installer or the Rufus program. I have the Portable.

The difference appears to be Novicorp installs a Windows to the device in Fat32 file system.
With Rufus yiu can build the file system in NTFS and move a Win7 ISO onto it for installation
to an SSD or HD.

I have the guide for Rufus. I'm doing a practice install with Win2Flash since it came to hand first.

With the info above which should I settle on? Windows7 in Fat32 seems of little use but these details I've forgotten over time.

 

[loninappleton]

Novicorp installed but it gave the standard boot failure error.
I think file format must have been the problem since the wiped HDD I had just used
Admin tools to put on NTFS to prep for an install.


Hopefully Rufus can wipe this little thumb drive.

 

[samuria]

If you have an iso file most dvd writting software will write the file for you. What gave the boot error the hd or usb?

 

[Paul Black]

Hi loninappleton,

Novicorp installed but it gave the standard boot failure error.
I think file format must have been the problem since the wiped HDD I had just used
Admin tools to put on NTFS to prep for an install.

Hopefully Rufus can wipe this little thumb drive.

Most people here use Rufus as it does the lot. It formats [either FAT32 or NTFS] the USB and creates a bootable USB for installation.

I hope this helps!

 

[loninappleton]

Yes, I'm moving on to rufus next.


From above, Tryingt o select the USB to boot after inspecting the BIOS order gave the
problem. That may be related to selecting AHCI which for this very old Biostar board is not
a selection. I think ages ago I tried to install AHCI from a floppy but never got anywhere--and
that was under XP where you have think fact to select the source of the AHCI file. I never got it right.


Thank to both for answering.


I have the rufus guide. Will follow that and report any success. It's just that I see

those on the Youtube who are doing builds for benchmarls do this all the time.

 

[loninappleton]

I started with Rufus.


Here is a pic of Rufus showing what is greyed out and incomplete and the log file next to
it. Logfile shows it found that Fat32 created by the other program.


What to do? This is the latest version and the guide I had shows a different layout
which I can't follow.


As to fornatting I thought Rufus just overwrote everything to NTFS is that was selected.


A previous error it gave was about having a drive door on Disk A open which seemed from
another century.


That's what I have so far and why this has been slow going for me.

 

[Paul Black]

Hi loninappleton,

Here is a pic of Rufus showing what is greyed out and incomplete and the log file next to it. Logfile shows it found that Fat32 created by the other program.

As to fornatting I thought Rufus just overwrote everything to NTFS is that was selected.

In the Boot Selection, under Drive Properties, you need to select the ISO. Click the Select button and browse to the ISO.

Rufus does overwrite everything on the USB.

I hope this helps!

 

[loninappleton]

I'm cross-checking with another PC I have-- an MSI rather than Biostar (which is the oldest I have.)
The MSI BIOS shows the option for AHCI. Nothing on AHCI that I could find in the Biostar RAID setup
which is all part of what I read earlier.


It may be the Biostar BIOS just never will be able to run Rufus. The machine and upgrades are long-since discontinued. I ran the last BIOS routine for it ages ago.


I'll run it on MSI and make a log of that.

 

[loninappleton]

Hi loninappleton,



In the Boot Selection, under Drive Properties, you need to select the ISO. Click the Select button and browse to the ISO.

Rufus does overwrite everything on the USB.

I hope this helps!

I made some mistakes in seeing what was needed. I'm making a new transfer of the .ISO where
I hope Rufus sees it. I''l put it on the desktop. The error I think as the cause was tryig to select the
dvd drive where my Win7 normally autoloads for an install as the iso source.


Well, onward/

 

[loninappleton]

Rufus is running. I added a bad blocks check for the old 4gb thumb drive I have. ISO file showed 3.09 GB
so it should fit.


I'll wait to see all processes finish.


One thing I noticed is when Rufus lights up the green Ready bar. That doesn't happen so far. Maybe
it signals ready for another job. It's just puzzling since the pics show the Ready bar green.

 

[loninappleton]

Time for my next lesson.


The bad block routine ran. The Green Bary Ready appeared.


I pressed start for the actual ISO to be written and it appears that the bad block routine is simply running again. I let it go. I'll look at the log to see if I can note anything. What I have not seen is a screen
message that says your iso is your bootable iso is successfully installed.

 

[loninappleton]

Have checked the log and apparently a number of processes have run including chkdsk.

I'll keep an eye on the log after this pass. I think the job completed the first time.


Will mark solved after I do the checks.

 

[Vineet Garg]

Hi All,
Greets,
Sir(s),
It seems the things are all done But I have something to say!

1) The Correct Understanding : Installing & maintaining windows on a pen drive AND preparing a pen drive Installation media to install windows on a HDD/SSD, are two different things.
Both utilities support both the things.
As it is clear that the objective, here, is to prepare a USB installation media, we should talk only about that.

2) Here is a small guide to use Rufus :



This image is just for reference. Need not follow it or get confused! Follow instructions as below only :

To avoid any confusions/problems :
Close all the Programs/Apps/Windows.
Eject & unplug/take out all the external devices & external media like CD/DVD, Pen Drives, external hard disks & other USB Devices except the one pen drive

Place the Rufus portable in a folder, launch Rufus & follow the instructions :

(a) When you launch Rufus , It may ask to check for updates, opt 'NO'.
(b) Select the pen drive in the Device menu
(c)click 'SELECT', browse to the windows iso and double click it (somethings change & iso name will appear in the 'Boot selection' window)
(d) Choose partition scheme as GPT/MBR & Target system as UEFI/BIOS as applicable to your system ( These options may be chosen automatically but make sure you make the ones required )
(e) need not change any thing else
(f) press 'START' ( copying iso files, finally READY! )
(g) close the rufus window, it's done.

3) Rufus :
(a) Rufus is the best!
(b) It can be used to check Bad Blocks on the USB drive. It can be used to quick format the drive.
(c) While creating installation media, It automatically selects proper file system. Then it quick formats the drive, erasing all the other things present on it.
(d) While using Rufus, it will be good to go with the default selections & settings, except for the two things 'Partition Scheme' & 'Target System' i.e. 'MBR/GPT' & 'BIOS/UEFI'. They should be chosen according to the system on which the installation is planned. Leave rest to Rufus.
(e) Another great feature is : It can be used to prepare UEFI USB installation media with ISOs greater in size than 4GB. It uses UEFI+GPT+NTFS for that!
( In the near future, a fully updated win7 ISO may be larger in size than 4GB )

4) The File System : The proper file system is automatically chosen by Rufus & stick to its selection. The chosen file system is only for the installation media & has no bearing on the HDD/SSD file system. The file system present on the HDD/SSD would be taken care of itself.
( So, just make sure that your HDD/SDD is having NTFS on it which is default now a days)

5) In some cases HDD/SDD may be needed to convert from GPT to MBR or from MBR to GPT depending on the system it has to used on.

6) Critical Storage Drivers :
(a) USB drivers : To recognize & boot well into a Windows 7 USB Installation media, better go with USB 2.0 port as windows 7 does not support USB 3.0 port out of the box. Otherwise integrate the USB 3.0 drivers in the ISO before making an installation media.

(b) AHCI : With basic drivers already integrated into the windows 7 ISO, AHCI is only a problem on very new/latest machines. I also noticed problem with RAID drivers on new machines. But one need not think about it in advance.
If the driver is not there, It will still boot well into USB media but would not be able to access/recognize the hard drive & its partitions thereafter, just like XP days.
Your machine is not quite new & so it would not be an issue for you with win 7.

(c) AHCI/RAID ? If a computer has RAID configuration, It definitely should have something in BIOS to switch backward to AHCI interface which seems vital for SSDs.

7) To avoid any problems, just use ''One Time Boot Menu'' to boot into the USB/CD/DVD installation media. Always keep Hard drive on priority over USB & CD/DVD in the default boot order. ( One may get into a loop if it is not so)

So,

'Partition Scheme' & 'Target System' should be known before preparing USB installation media with Rufus. It will also tell you whether you need to convert Partition Scheme on the HDD/SSD.
Besides, If SSD is to be used, first switch from RAID to AHCI in BIOS Settings.

It is quite easy to decide/know about the things in BIOS Setup.
If one has a running OS on the same system, it is helpful to know what actually is working for the system.
Besides one should also look into the BIOS/Firmware capabilities. The exact make & model can help with that.

Just to mention :
(a) If planning to install win7 x64 , make sure that the system has 4GB or more RAM to support.
(b) Detach all other hard disks & pen drives except the two & then proceed with the installation.
(c) Consider to update the installation media :
Update your Win 7 installation media. by Sir SIW2.
OR
Create An Integrated Up To Date Windows 7 Install Disc • Raymond.CC

After updating the installation media, one may need to use a pen drive of 8gb or more capacity.

Thanks & Regards. ...

 

[loninappleton]

Thanks Veneet, this should help many seeing the thread. I realize the thread title is clumsy. The error I was making had to do with thinking that Rufus would, for example read the iso from my bootable .iso dvd made in

Imgburn. When the original .iso was moved to desktop and found there by the program, some things
smoothed out.


In the options at the lowest part of the Rufus screen, I think running a bad block routine first just to check the USB media was another mistake.



Opening and running the log is helpful in lieu of what I saw as lack of screen prompts but that's just me.


I wondered, in looking at the log, at the number of extracted files Rufus uses. It seems like a lot but
I'm not a programmer.