USB Windows 7 Installation Key Drive - Create

How to Create a Bootable Windows 7 Installation USB Flash Drive​

   Information

This will show you how to create a USB flash key drive that you can boot from to install Windows 7 with.

   Tip

If the USB flash drive is of sufficient capacity, say 8GB, then after copying the Windows 7 installation DVD onto it, you can create a new folder (ex: Device Drivers) in the USB key and place all of your latest driver installation files in it. This way you will have them handy to manually install the drivers after installing Windows 7 from the USB key.

   Note

If you booted from the USB drive to install Windows 7, then you may need to change the hard drive back to being listed before the USB key in the boot order in BIOS after the computer restarts during installation to prevent the computer from booting right back into the USB key starting the installation process over and over.

   Warning

• The USB key needs to be at least 4 GB in size.
• This will delete everything on the USB key. Be sure to save anything that you do not want to lose on it somewhere else.
• Before installing Windows 7 from the USB key, you will need to:
  • Enable Legacy USB storage detect in the BIOS.
• When ready to install Windows 7 from the USB key:
  • Connect the USB key.
  • Restart the computer, and keep tapping the F key (see screenshot below) responsible to open the Boot Menu screen for the brand and model of your motherboard or computer until it does.
    • 
      
  • Select the USB key to boot from.
  • Start installing Windows 7.

CONTENTS:

• Option One: Use "Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool" to Create Bootable Windows 7 Installation USB
• Option Two: Use "Rufus" to Create Bootable Windows 7 Installation USB
• Option Three: Manually Create Bootable Windows 7 Installation USB Flash Drive

OPTION ONE

Use "Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool" to Create Bootable Windows 7 Installation USB

   Tip

If you do not have a Windows 7 ISO file, then you can either download the latest ISO version at the links below.

:ar: Microsoft Software Recovery

:ar: Microsoft: Windows 7 Direct Download Links

You could also use a free program like ImgBurn or ISODisk to create a ISO from your Windows 7 installation DVD.

1. For how, see the Part 2 section here: Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool.

OPTION TWO

Use "Rufus" to Create Bootable Windows 7 Installation USB

1. Download the latest version of Rufus at the link below, and save it's .exe file to your desktop.
:ar: Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

   Note

This is a standalone exe file that doesn't install anything to your PC.

For Rufus FAQs, see: https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/wiki/FAQ

2. Connect your USB flash drive if you have not already.

3. Run the rufus_v###.exe file, and click/tap on Yes if prompted by UAC.
NOTE: ### = latest version number.

4. Set Rufus with the settings below: (see screenshot below step 5)

• [Under Device, select the USB flash drive you want to format and use.
• Under Format Options, check Create a bootable disk using, click/tap on the browse icon to navigate to and select your 64-bit Windows 7 ISO file.
• Under Partition scheme and target system type, select MBR partition scheme for BIOS or UEFI computers.
• Under File system, select NTFS.
• Under Cluster size, select the (Default) (ex: 16 kilobytes or 4096 bytes) it has listed.
• Under Format Options, check Quick format.
• Under Format Options, check Create extended label and icon files.
• Under New volume label, you can enter any name you like for the USB flash drive, or leave the default name.

5. When ready, click/tap on Start. (see screenshot below)

6. Click/tap on OK to confirm. (see screenshot below)

7. Rufus will now start creating the bootable UEFI USB flash drive. (see screenshot below)

8. When Rufus is "DONE", you can close Rufus. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: It could take a little while to finish.

9. You are now ready to installWindows 7 with your bootable USB flash drive.

OPTION THREE

Manually Create Bootable Windows 7 Installation USB Flash Drive

   Warning

Using this method:

• You will only be able to create a 64-bit Windows 7 bootable USB flash drive if your current Windows 7 installation is also 64-bit.
• You will be able to create a 32-bit Windows 7 bootable USB flash drive if your current Windows 7 installation is 32-bit or 64-bit.

64-bit installation + 64-bit ISO = 64-bit flash drive
64-bit installation + 32-bit ISO = 32-bit flash drive
32-bit installation + 32-bit ISO = 32-bit flash drive
32-bit installation + 64-bit ISO = unable to create

1. Plug the USB key in.

2. If AutoPlay opens a pop-up for the USB key, then just close it.
NOTE: Make note of what the drive size is for the USB key for use in step 6 below. You can also open Computer (step 19) to see what the drive size is to. For example, mine is 3920 MB. (See screenshot below)

3. Open an elevated command prompt.

4. In the elevated command prompt, type diskpart and press Enter. (See screenshot below)

5. In the elevated command prompt, type list disk and press Enter. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: Make note of what disk # your USB key is listed as to use in step 6 below. You can also look for the drive size (step 2) of the USB key to help ID the disk number. For example, mine is listed as Disk 1 here for the 3920 MB disk.

6. In the elevated command prompt, type select disk # (your USB disk #) and press Enter. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: For example, my USB key is listed as Disk 1, so I would type select disk 1 and press Enter.

7. In the elevated command prompt, type clean and press Enter. (See screenshot below)

8. In the elevated command prompt, type create partition primary and press Enter. (See screenshot below)

9. In the elevated command prompt, type select partition 1 and press Enter. (See screenshot below)

10. In the elevated command prompt, type active and press Enter. (See screenshot below)

11. In the elevated command prompt, type in the command below to format the USB as NTFS or FAT32, and press Enter. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: This may take a few moments to finish formatting the USB key.

   Note

You can substitute Windows 7 within quotes in the commands below with whatever name (drive label) you would like to have displayed for the USB drive instead.

See also: Choosing between NTFS, FAT, and FAT32



FAT32 volume labels

• If you have an UEFI instead of BIOS motherboard, then you will need to use FAT32 and not NTFS.
• Volume labels can contain as many as 11 characters and can include spaces but no tabs.
• Volume labels cannot contain the following characters: ? / \ | . , ; : + = [ ] < > "
• Volume labels are stored as uppercase regardless of whether they contain lowercase letters.

NTFS volume labels

• Volume labels can contain as many as 32 characters.

format fs=ntfs label="Windows 7" quick

OR

format fs=fat32 label="Windows 7" quick


12. If AutoPlay opens a pop-up for the USB key, then just close it.

13. In the elevated command prompt, type assign and press Enter. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: This will assign a new drive letter to the USB key. Make note of the new USB drive letter to use in step 22 below. For example, mine is now H.

14. If AutoPlay opens a pop-up for the USB key, then just close it.

15. In the elevated command prompt, type exit and press Enter. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: This will exit you from DiskPart from step 4.

16. Close the elevated command prompt.

17. Insert your Windows 7 installation DVD into the DVD drive.

18. If AutoPlay opens a pop-up for the Windows 7 installation DVD, then just close it.

19. Open the Start Menu, right click on the Computer button, and click on Open.

20. Right click on the DVD drive (ex: E: ) that has the Windows 7 installation DVD in it, and click on Open. (See screenshot below)

21. Highlight all of the contents, right click on the highlighted contents, and click on Copy. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: You will need to copy all of the files and folders on the Windows 7 installation DVD to the USB key.

22. Go back to Computer, right click on the USB key drive (ex: H ), and click on Paste. (See screenshot below)

23. The contents of the Windows 7 installation DVD will now start copying over to the USB key. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: This may take a few moments to complete.

24. When finished, you can close the Computer window and unplug the USB key.

25. You now have a Windows 7 Installation USB key.

   Warning

If you have UEFI instead of BIOS motherboard, then you will need to temporarily disable Secure Boot to use the USB to install Windows. After installation is complete, you can enable Secure Boot again.

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Create a Windows 7 System Repair Disc
• How to Do an Upgrade Installation with Windows 7
• How to Do a Clean Installation with Windows 7
• How to Do a Repair Install to Fix Windows 7
• How to Install Windows 7 FAST without a DVD or USB Device
• How to Setup Windows 7 to Boot from a VHD (Virtual Hard Disk)
• How to Create a Windows 7 VHD at Boot to Start with from Boot
• How to Create a Bootable ISO from an Older ISO
• How to Do a Custom Installation of Windows 7
• How to Do a Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version
• How to Get and Use the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool
• How to Make a MS-DOS Bootable Flash Drive
• How to Create a Windows 7 Universal Installation Disc
• How to Install Windows 7 from USB Pen Drive Using Grub4Dos
• How to Slipstream Windows 7 SP1 and Updates to Create a Bootable USB, Installation DVD, or ISO File
• How to Install Windows 7 Using "Unified Extensible Firmware Interface" (UEFI)
• How to Create a Bootable UEFI USB Flash Drive for Installing Windows 7 and Windows 8

 

[Brink]

Hello Amelie,

Oh no. I hate it when that happens.

You might check to see if your motherboard has a newer BIOS update available that hopefully adds that option. If not, then you will need to create a bootable DVD with it instead.

 

[SIW2]

Yes, you can add the ability to boot from usb:

D/L and install the Free Easybcd 2.0 from here:

EasyBCD 2.0 Beta Builds - The NeoSmart Forums

It's very small to d/l. If you are installing Easybcd on XP - also d/l and install .Net Framework 2.0


Then click External Devices>Install Plop:




When you restart - select Easybcd bios extender from the boot menu -Plop will start - (outer space theme ) then select usb from the list of options Plop gives you.

Great tutorial, did everything.. but if only I had paid attention to my BIOS first lol. I don't have the option to boot from USB with my old motherboard. Any other suggestions, other than buying a new PC?

 

[Brink]

Aw, very nice SIW2.

 

[SIW2]

Yes. Easy 2.0 is great.

Except, because Easy will want to add the plop entry to the bcd store -if you only have XP, you don't have a bcd store - you need to either add plop to boot.ini by hand , or put a copy of the Vista/7 Boot folder into XP.

Extract this:

View attachment 43202

put the folder in XP's C:\Windows.

Easy will ask if you want to repair the Vista/7 bootloader - say yes - give it the letter of your XP drive when it asks for the Vista drive letter - and again when it asks for the Boot drive.

 

[SIW2]

Otherwise, to install PLOP by hand on XP:

Download plpgenbtldr-0.7.zip and extract it.

Create a directory on the root of the drive C:\plop.
Copy plpbt.bin and plpgenbtldr.exe to C:\plop .
As administrator open a command prompt and type:

cd c:\plop plpgenbtldr

press enter

Close cmd prompt.

Add this entry to C:\boot.ini

c:\plop\plpbtldr.bin="PLOP"


More info:

PLoP - Bootmanager - Free Boot Manager, builtin usb driver, native ...

 

[jradicle11]

I had to format my usb to fat32 to ntfs to write the iso to it.

 

[Brink]

Hello Jradicle,

In Computer, you can right click on the USB and click on Format. In the format options, just select NTFS for the file system and let it format it. Afterwards you will be good to go.

 

[aem]

Hi Brink, is this an installation of the OS off the USB key, meaning prep-ing the USB key as a boot device and have it also stored the OS files?

If so, i wonder how it compares to setting it all up using MDT. I tried using MDT and created a USB installation Media, and it's pretty simple.

 

[Brink]

Hello AEM,

It's basically having the USB key drive act the same way as a Windows 7 installation DVD, but on a USB key drive instead.

I haven't tried it with MDT, so I'm not sure of the differences. Using the PowerISO program to create and burn the Windows 7 ISO from a Windows 7 installation disk is pretty simple though.

 

[aem]

Yes, i would have thought so, you wouldnt be wasting your valuable time on just make a bootable USB lol (I should've thought about that).

With MDT you can do the same thing, and more eg. adding apps to the image. But we proprably won't go there unless the need arises i suppose.

 

[Brink]

Sounds like it can be more customizable, but just a bit more involved.

 

[FZ21Z]

Thanks for this guide, but I'm having a bit of trouble. I have the files that I extracted from my original x86 ISO, but not the ISO itself, and I believe that is the reason why.

When I load my x64 ISO, it automatically brings up the autorun/view files window, but the ISO I made with the x86 files, doesn't, so information has been lost I would assume?, when I copied the x86 files from the disk I had made, when what I should have done is make a copy, or just bloody kept the original ISO in the first place.

Do I need to download the x86 ISO again, or can I do something whilst making an ISO to make it recognise it as bootable? I'd stick with with 64, but it's going on an Acer netbook with an Atom.

 

[SIW2]

You can make a bootable .iso from the x86 installation files very easily with the free vlite - saves downloading it again:

Bootable ISO - Create from Installation Files

 

[FZ21Z]

Thanks, but still to no avail...

 

[SIW2]

Looks like you are missing a few files.

Have a look in the sources folder - see if you can the setup.exe in there.

 

[FZ21Z]

I'm not sure I am, it just doesn't seem to want to work...

 

[FZ21Z]

I now have a bootable x86 ISO, so the issue isn't with that, I don't think, because when I load it up in MagicISO, it gives me the autorun window, but when I burn it to my Kingston 4GB card, it doesn't.

 

[jradicle11]

Hello Jradicle,

In Computer, you can right click on the USB and click on Format. In the format options, just select NTFS for the file system and let it format it. Afterwards you will be good to go.

Well, I already did that, I was just saying that that's what I had to do for it to work.

Regardless, thanks for the help.

 

[Brink]

Hello Jradicle,

In Computer, you can right click on the USB and click on Format. In the format options, just select NTFS for the file system and let it format it. Afterwards you will be good to go.

Well, I already did that, I was just saying that that's what I had to do for it to work.

Regardless, thanks for the help.

LOL, ok. I missed that little "had" part.

 

[FZ21Z]

Right, on my sisters Dell with XP, it boots from the card after restarting, i.e proceeds to load Windows 7 files to do a clean install, so I guess it must work to a degree, however on my system, with bios settings changed, it gives me a black screen with the option to load 7 normally, or run the memory diagnostic tool, but no option to do a fresh install.