Win 7 USB installation media corrupts my bootmanager

[SeanieOS]

Hello,

I have a Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium OEM Installation DVD that came with my Dell Inspiron I got eight years ago. I am playing with Dual booting this laptop with Linux and I want to replace the DVD drive with another hard drive bay so that's why I am trying to make Win 7 USB installation media.

I used ImgBurn to make an ISO from my DVD installation disk and I used Rufus to "burn" that to an 8GB usb key. I am 99% sure my laptop uses legacy BIOS and not GPT/UEFI boot manager. So I chose MBR/Bios in the Rufus settings when creating the bootable USB media.

I insert the USB key and switch the BIOS settings to boot from USB and the Windows installation screen does appear and I can select a language, time and keyboard. I am only testing though so I click "Repair your computer" to see if I could use that to revert the bootmanager if I chose to uninstall Linux from a dual boot set up with Win 7.

My Problem:
From the "System Recovery Options" screen I click on "Startup Repair" but from here I get the error that it is unable to find an OS and is not able to fix anything either. It seems as though just booting up from the USB key corrupts the bootmanager?

If I now go back to booting from the hard drive it won't boot I get the black srceen saying no OS found.

Fortunately if I unplug the USB key and boot from my Windows 7 Install DVD I AM ABLE to click on "Startup Repair" and it does actually repair and then asks me to reboot... when I do it boots up fine again.

So I just want to know what am I doing wrong about creating USB installation media that won't corrupt my boot manger?

Thank you,

Sean

 

[Megahertz07]

Is the Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium OEM Installation DVD that came with your Dell Inspiron a installation disk or a repair disk and factory recover disk? Is it only one disk or a package of multi disks?

Don't use Rufus to make a USB boot able drive.

Open a CMD window as administrator and type:

diskpart
list disk (it will list all drives. Identify the USB drive number)
select disk n (replace n by the USB drive number obtained with list disk)
clean
convert mbr
create part primary
select part 1
format fs=fat32 quick
assign
active
exit (to exit diskpart)

Now copy all files and folders from the DVD to the root of the USB drive.
To make it UEFI boot able, you must add Boot folder under efi (attached)

EFI\Boot folder

 

[SeanieOS]

Thanks for the reply.

It's just a single re-installation DVD .

Why should I not use Rufus? Many other sites advise using it.

I have since managed to install Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 Pro by USB with both ISO burned to a USB key using Rufus.

My laptop is a Dell Inspiron 7520. I don't think it supports UEFI at all so I am using Legacy BIOS. Although my BIOS screen makes no mention of Legacy or UEFI at all so I suppose I am using Legacy BIOS.

Sean

 

[Megahertz07]

You did with Rufus and it didn't work. Follow my instructions and it will work.

To make a Win 8 or 10 installation disk you just format the USB drive as Fat32 and copy all files and folders to it.
Win 7 DVD or iso doesn't have the EFI\Boot folder so you have to add it.

 

[file3456]

Instead of using something named after a dog full of stupid options you need to mess with, try this: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool

Rereading your post, you need to use EasyBCD or an alternative. EasyBCD Alternatives and Similar Software | AlternativeTo