Installing Windows 7 From a USB flash drive - What you need:
The Windows 7 ISO weighs a hefty 2.5GB of disk space, so a flash drive with at least 4GB of space is required. Also, you need the following programs: BootSect, USB_prep8, and PeToUSB.(google for the apps)
Installing Windows 7 with a USB flash drive - Preparation
1. Download the packed RAR file which I gave you the link to earlier and extract its contents to your computer’s Desktop (this makes things easier). This contains the three programs you will need to make a bootable USB flash drive, which are BootSect, USB_prep8, and PeToUSB.
Now that the bootsect and USB_prep8 folders are on your Desktop, do the following.
2. Open the USB_prep8 folder, find USB_prep8.cmd and run it, pressing any key to continue when prompted. This will initiate PeToUSB. PeToUSB will be used to format your flash drive, so it is suggested that you back up any valuable data that you might have on your flash drive before proceeding. Once the backup’s done or you are sure it’s OK for you to format your flash drive, see the PeToUSB options and make sure that “Enable Disk Format”, “Quick Format” and “Enable LBA (FAT16X)” are checked. See photo below.
After you click start and agree to what comes next, your USB flash drive will be formatted, and the next step would be to configure it so that it becomes bootable. Close PeToUSB and the small command prompt window that you opened earlier.
3. Make your USB flash drive bootable using bootsect. Here’s how.
Assuming that the bootsect folder you extracted earlier is already on your desktop, simply do the following. Open a command prompt window by pressing the Windows key + R (or going to Start > Run > typing “cmd” without the quotation marks and hitting Enter).
At the command prompt, type the following word for word:
Here’s a photo of what it should look like:
And if all goes well, you should be able to read the following message: “Bootcode was successfully updated on all volumes”. This means you now have a bootable USB flash drive. Congratulations!
5. Copy the Windows 7 install files to your bootable USB flash drive. Perhaps the easiest step in all of this minor hackery, is this. Find your Windows 7 beta ISO file, extract its contents using WinRAR, and copy the resulting files (all of them) into your empty and newly configured to boot USB flash drive. Once that’s done, safely remove it, and use it to boot any computer to install Windows 7 on it. It’s that simple.
Installing Windows 7 with a USB flash drive - What now?
Thats it.
The Windows 7 ISO weighs a hefty 2.5GB of disk space, so a flash drive with at least 4GB of space is required. Also, you need the following programs: BootSect, USB_prep8, and PeToUSB.(google for the apps)
When you have everything ready, insert your flash drive, plug in your notebook/laptop/netbook or whatever you call it to AC power and get ready to create a Windows 7 bootable USB flash drive.
1. Download the packed RAR file which I gave you the link to earlier and extract its contents to your computer’s Desktop (this makes things easier). This contains the three programs you will need to make a bootable USB flash drive, which are BootSect, USB_prep8, and PeToUSB.
Now that the bootsect and USB_prep8 folders are on your Desktop, do the following.
2. Open the USB_prep8 folder, find USB_prep8.cmd and run it, pressing any key to continue when prompted. This will initiate PeToUSB. PeToUSB will be used to format your flash drive, so it is suggested that you back up any valuable data that you might have on your flash drive before proceeding. Once the backup’s done or you are sure it’s OK for you to format your flash drive, see the PeToUSB options and make sure that “Enable Disk Format”, “Quick Format” and “Enable LBA (FAT16X)” are checked. See photo below.
After you click start and agree to what comes next, your USB flash drive will be formatted, and the next step would be to configure it so that it becomes bootable. Close PeToUSB and the small command prompt window that you opened earlier.
3. Make your USB flash drive bootable using bootsect. Here’s how.
Assuming that the bootsect folder you extracted earlier is already on your desktop, simply do the following. Open a command prompt window by pressing the Windows key + R (or going to Start > Run > typing “cmd” without the quotation marks and hitting Enter).
At the command prompt, type the following word for word:
Here’s a photo of what it should look like:
And if all goes well, you should be able to read the following message: “Bootcode was successfully updated on all volumes”. This means you now have a bootable USB flash drive. Congratulations!
5. Copy the Windows 7 install files to your bootable USB flash drive. Perhaps the easiest step in all of this minor hackery, is this. Find your Windows 7 beta ISO file, extract its contents using WinRAR, and copy the resulting files (all of them) into your empty and newly configured to boot USB flash drive. Once that’s done, safely remove it, and use it to boot any computer to install Windows 7 on it. It’s that simple.
Installing Windows 7 with a USB flash drive - What now?
