How To Install Windows 7 From a USB Drive

Windows 7 can run on machines with lower specs than required for Windows Vista, and many users are actually finding it runs better than Windows XP on lower spec machines. It’s also ideal to run on newer netbook machines, but unfortunately many of these do not include a DVD drive so how do you install windows 7 on a machine without a DVD drive?

How To Install Windows 7 From A USB Drive

1. Find a standard 4GB USB Drive and plug it into your machine
2. Click Start in your enter ‘cmd’ in the run field. Once cmd is open type in ‘diskpart’ and a new window will open
3. In the new diskpart window type:



* ‘list disk’ : This lists all the disk drives attached to your machine
* Look for your USB drive and note the number and then type: ’select disk #’, where ‘#’ is your USB disk number
* then type ‘clean’
* then type ‘create partition primary’
* then ’select partition 1′
* then ‘active’
* then ‘format fs=fat32 quick’

Once you’ve finished these steps you then need to copy your Windows 7 files to the USB. To do this you have to mount your Windows 7 ISO as a virtual DVD. Doing this is easy:

1. Install MagicDisk (free)
2. once installed, right-click on MagicDisk in your system tray click on ‘Virtual CD/DVD-Rom’, select your DVD drive
3. then ‘Mount’ and in the dialog window that opens up, select your Windows 7 ISO
4. Now in windows Explorer, click on your DVD drive and you should see all the Windows 7 Files. All you have to do now is copy and paste all the files to your USB key and you have a Windows 7 USB Installation Stick!
5. Install the stick in the PC you want to install Windows 7 on and boot up. Remember to change your bios to allow booting from USB.

2 comments:

Sagar said...
May 3, 2009 at 2:12 PM

thanks a ton for this tweak!

plz temme how to change bios to allow booting from USB.

and also, all those dos commands...what effect will thses commands have on the USB? Can i use the USB normally after i am done with it?

1 more thing, can there be other files present in the USB along wid windows 7 files? i means will presence of other files hinder in the installing/booting-via-USB process?

Utsav Garg said...
January 3, 2010 at 12:39 AM

no need to all this stuff....just run it inside the window.....it will install directly and will transfer you previous window in a folder....which you can delete later on....when windows 7 is installed...