Install Vista or Windows 7 from USB

Disclaimer: Following the procedure below will erase/format your USB disk so make sure you do all the necessary backup if you have files in them and note which drive is for the usb as you may mistakenly delete/format your own system drive. This method absolutely works in using Windows Vista or Windows 7. Follow the instructions carefully and *** use at your own risk ***

Pre-requisite: - USB Disk/Flash Memory (at least 4GB) - Installations CD/DVDs (Vista/7) - A computer that supports booting from usb Installation Steps.

1. Plug-in USB drive

2. type "cmd" in start menu search box, and the "cmd.exe" will appear in the list above your search. RIGHT CLICK "cmd.exe", and click "Run as Administrator".

3. At the command prompt, type "diskpart" then press enter and it should return

DISKPART> _

4. type "list disk" to identify the your flash disk number (e.g. Disk 1).

It will list down existing writing disk. Based on the above example, Disk 0 is the computer's hard drive. Disk 2 is my usb drive which is 4GB in capacity, but may show as 3827MB(megabytes), yours may be different, but note the size.

This part should be straight forward. To be sure you get to pin point which disk number is which, open "My Computer" and note the capacity of the usb drive that corresponds to the one listed in the DISKPART prompt. Again, you should either be using Vista or 7.

Another note: the commands are NOT case sensitive. Doesn't matter whether your type it in lowercase or CAPS.

5. Then type "select disk 1", assuming your usb drive is 1 as per our example above. Note the spacing.

6. Then type the following in the exact order.  

• clean 
• create partition primary 
• select partition 1 active 
• format fs=ntfs
• assign 
• exit

 

Don't close the command prompt window just yet as we will use it in the following step.

7. Insert your Windows installation CD or DVD in the drive. Note which drive letter correspondes to your CD/DVD drive. check "My Computer". My DVD is "F" so i'll use "F" for this illustration and my usb drive is "J". Normally, upon inserting the installation disk, you are prompted with options box and that window will tell you which drive letter is assigned to your DVD drive.

8. In the command prompt, type f: enter, replacing your active DVD drive letter to "f" then type cd boot. Your prompt should look like "F:\boot"

9. Last command to type next is bootsect.exe /nt60 j:.

10. Now for this step, just copy the content of your installation DVD to your USB drive and your usb is ready. Reboot your computer and boot to your usb drive. For this, setting the option to boot from a usb disk varies from your computer model and as to whether its a desktop or laptop. refer to your computer manual. Enjoy!

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