Install Windows 7 from USB

Robert Hallock (Thrax) How to install Windows 7 from USB, step by step, and with pictures!

April 1, 2009 2:13 PM ET in Articles, , , , , , , , , , , ,

windows7UPDATE (10/22/2009 12:01AM EDT): This guide details how to prepare a Windows 7 ISO to install from a flash drive. If you have a Windows 7 DVD, please go here.

Windows 7 is officially on the prowl, and that means a whole new crop of users are receiving the new operating system in the form of an ISO file. Sure, you could burn it to DVD and be on your way, but that’s so ordinary, and Netbook users are still up the creek. Why not build a little geek cred and install Windows 7 from USB? We’ll show you how to do it in just four simple steps.

Preparation

You’ll need to prepare a few downloads before you can get crackin’ with your USB-powered install of Windows 7:

Next, make sure that your flash drive is larger than 4GB and is connected to your system.

Our 8GB SanDisk Cruzer is ready!

Our 8GB SanDisk Cruzer is ready!

Step 1:

Install and run the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool. Configure the tool to match the settings provided below, and press start to clean the drive.

Caution

This step will erase the contents of your flash drive. Make sure that all important material has been backed up prior to proceeding.

Match your program to these settings and press start.

Match your program to these settings and press start.

Step 2:

Now that the flash drive has been formatted, it’s time to mount the Windows 7 ISO as a virtual DVD. Install and run MagicISO, then right click on your Windows 7 ISO and mount it to a drive as we have done in the diagram below. If you already have a virtual CD/DVD-ROM application such as Alcohol 120% or Daemon Tools, we reckon you’re savvy to it and can make the mounting magic happen on your own.

Note

Windows Vista and Windows 7 users must right click and run the MagicISO installer as an administrator; the ability to mount ISOs from the Windows context menu (right clicking) will otherwise be unavailable.

Our Windows 7 ISO is now mounted to Z:

Mounting the Windows 7 ISO to the Z: drive.

Windows Explorer confirms our ISO is on Z:.

Windows Explorer confirms our ISO is on Z:.

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49 Comments:

  1. Trumansnare
    1 Apr '09, 10:58 pm

    Awesome,
    Nice tutorial
    Im gonna give this a go.
    Thank you

  2. Black Hawk
    1 Apr '09, 11:12 pm

    Thanks. Gonna try it out on all the machines in the house once RC1 rolls out.

  3. Everton
    2 Apr '09, 11:30 am

    how big a drive is required?

  4. Thrax
    2 Apr '09, 1:48 pm

    4GB or better.

  5. Dennis
    6 Apr '09, 9:32 pm

    My Command Line always starts with C:\Documents and Settings\Name>

    How do I clear it and make commands with other drives?

  6. Buddy J
    6 Apr '09, 9:42 pm

    cd C:\

    "cd" is the command for change directory. It's what you need to switch to whatever location you're looking for.

  7. Mehdi
    10 Apr '09, 6:24 pm

    thank you for comprehensive tutorial . Do I still have my xp after installing in this way?

  8. Thrax
    10 Apr '09, 7:16 pm

    You will have XP if you tell Windows 7 to create a partition out of free space. If you choose to reformat, you will not have XP.

  9. Zaphire
    19 Apr '09, 3:56 pm

    It's much easier to do it with UltraISO.
    You load the install DVD or an iso of the install DVD you may have downloaded into UltraISO. Then simply use the 'Bootable' menu option to 'Write Disk image...' and having set which drive your USB Key is, press 'Write'.
    You can also check the box to 'Verify' your write.
    You are effectively doing what you do when you burn an ISO to a DVD but in this case it's a one step operation to 'burn' a bootable USB key without having to format it, use the HP or MBR tool or Diskpart etc. You can overwrite a used key or do this on any new key.
    And you can do it in XP, Vista or Win 7.

  10. primesuspect
    5 May '09, 12:32 pm

    Ultra ISO also costs money.

    This method is free. So why would you pay $30 for something you can do for free with the above tools?

  11. Rob
    5 May '09, 1:18 pm

    You can do it on the Ultra ISO trial, so your point is moot.

  12. Thrax
    5 May '09, 2:17 pm

    And when you want to do it again in the future? Right, you'd have to reformat to circumvent the trial limitations.

  13. jokerz4fun
    29 May '09, 7:01 pm

    Thrax great post! I might give this one a try.

  14. Tb
    30 Jun '09, 1:02 pm

    Hi there - I hardly ever leave posts anywhere, but I just wanted to say *thank you so much* for your easy to follow guide on making a bootable usb using xp. I searched for hours to find a method that wasn't totally incomprehensible due to the use of jargon that I don't understand. Thanks again, I really appreciate it.

  15. Shay
    19 Jul '09, 9:21 am

    when I issue the command g:\boot\bootsect /nt60 e:

    I get

    Target volumes will be updated with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode.

    Drive e: maps to volume \\?\Volume{910a560e-4b52-11de-b1ba-0016418aa708}.

    This volume does not appear to connect to any disk partitions. Volume bootcode

    is always unused in the absence of associated partitions.

    any help would be great

  16. Ranic
    7 Aug '09, 11:07 pm

    Will doing this wipe my hard drive?

  17. Thrax
    8 Aug '09, 1:21 am

    Creating the USB stick will not wipe your hard drive. Installing Windows 7 will wipe your hard drive.

  18. ss
    13 Aug '09, 6:41 am

    hi..
    when i try to do MBRwiz /disk=2 /active=1 (in my case it is 2) it gives an error "invalid partition selected".
    please tell me what to do?

  19. Ludvig
    15 Aug '09, 1:52 am

    I Have a 32bit version of XP but my Windoes 7 is a 64bit. and it says caveat isent a command

  20. missoz
    19 Aug '09, 3:58 am

    I did everything u said but when I try to boot from the flash drive I get "BOOTMGR IS MISSING". What should I do?

  21. missoz
    19 Aug '09, 4:46 am

    tried it again now it says DISK ERROR

  22. j0k3r
    21 Aug '09, 11:11 pm

    It is necessary to Format Flash with NTFS.
    I heard this makes the drive slow.
    Will formatting to Fat32 work?

  23. Snarkasm
    21 Aug '09, 11:23 pm

    NTFS doesn't make the drive slow. It's a different filesystem, that's all, and it lets you put files larger than 4GB on the drive.

  24. Yotam
    27 Aug '09, 3:04 pm

    WOW, I've tried 5 different tutorials and this is the only one that actually worked for me, thank you very much.

  25. Thrax
    27 Aug '09, 3:10 pm

    You're very welcome, Yotam! I ran into the same issues when the beta was released, and I decided that I'd had enough, so I wrote one that I knew would work because I used it!

  26. RyderOCZ
    27 Aug '09, 3:25 pm
    Quoting Snarkasm

    NTFS doesn't make the drive slow. It's a different filesystem, that's all, and it lets you put files larger than 4GB on the drive.

    It will slow down a flash drive Snark. Most flash drives, due to the nature of the Nand, will find FAT32 the fastest/speediest. Now, if you can get it formatted NTFS with 32K blocks.. that should be close to the same speed.

  27. Snarkasm
    27 Aug '09, 4:42 pm

    Can you quantify the degree of slowdown, if you don't mind? Is it actually worth mentioning at all?

  28. RyderOCZ
    27 Aug '09, 4:53 pm

    Usually 3 - 5 MB/s on most chipsets (real data transfer).

  29. shwaip
    27 Aug '09, 4:53 pm

    http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/infor...ntfs-vs-exfat/

    ntfs loses big in sisoft, but it's only barely slower in other tests.

  30. Snarkasm
    27 Aug '09, 4:56 pm

    Gotcha. Thanks folks.

  31. longxin
    4 Sep '09, 10:08 am

    Fantastic, just clearing up my 32G stick.

    Question, do you have a 'working' tutorial for a multi-boot XP+Vista+7+2003+2008 x32 and x64 "ultimate windows install USB stick?"

    lx

  32. Thrax
    4 Sep '09, 2:07 pm

    I do not have such a tutorial, but I have a decent idea as to how that might be accomplished. I'll look into it! Thanks, longxin!

  33. Josh22
    6 Sep '09, 7:47 pm

    I have tried this and 2 other ways to make a bootable usb for win 7 installation, but it never boots, it just stucks on the flashing _ . What can I do so I can finally install windows 7???

  34. longxin
    7 Sep '09, 11:56 am

    Thanks Robert. Look forward to seeing that Ultimate Windows Installer USB stick tutorial!

    This works like a charm! thanks again.
    Lx

  35. Yes@
    18 Sep '09, 10:27 pm

    YES WORKED GREAT THANKS!

  36. Matej
    29 Sep '09, 7:52 pm

    Oh this is helpful guide. Awesome. Thanks dude!

  37. Guigwime
    3 Oct '09, 1:45 am

    Unfortunately, this didn't work for me. I followed it, but when I boot, I just get "Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Media in selected Boot device and press a key." Now, I know that it detects it because the bios changed the name from "Removable Disk" to "Fanthom Drive" but it seems it still doesn't feel like booting. I did do the mbrwiz tool thing, so I got the bootsect. So I don't know what's going on

  38. Thrax
    3 Oct '09, 1:46 am

    This guide works perfectly on any computer capable of booting a USB stick. So either your PC is one of those PCs that can't, or you made a misstep somewhere.

  39. Eric
    23 Oct '09, 4:28 pm

    Hi there!

    I did whats on the tutorial and when i boot from the usb stick i get 'read disk error'. I've set the boot priority to usb and i even flashed the bios just to make sure. My system is a P4 2.4 , 1GB ram and the mobo MSI PT8 Neo-V.
    I can't figure out what the problem could be. Please help!

    Thanks

  40. Fern
    29 Oct '09, 5:29 pm

    Hello!

    How is it going with the tutorial for a multi-boot XP+Vista+7+2003+2008 x32 and x64 "ultimate windows install USB stick?"

  41. KHALIL
    9 Nov '09, 3:21 pm

    Hi there..

    I followed all of the above steps but when I restart and after company logo there is a cursor flashing and nothing happenx(setup not starting..)

  42. photodude
    18 Nov '09, 8:31 pm

    Guess I'm out of luck for doing this since I have a download version which is just an .exe file

    maybe I'll have to wait for my backup disk so I'll have an ISO (unless the exe creates an ISO but I don't dare run it yet as I plan to keep my old drive on another system since it's a full install and I have a different license I can use for the upgrade version I got a sweet deal on)

  43. Thrax
    18 Nov '09, 8:32 pm

    @photodude: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s....php?t=1151639

  44. photodude
    19 Nov '09, 4:33 pm

    Thanks for the link @Robert.

    Looks like the .exe and two boxfiles, is an extractor program and does not have an iso in it.

    I did get an ISO download after an email to customer service. Next step getting a hard drive and the USB ready.

  45. Robin Nilsson
    1 Dec '09, 9:13 pm

    I tried to install win7 with this guide but when I get to step 3 and try to use the command Z:\boot\bootsect /nt60 X: i get this message: the system cannot find the path specified. I write F:\boot\bootsect /nt60 G: , where F: is the place where i mounted the disk in daemon tools and G: is the place for my USB-stick... what do I do wrong?

  46. unknown222222
    8 Dec '09, 10:12 am

    TNX TO THE MAN/WOMAN/PEOPLE WHO POSTED THIS GUIDE, IT WORKS, NOW I HAVE WINDOWS 7 hahahaha!!!!!!!!!

  47. tejadeep
    31 Dec '09, 12:47 pm

    thanks a lot it was really helpfull but the bootsect command can be skipped check the othere sites for more procedures

  48. confused
    19 Jan '10, 3:09 am

    i have managed to follow your steps and created a USB bootable disk.
    i am using WinXp.
    when i boot my comp with the USB, it states that the bootmgr was incorrect.

  49. problemchild
    26 Jan '10, 11:25 pm

    I tried but encountered various errors. After I try to set the drive/partition as active, windows will no longer allow me to use it, saying it isn't formatted, but it won't let me format it again either.

    I used the HP software and it would allow me to format it as NTFS, and UltraISO burned it perfectly. I understand the free vs trial debate, but use what works!

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