I used this method on one of my machines and installed the Windows 7 RC. The main advantage is that by using USB drive you will be able to install Windows 7/Vista in just 15 minutes. You can also use this bootable USB drive on friend’s computer who doesn’t have a DVD optical drive.

The method is very simple and you can use without any hassles. Needless to say that your motherboard should support USB Boot feature to make use of the bootable USB drive.

1. Requirements

• USB Flash Drive (> 4GB)
• Windows 7 or Vista installation disk

2. Method

Plug-in your USB flash drive to USB port and move all the contents from USB drive to a safe location on your system.

Open Command Prompt with admin rights. Use any of the below methods to open Command Prompt with admin rights.

*Type cmd in Start menu search box and hit Ctrl+ Shift+ Enter.

Or

*Go to Start menu > All programs > Accessories, right click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.

3. You need to know about the USB drive a little bit. Type in the following commands in the command prompt:

First type DISKPART and hit enter to see the below message.

 

Next type LIST DISK command and note down the Disk number (ex: Disk 1) of your USB flash drive. In the below screenshot my Flash Drive Disk no is Disk 1.

Now proceed further on path1 or path2 as the condition may be true.

Path 1: Here I assume that your disk drive no is “Disk 1″ and it is a pen drive with capacity > 4 GB and no partition having your important data

 

Type all the below commands one by one.

Note: If you have Disk 2 as your USB flash drive then use Disk 2.

Refer the above step to confirm it.

So below are the commands you need to type and execute one by one:

SELECT DISK 1

CLEAN

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

SELECT PARTITION 1

ACTIVE

FORMAT FS=NTFS

(Format process may take few seconds)

ASSIGN

EXIT

————————–

Path2: If you have a big USB Disk/ External Disk/ Portable hard disk, you can create a primary partition in it using disk manager and skip the CLEAN command, thus you don’t loose your data stored on other partition of same disk. Lets see how…

If you have a big USB disk, proceed by typing following command

SELECT DISK 1

LIST PARTITION

SELECT PARTITION 2

Partition 2 is a 10 GB partition created for installation purpose.

ACTIVE

FORMAT FS=NTFS

(Format process may take few seconds)

ASSIGN

EXIT

after going through path1 /path2, next insert your Windows7/Vista DVD into the optical drive and check the drive letter of the DVD drive. In this guide I will assume that your DVD drive letter is “D” and USB drive letter is “H” (open my computer to know about it).

4. Maximize the minimized Command Prompt in the 4th step.Type  the following command now:

D:CD BOOT and hit enter.Where “D” is your DVD drive letter.

CD BOOT and hit enter

5. Next, Copy your Windows 7/Vista DVD contents directly to the USB flash drive.

6. Your USB drive is ready to boot and install Windows 7/Vista. Only thing you need to change the boot priority at the BIOS to USB from the HDD or CD ROM drive. I won’t explain it as it’s just the matter the changing the boot priority or enabling the USB boot option in the BIOS.

Note: If you are not able to boot after following this guide means you haven’t set the BIOS priority to USB. If you got any problem in following this guide feel free to ask questions by leaving comment. 🙂