How to
create a bootable Windows 7 USB flash drive
INSTALL WINDOWS 1 FROM UR
USB DRIVE
The USB
flash drive has replaced the floppy disk drive as the best storage medium for
transferring files, but it also has its uses as a replacement for CDs and DVDs.
USB drives tend to be higher in capacity than disc media, but since they are
more expensive, they cannot (yet) really be used as a replacement. There are
reasons why you would, however, choose a USB device over a DVD disc, and
bootable software is definitely one of them. Not only is it faster to copy data
such as setup files from a USB drive, but during usage the access times are
also significantly faster. Therefore, installing something like Windows 7 will
work that much faster from a USB drive than from a DVD (and of course, is
particularly useful for the PCs without an optical drive; this isn't something
we should just leave for the pirates to enjoy).
This
guide will show you two different ways to create a USB flash drive that works
just like a Windows 7 DVD. In order to follow this guide, you'll need a USB
flash drive with at least 4GB of free space and a copy of the Windows 7
installation disc.
Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool
You are
normally given this tool when you purchase from the online Microsoft Store .
The
easiest way to turn a USB flash drive into a bootable Windows 7 installer is by
using the tool Microsoft offers, cunningly named the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download
Tool. To get started, download the installer [exe] from
Microsoft.com and follow the basic steps to put it onto your computer; you can
put it on the computer you plan to install Windows 7 on or another one, it
doesn't matter.
Once it
is installed, it should create an icon on your desktop, so double-click that to
open. If you can't find it, use the search function in the Start Menu with a
keyword like "USB." Launching it should give you the above screen,
and step one is to find the Windows 7 .ISO file. The tool only accepts .ISO
images, so we recommend that you convert yours if it's in a different DVD image
format.
Step
two is straightforward: simply choose USB device.
In step
three, all you have to do is make sure that you are choosing the correct USB
device. If you have other data on the device, move it to your hard drive,
another USB device, or somewhere else before proceeding.
The
tool will prompt you if it detects data on the device. Once your data is backed
up elsewhere, click Erase USB Device.
You
will get another prompt warning you that all the data will be wiped. Click Yes
to continue.
The
format will be very quick, while the copying of the files will take a little
bit more time (about 10 to 15 minutes).
Once
the process is complete, you should get the above confirmation message. At this
point you can close the tool and use the USB drive to install Windows 7.
Remember that you'll have to choose to boot off the USB drive. Before doing so,
you may want to open up the USB drive and double click on setup.exe to see if
everything looks okay. If you want to be able to do this manually, see the next
section, and if you want to be able to install any edition of Windows 7, skip
to the section after that.
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