How to Install Windows 7 from a USB Drive

Step by step tutorial. Took me about 6 minutes.
Installs from a flash drive tend to take about 75% of the time it takes with a DVD. On my C2Q Q6600 it meant 20 mins instead of 29.
This is for those who are having issues with running from a DVD, or just want to try it out/get it done faster.

Note: Back up the files from your USB drive, as it WILL get formatted in this process and all data on it will be lost!

1. Get a USB Drive, it must be at least 4 GB.

2. Plug the drive into your PC.

3. Open a command prompt as administrator. (Right click, Open as Admin, or Ctrl+Shift+Click)

4. Get the drive number by typing:
diskpart
list disk
On my machine the USB disk was number 1.

5. Format the drive by typing:
select disk 1
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=NTFS
assign
exit

6. Mount the Windows 7 beta iso or insert the disk.

7. Navigate to the boot directory
cd E:\boot (Where E is the drive letter of the DVD)

8. Using bootsect, we’ll make the USB drive a bootable NTFS drive, ready for a Windows 7 image:
bootsect /nt60 F: (Where F is the drive letter of the USB Drive)

9. Close the command prompt

10. Copy the installation files from the mounted Windows 7 iso/disk to the USB drive.

11. Reboot the PC, and enter the BIOS (OR you can move to the boot manager menu, usually by pressing F10 if supported)

12. Set the boot priority to boot the USB drive first.

13. Install Windows 7.

Happy trails, my friends.

just to add if you already have your main pc with windows 7 installed and are trying to install on a netbook for instance, you can format the usb stick using normal format in windows7 via my computer, and select ntfs as the format type.

put the dvd you used to install the first copy of windows 7 on your main pc into the dvd drive

then you just need to do 7+ from above.

Hi Guys
Thanks for the tip -- I've used the instructions to create a UCBD4WIN Ultimate Boot for Windows rescue CD. and another one with a Bartpe disk with the acronis plug in inserted so I can even do a "Bare Metal" recovery.

Quick question (just me being greedy) -- there's plenty of space on an 8GB stick to have BOTH these systems on it. Is there any way to be able to DUAL BOOT from a SINGLE USB stick . Would love to have both OS'es on the SAME stick (and maybe a minimal KNOPPIX linux system as well - very useful command line Linux no GUI but really small OS).

I think you guys have just ruined my Sunday by giving me ideas --still the weather is FREEZING and there's no Footy (Soccer for US readers) on TV today worh looking at.

Cheers
jimbo

i was wondering whether a program like easybcd could be manipulated in order to create a bootmgr file which you could then place on the usb to give you the dualbootlike front page? im sure there is software designed to do custom bootups for the sort of thing your after.

Whene I do a 'list disk' it only shows my main HDD, and not the flash drive...

I've tried doing that, but like the poster above, when i type list disk, only my primary drive shows up. But I also read that it's for Vista. How do you make one with XP?

If your flash drive doesn't show up, that would mean it's not supported.

ok i did these steps but how do i mount the iso to it thats where i stopped at.. im trying to install this with out a dvd cause i dont have dvd burner... this is right place right?

Yes, this is the right place. You don't mount the ISO, you open it with WinRAR, and copy all the files off it onto the thumb drive.

is it ok to use a 350gb external hard disk? i found a prog that lets u mount a virtual disc thought was pretty neat