# Installing Windows 7 via USB flash drive!



## kyle2020 (Apr 9, 2009)

Alright guys, heres a quick, easy way to make your USB thumb / flash drive capable of installing Windows 7, cutting out the need for a disc!

First off, you need a 4GB or higher capacity flash drive - ill be using my 8GB Freecom drive, as its the largest I own.

So, to kick things off, we need to open the command line, or cmd.exe for vista users using the search feature







Then we need to start up DiskPart, simply by typing "diskpart" and hitting enter:






We will the need to find the discs available to be used by DiskPart - to do this we type "list disk"






So now we have a table of available drives - disc 0 in my case is my samsung spinpoint and disc 2 my thumb drive - you will need to figure out which is your USB drive by the size table. 

Next, we need to select that disc by typing "select disc #" - the hash being the number of your drive - in my case, I would enter "select disc 2". Then, after the drive is selected, we need to type "clean"






DiskPart will scrub the chosen drive clean for us, ready for the windows install files.

However, before we learn to run we must crawl - to do this we simply type "create partition primary" - this will format the disc, making it usable for our purpose






We then enter "active" 






And heres the bit that requires a bit of typing. You will now need to type "format fs=fat32 quick" to format the drive as fat32, making it bootable so that we can install our OS from it






Our second to last step simply involves typing "assign"






And then, finally, no more than 5 minutes down the line, we copy and paste all the OS files - in my case, im copying all the files from my copy of Windows 7 build 7068 (thanks alex ) to the drive






After setting the primary boot media to your USB drive in your bios, your all set! 

Advantages? 

1. Faster installation times

2. No use of discs! saves money and reusable time after time!

3. Takes no more than 5 minutes to set up, so time effective in comparison with burning a disc.

4. Silent install. No disc spinning up. No annoyance. Do it whilst your sleeping for all I care 

5. Did I mention there's no cost of discs involved?!


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## alexp999 (Apr 9, 2009)

Is it that easy?

Does the BIOS just pick up the same Boot image as if it were a CD?

Damn thats simple if it works...


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## kyle2020 (Apr 9, 2009)

alexp999 said:


> Is it that easy?
> 
> Does the BIOS just pick up the same Boot image as if it were a CD?
> 
> Damn thats simple if it works...



yes and yes 

Obviously just set your bios to boot from the drive first.


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## alexp999 (Apr 9, 2009)

Why is it so complictaed to make a bootable USB normally then?

All you are basically doing is formatting to a format the BIOS can read, and shoving all the CD files onto it.

Will have to give it a go when I get the RC of Win 7.

Also would it not be easier to just right click on the drive in my computer, click format, and set the file system to Fat32?


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## kyle2020 (Apr 9, 2009)

alexp999 said:


> Why is it so complictaed to make a bootable USB normally then?
> 
> All you are basically doing is formatting to a format the BIOS can read, and shoving all the CD files onto it.
> 
> ...



No idea mate, you can probably use that hp drive utility for this, but the command prompt feels so much more genuine, as if its really doing its job, you know?

I dont think you can format drives to fat32 that way, you can select it but I think that the command prompt way makes it so that it acquires the actual bootability (lol, making up words now).

Try it, it honestly works, and no more annoying half a million RPM disc spinning up installing neither. Just silence


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## alucasa (Apr 10, 2009)

alexp999 said:


> Why is it so complictaed to make a bootable USB normally then?



Well, it is easy now since all recent BIOS supports USB boot option. But this feature was very buggy even a few years ago.

Nowadays, even my mini-ITX boards supports USB booting.


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## kyle2020 (Apr 10, 2009)

All I had to sort it in terms of problems was changing my bios not only to boot from that USB drive, but making it so that the USB drive was set as "Hard disc drive #1" so it looked there straight away.

Had no problems, booted as far as language selection.


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## Polarman (Apr 10, 2009)

I'll try this out during my next Vista install.


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## 1Kurgan1 (Apr 10, 2009)

Thanks for this guide, been trying to figure how to do this. But like you said I think the HP util would work.

If you set it to format then select the bootfiles option then use that option to drop all the windows folders on there. But I been too lazy to try.


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## DaMulta (Apr 10, 2009)

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=81785


I beat you too it lol


No CMD needed in my method


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## 1Kurgan1 (Apr 10, 2009)

Ok someone want to explain this? I put the USB stick gf's comp restart it and it doesn't find it. It should list it as an HDD, but it doesn't. I restart and try f8 to get the boot options and it doesn't show it.


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## DaMulta (Apr 10, 2009)

Do you have it formatted in NTFS, can her machine boot off of USB?


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## 1Kurgan1 (Apr 10, 2009)

I'm not sure if it can, how would I find out. It's an old AM2 PcChips mobo thats in it right now. I also got a Asus M2V-SE sitting here, but wouldn't think it would be any diff since both cheapo AM2 boards.

But yeah it's been formatted. 

Think I'm gonna do it with the HP util quick see maybe if that works.


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## DaMulta (Apr 10, 2009)

In BIOS you should see it as a boot device.


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## 1Kurgan1 (Apr 10, 2009)

Yeah, I wasn't seeing it. Formatting it as NTFS right now and going to try it in a few min.


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## 1Kurgan1 (Apr 11, 2009)

Stuck the Asus Mobo back in, installing win 7 build 7077 as we speak, guess the PcChips couldn't boot off USB.


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## Polarman (Apr 11, 2009)

You should mention that after completing the "ASSIGN" part, you can type "EXIT" to quit Diskpart.


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## oli_ramsay (Apr 13, 2009)

Gonna try this method in a min when build 7077 finishes downloading.  I remember having issues booting from USB device on this board in the past, i.e. it wasn't showing up in the BIOS at all.  Hope this works


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## technicks (Apr 13, 2009)

I tried this on two Windows 7 builds and it works like a charm. Very fast.
I believe it was something like 15/20 min to install.


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## kyle2020 (Apr 14, 2009)

It is fast, took me roughly 20 minutes from start to desktop.


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## oli_ramsay (Apr 14, 2009)

Just finished installing 7077 x64 using this method and it worked very well!  Bit slow though but that's due to my cheap/old ass 4GB mp3 player   Well at least I saved a DVD!


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## kyle2020 (Apr 14, 2009)

oli_ramsay said:


> Just finished installing 7077 x64 using this method and it worked very well!  Bit slow though but that's due to my cheap/old ass 4GB mp3 player   Well at least I saved a DVD!



haha, a DVD lives to be scratched to bits another day 

Its damn fast on a decent memory stick. That said, I saw an ad in CPC that are selling 16GB Cruzr's for £17 . . .


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## Hayder_Master (Apr 14, 2009)

rally useful tread kyle2020
thanx


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## kyle2020 (Apr 14, 2009)

Cheers 

Tried to make it as easy as possible to follow, seems like I achieved that


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## Hayder_Master (Apr 15, 2009)

kyle2020 said:


> Cheers
> 
> Tried to make it as easy as possible to follow, seems like I achieved that



yeah you do, good work


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## SystemViper (May 24, 2009)

DaMulta said:


> In BIOS you should see it as a boot device.



yo big "D" what OS do you bench with, i have been using a slim visa 64, but i have been itching to try win 7, is it wort the change.  I might try 2 different boot drives and run the same bench to see myself but any info would be cool...


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## ShRoOmAlIsTiC (Jul 9, 2009)

Sorry to dig up an old thread but im having issues,  I tried this with vista and the initial install went good but once I had to restart,  the computer wouldnt boot from the drive I installed it on.  Got the invaild boot someting something, please insert system disc and press enter.  Or something like that.  Any idea what I did wrong?


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## Easo (Jul 9, 2009)

Thanks!


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## Wetbehindtheears (Jul 9, 2009)

ShRoOmAlIsTiC said:


> ..... the computer wouldnt boot from the drive I installed it on.  Got the invaild boot someting something, ...............



Did you change your BIOS back to boot from your HDD first? You'd be amazed by the number of people who forget to change back....


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## Mussels (Jul 9, 2009)

ShRoOmAlIsTiC said:


> Sorry to dig up an old thread but im having issues,  I tried this with vista and the initial install went good but once I had to restart,  the computer wouldnt boot from the drive I installed it on.  Got the invaild boot someting something, please insert system disc and press enter.  Or something like that.  Any idea what I did wrong?





Wetbehindtheears said:


> Did you change your BIOS back to boot from your HDD first? You'd be amazed by the number of people who forget to change back....



thats the one.

If you still cant get it to boot, remove all other HDD's and USB devices, and connect the drive to IDE master on primary channel, or sata port 0.


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## thraxed (Jul 9, 2009)

nice work


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## Mussels (Jul 9, 2009)

thraxed said:


> Only thing i would change is towards the last steps, formatting a partition through a console takes forever, why not do it in 2 sec with a quick format from windows?



i dont know what you mean, quick format is an option when installing windows xp, vista, and 7.


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## slyfox2151 (Jul 9, 2009)

could u swap  the USB drive for somthing like an external / internal HDD and install from that?


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## Mussels (Jul 9, 2009)

slyfox2151 said:


> could u swap  the USB drive for somthing like an external / internal HDD and install from that?



more complicated, but yes. its definately possible.


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## ShRoOmAlIsTiC (Jul 11, 2009)

Mussels said:


> thats the one.
> 
> If you still cant get it to boot, remove all other HDD's and USB devices, and connect the drive to IDE master on primary channel, or sata port 0.



Its weird tho cause I have no problem with installing from disc.  I did change it back to boot from HDD.  I really dont want to uninstall all my components,  kinds defeats the purpose of installing from usb.  it would take longer to disconnect and reconnect after install then it would to just install from dvd.  

Do you think its beacuse the drive was formated in ntfs,  thats the only step I did different from the OP.  Well that and the bootsect /nt60 command before coping files.

heres they way I went,  probly have to try it fat32

launch diskpart.exe)
select disk 1 (or your USB drive number, use list disk to get it)
clean
create partition primary
select partition=1
active
format fs=ntfs
assign
exit

Now that the drive is boot aware, we have to initialize its boot sector with the Windows boot manager (BOOTMGR), using the Bootsect.exe utility located in the boot directory of the Vista installation DVD. We have to tell the utility that our target drive is NTFS formatted:

bootsect.exe /nt60 f:


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## thraxed (Jul 11, 2009)

ShRoOmAlIsTiC said:


> Its weird tho cause I have no problem with installing from disc.  I did change it back to boot from HDD.  I really dont want to uninstall all my components,  kinds defeats the purpose of installing from usb.  it would take longer to disconnect and reconnect after install then it would to just install from dvd.



Ya sure, most bioses these days have a boot menu on boot (usually F12), ya pick your usb stick (which is usually in the submenu of harddrives), when windows reboots it boots normally, which is much easier then ejecting a windows dvd.

If you have a boot menu on your bios, this would be the same process for installing off your HD (which beats the hell out of usb)  As long as you have two drives both with master active partitions.  Then just copying over the MBR to the drive your installed on, and your set to go.  If you do it right you don't even have to mess with the mbr.


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## ShRoOmAlIsTiC (Jul 11, 2009)

I got it to boot and install,  once the install was over tho,  it wouldnt detect the HDD as a boot drive.  it would only boot from the usb


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## thraxed (Jul 11, 2009)

Most likely when you switched your drive order, your usb stick became drive C: and the windows install didn't know where to put the MBR would be my guess.


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## ShRoOmAlIsTiC (Jul 11, 2009)

good call,  maybe thats what happened.  Im gonna try it again when my vista sp2 dvd gets here.


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## DaveK (Aug 7, 2009)

Bumpity. I'm trying this method as I don't have a Windows 7 disc (my mam had it in her laptop which was sent off to repair...), I hope this works I have no DVD-Rs handy, the format thing didn't work but it's already FAT32 and everything else worked.

I hope it works, I have some overclocking to do on my new mobo


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## Melvis (Aug 8, 2009)

Kyle you are a legend 

Ive been looking for something like this for awhile, very well done.

One question, does this also work with Windows XP?

If so you are a F*&%ing Awesome Legend


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## Mussels (Aug 8, 2009)

this does not work with XP.

It only works with vista and 7 (and if you follow the instructions, it works 100% of the time - i've NEVER had a USB install fail on me)


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## DaveK (Aug 8, 2009)

Ok I tried again and the format part worked so now I'm copying the files, all down to my PC now, I really hope it works.


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## Solaris17 (Aug 8, 2009)

Amazing thank you very much this makes authoring my dvd much faster on the protable version because now i dont need some stupid program kyle i could kiss you. you made Solaris a very very happy man.


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## kyle2020 (Aug 8, 2009)

Solaris17 said:


> Amazing thank you very much this makes authoring my dvd much faster on the protable version because now i dont need some stupid program kyle i could kiss you. you made Solaris a very very happy man.



Your welcome my man


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## DanishDevil (Aug 10, 2009)

Thank you kyle!  Just made my day


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## kyle2020 (Aug 10, 2009)

Your welcome


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## Solaris17 (Aug 10, 2009)

so just tried it a day or 2 ago with my disk.......AMAZING jesus cuts like an hour off of doing it my way...that and the speed is faster...kyle your my hero mass distrobution of the port version of my disk is going to be a sinch......best part is with this cmd listing i can do multiple sticks at once!!!


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## DaveK (Aug 10, 2009)

Yeah great guide worked for me, I need to install Win 7 on a new build that I'm doing for someone, will be just my luck the mobo won't let me boot from USB 



Solaris17 said:


> so just tried it a day or 2 ago with my disk.......AMAZING jesus cuts like an hour off of doing it my way...that and the speed is faster...kyle your my hero mass distrobution of the port version of my disk is going to be a sinch......best part is with this cmd listing i can do multiple sticks at once!!!



Yeah some of the installation steps are done in just a second, I was intalling it left the room for 10 minutes came back to check on it to find it at the start screen lol, it installed and rebooted back to the USB, wasn't expecting it to be done so fast.


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## Mussels (Aug 10, 2009)

14 minutes is all it took me on the RTM - get a fast flash drive and you can do it quick quick quick.


One bonus is that you can modify files easy peasy - you could apply a service pack/slipstream eaiser onto a flash drive, than to do it and reconvert it into an ISO file.


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## hat (Aug 10, 2009)

hm, maybe I need a 4GB flash drive..

what do you think of these?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148153
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227331


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## DaveK (Aug 10, 2009)

hat said:


> hm, maybe I need a 4GB flash drive..



I've used mine a lot, copying files installation files to a laptop (That got a fresh install of Win 7 ) and watching videos on my 360/DVD player. Best of all it was free  Kinda slow though though it is just a microSD card in a USB reader lol.

Even if you don't use it a lot it's handy to have instead of doing something else like burning to a DVD or sending something via email.


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## CrAsHnBuRnXp (Aug 10, 2009)

Mussels said:


> this does not work with XP.
> 
> It only works with vista and 7 (and if you follow the instructions, it works 100% of the time - i've NEVER had a USB install fail on me)



I cant get it to work at all. In fact, I have never been able to successfully boot from a flash drive to install an OS. I followed this guide to the letter, and for whatever reason, the flash drive is not bootable.


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## Mussels (Aug 10, 2009)

i still find it weird people still follow his instructions, when theres a single line of text you can paste in a run window, and you can leave the flash drive on NTFS...


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## kyle2020 (Aug 10, 2009)

My 8GB Databar set me back £9 some time last year, im sure over the pond prices are even cheaper. I might just get a sticky label and write "windows installation" on it, stick it to the drive and use it solely for installs.

*edit*

Mussels, people follow it because its broken down in to pictures and its easy to follow. If you want to write a guide on a one line method, by all means, have fun.


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## Solaris17 (Aug 10, 2009)

CrAsHnBuRnXp said:


> I cant get it to work at all. In fact, I have never been able to successfully boot from a flash drive to install an OS. I followed this guide to the letter, and for whatever reason, the flash drive is not bootable.



bios problem...if you dont have a usb boot option try manually selecting an HDD or "removable media" drive to boot from sometimes it will hide it in their.


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## Mussels (Aug 10, 2009)

kyle2020 said:


> Mussels, people follow it because its broken down in to pictures and its easy to follow. If you want to write a guide on a one line method, by all means, have fun.



i did - back for vista. i might start a new thread with an 'alternate' method.


http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?p=1509277#post1509277


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## DanishDevil (Aug 10, 2009)

Very true Mussels.  I just like having all of my installation files on my eHDD and transferring them over so I can put all different versions on multiple machines.  And this makes it SUPER easy to reinstall on netbooks too!


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## CrAsHnBuRnXp (Aug 10, 2009)

kyle2020 said:


> My 8GB Databar set me back £9 some time last year, im sure over the pond prices are even cheaper. I might just get a sticky label and write "windows installation" on it, stick it to the drive and use it solely for installs.
> 
> *edit*
> 
> Mussels, people follow it because its broken down in to pictures and its easy to follow. If you want to write a guide on a one line method, by all means, have fun.



Ive tried his method too and it doesnt work for me either. 



Solaris17 said:


> bios problem...if you dont have a usb boot option try manually selecting an HDD or "removable media" drive to boot from sometimes it will hide it in their.


There is a usb removable drive option in BIOS and it is set to be the first boot device. DVD drive is second.


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## kyle2020 (Aug 10, 2009)

Can we take the discussions of alternate methods to their designated threads please? This method works fine for me, several others of this site and thousands of others, so if you want to bash it and recommend other methods, do so in that thread.


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## hat (Aug 10, 2009)

Maybe look under the USB crap in your BIOS. With my board, I have to go to the USB options and set the USB emulation to hard drive to get it to work, and this emulation submenu only appears if it picks up the drive during POST.


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## Solaris17 (Aug 10, 2009)

CrAsHnBuRnXp said:


> Ive tried his method too and it doesnt work for me either.
> 
> 
> There is a usb removable drive option in BIOS and it is set to be the first boot device. DVD drive is second.



try looking in the harddrive or removable device section then.


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## Mussels (Aug 11, 2009)

yep, keep discussions on each method to their respective threads.

crash: start a new thread describing your problem - post a link in these if you want. i think i know your problem anyway, but i'll save it for the new thread.


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## CrAsHnBuRnXp (Aug 11, 2009)

Mussels said:


> yep, keep discussions on each method to their respective threads.
> 
> crash: start a new thread describing your problem - post a link in these if you want. i think i know your problem anyway, but i'll save it for the new thread.



Nah. No need to make a thread on it. Just pm me what you think is the problem/solution.


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## 7.62 (Aug 14, 2009)

USB drive doesnt show up, even after a format through windows (XP)

Any suggestions?


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## 7.62 (Aug 14, 2009)

Ohh ok. Doesnt work with XP. Is there any way I can get the USB drive to be bootable from within XP?

I know my BIOS supports it.


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## Mussels (Aug 14, 2009)

7.62 said:


> Ohh ok. Doesnt work with XP. Is there any way I can get the USB drive to be bootable from within XP?
> 
> I know my BIOS supports it.



theres information in my thread on a program that allows you to do that, quoted at the bottom of the first post.


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## kuroikenshi (Aug 27, 2009)

Just thought I would post this little gem that I found.

Supposedly does XP, Vista, Windows 7, Server 2003, and Server 2008

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/0...b-installer-for-windows-xp-vista-7-with-wint/


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## pantherx12 (Aug 28, 2009)

Thanks !

Simplifies the process so much.


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## kyle2020 (Aug 28, 2009)

So thats both Kuro and mussels that have hijacked this thread - nice :shadedshu

Dont post unless its related to my method or feedback.


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## Solaris17 (Aug 28, 2009)

show respect please


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## Mussels (Aug 28, 2009)

linking to alternatives is hardly hijacking... it IS related to the thread topic.


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## kyle2020 (Aug 28, 2009)

I hate to have to quote myself but I said no discussion / linking to alternate methods on my thread - I am the OP so I kinda make the rules.



kyle2020 said:


> Can we take the discussions of alternate methods to their designated threads please? This method works fine for me, several others of this site and thousands of others, so if you want to bash it and recommend other methods, do so in that thread.



I do believe you even posted thanks to that post too mussels.


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## Solaris17 (Aug 28, 2009)

Mussels said:


> linking to alternatives is hardly hijacking... it IS related to the thread topic.



multiple links though? why dont you politely ask kyle to put the links in the OP for alternative methodes with a short paragraph as to what they include instead of smpamming links all over someones thread? its like if i were to sell my x58 board and people were asking questions about it and you answered everyone with a link to an asus board. Personally it sounds to me like your trying to fish for veiws because usually you or any other member wouldnt argue over a common respect issue.


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## Mussels (Aug 29, 2009)

while the OP can set the topic - he cant set any rules. thats w1zzards job.

While you can set any rules you like, you lack the authority to actually back them up, so unless a moderator or admin agrees with you, your rules simply wont get enforced.

indeed some people have gone overboard - but he linked to one hell of a simple tool that seemed to do the job well.


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## CrAsHnBuRnXp (Aug 29, 2009)

Mussels said:


> while the OP can set the topic - he cant set any rules. thats w1zzards job.
> 
> While you can set any rules you like, you lack the authority to actually back them up, so unless a moderator or admin agrees with you, your rules simply wont get enforced.
> 
> indeed some people have gone overboard - but he linked to one hell of a simple tool that seemed to do the job well.



I half agree. While I see your point I see Kyle's as well. Since it is his thread, he should be able to say what he wishes about his own thread and what he wants to see/not see in that aforementioned thread. Not to step on any toes, but moderators should support an OP in that regard whether they agree with them or not.


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## Solaris17 (Aug 29, 2009)

Mussels said:


> while the OP can set the topic - he cant set any rules. thats w1zzards job.
> 
> While you can set any rules you like, you lack the authority to actually back them up, so unless a moderator or admin agrees with you, your rules simply wont get enforced.
> 
> indeed some people have gone overboard - but he linked to one hell of a simple tool that seemed to do the job well.



Dont you think calling out my mod status is a little low? sure its simple fact but isnt not trashing a thread simple respect? please correct me if im under the wrong impression but arent we supposed to practice respect here? if not maybe that line should be added.


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## kyle2020 (Aug 29, 2009)

Dont think of them as rules so much, more common courtesy, and im sure that you can atleast offer me that? I may just be a lowly regular forum user, not a super do0per moderator, and my friends may not be neither, but all Im asking for is a little respect - I made the thread to share my method, and if anyone else wants to share their method, fine - just not in this thread as it defeats the object of me spending 'x' ammount of time taking all the screenshots and writing the instructions, when someone can then just glance past all my hard work and click on a readied link.

Please, just see where Im coming from and give me a little bit of respect towards it.


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## mrw1986 (Aug 29, 2009)

I think all the methods should be consolidated in this thread for easier viewing...but thats just me.


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## Mussels (Aug 29, 2009)

Solaris17 said:


> Dont you think calling out my mod status is a little low? sure its simple fact but isnt not trashing a thread simple respect? please correct me if im under the wrong impression but arent we supposed to practice respect here? if not maybe that line should be added.



hmm? i was talking in general, not about status.

I just think its a little overboard for a thread starter to make his own 'rules' for the thread.


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## Mussels (Aug 29, 2009)

mrw1986 said:


> I think all the methods should be consolidated in this thread for easier viewing...but thats just me.



if i get consent from kyle2020 (the thread starter), i'd do that. My thread does contain my method, as well as alternatives people have suggested.


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## kyle2020 (Aug 29, 2009)

Meh. Nail in the coffin tbh, see you guys later.


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## Solaris17 (Oct 12, 2009)

good news boys that might help some of you!!! so after i first read this i was like awsome and it worked fine..i was very pleased...until i realized that your speed depended alot on how fast the machine was and if it had usb 2.0...then i came to realize..what if the machine doesnt support booting from USB? now as i was thinking this i looked in my computer and saw that i installed an 80GB sata drive i pulled from an old laptop...now the drive was empty and wasnt really doing anything..i installed it for the "cause i could" factor...then i thought...hell even an old 10GB ide drive is faster than usb....and when i worked at GS i loved having one of those "hidden" install partitions..now i knew you could make one using acronis and some other programs...but i mean who wants to blow the money and go through a lengthy process to do that?.....so i wondered...what if?...what if i could do this trick on not a usb drive...but a REAL HDD? so i go for it....and if i remember correctly some of the commands didnt work..HOWEVER all the important ones did..and guess what i found? the other day my OS got currupted...so i went into bios and changed the boot order setting my 80GB sata drive as number 1 ...and whalla the windows loading bar zoomed by and i was at repairing windows b4 i knew wtf happened!!! so their you have it boys grab one of those old rusty HDD's throw it in your rig..follow the steps..and you have yourself a repair partition!! GL


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## kyle2020 (Oct 12, 2009)

Mate, thats a cracking idea 

I have an 80GB Caviar sat in my machine, making that a permanent windows disc is actually quite a good idea . . .


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## Solaris17 (Oct 12, 2009)

kyle2020 said:


> Mate, thats a cracking idea
> 
> I have an 80GB Caviar sat in my machine, making that a permanent windows disc is actually quite a good idea . . .



the best part is if you use something like nlite or w/e to slip stream drivers after it makes the iso just open the iso extract the files and dump those on the disk after you prep it and you have yourself a modified repair partition! with all your drivers already their!


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## wiak (Oct 12, 2009)

http://wintoflash.com/home/en/ =)


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## Solaris17 (Oct 12, 2009)

proof skies...a good way to tell just an FYI the vista/7 symbol will appear when its been done properly


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## crazyeyesreaper (Oct 12, 2009)

intresting concept i happen to have an extremely old eide drive a maxtor 40gig laying around from an old 1999 HP comp  i wonder if i can get this to work on the eide ..... ill give it a try later on seems like a good fail safe when overclocking to extreme heights just in case u thrash the install lol


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## Solaris17 (Oct 12, 2009)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> intresting concept i happen to have an extremely old eide drive a maxtor 40gig laying around from an old 1999 HP comp  i wonder if i can get this to work on the eide ..... ill give it a try later on seems like a good fail safe when overclocking to extreme heights just in case u thrash the install lol



go for it and let us know! and if you need help i can help ya..thats what saved me i nuked my boot loader with an unstable OC


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## crazyeyesreaper (Oct 12, 2009)

yea well i know for a fact my phenom II 940 can hit 4.2ghz on air with a xiggy dark knight on an asus board in vista 64bit i have no idea how my gigabyte board will handle it so if i can get the old maxtor drive up and running (its in a box somewhere i hope its not dead) i can at least push the upper limits with abit of safety


checked the maxtor drive its got alot of bad sectors nearly half the drive is corrupted gonna try and reformat it then short stroke the drive depending on where those bad sectors are


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## crazyeyesreaper (Oct 12, 2009)

yea i tested it no luck the drives dead -_- guess ill have to go to the town dump see if i can find any hdds that work haha


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## Izliecies (Oct 30, 2009)

I checked my BIOS (Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P) and it offers to set the boot device as:
hdd
cdrom
zip
usb-fdd
usb-zip
usb-cdrom
usb-hdd

Which one should I use?


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## Mussels (Oct 30, 2009)

Usb-hdd


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## Izliecies (Oct 30, 2009)

Hmm. I cant seem to get past list disk part - I have tried 2 different USB drives but none of them ar shown when I type list disk. I see just the HDD.
What to do?


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## Neelesh (Oct 30, 2009)

I will be trying to install my os from my thumb drive. and for the setting up of the thumb drive for installation purpose, couldn't we do that form GUI itself?


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## Izliecies (Oct 31, 2009)

Izliecies said:


> Hmm. I cant seem to get past list disk part - I have tried 2 different USB drives but none of them ar shown when I type list disk. I see just the HDD.
> What to do?



Bump!


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## kyle2020 (Oct 31, 2009)

what are the usb drives formatted as?


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## twicksisted (Oct 31, 2009)

wow!! thanks, thanks and thanks, very usefull post right there...


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## shevanel (Oct 31, 2009)

very cool dude. this will be highly useful

Thanks


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## kyle2020 (Oct 31, 2009)

Thats ok  and 5k posts! 

Check out my sort of thank you thread to mark my 5k posts 

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=107285


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## Izliecies (Oct 31, 2009)

kyle2020 said:


> what are the usb drives formatted as?



I dont know, casual USB drives.


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## kyle2020 (Oct 31, 2009)

fat32 then - try giving them a quick format through my computer then try again


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## Izliecies (Oct 31, 2009)

It offers to format to either FAT32 or FAT. Which one I choose? This format erases the data on the USB? Ah, btw, I found where to look for the file system - one USB drive is FAT, the other is FAT32.


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## kyle2020 (Oct 31, 2009)

Fat32  and yes it completely formats the drive.


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## Izliecies (Oct 31, 2009)

Copying my files to the PC. Will try to format the FAT one.


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## Izliecies (Oct 31, 2009)

Formatted it and still - nothing..





Maybe it is the version of Windows that is responsible for not showing it? You have 6.xx but I do have 5.1.xx


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## Izliecies (Nov 1, 2009)

Bumpo?


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## shevanel (Nov 20, 2009)

glad this was handy. my dvdrw has a tough time installing from disc, so now this will be used.

this should be stickied or something.


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## Mussels (Nov 20, 2009)

shevanel said:


> glad this was handy. my dvdrw has a tough time installing from disc, so now this will be used.
> 
> this should be stickied or something.



theres a few different threads with different methods involved, and no easy way to consolidate them without people getting confused about what method they're talking about.


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## puma99dk| (Nov 20, 2009)

i have been installing Windows 7 Ultimate x86 OEM from my Kingston G2 8gb usb for over 6month now, and it's formattet as NTFS but you need to active the partition on the usb flash drive to get it to boot propperly and give it the barcode that the Windows 7 disc have.

i have use this guide several times but once the usb flash drive's partition is activated you never need to do that again.

Guide: How to Install Windows 7 From USB Drive without Windows 7 iso dvd - Blogsdna.com


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## shevanel (Nov 20, 2009)

ehh.. i dont think i'll do the usb method again. even though im on a fresh install now it took 4ever..

and was kinda flaky, had to reattempt a few times because on reboot it would start over.

all is well now though


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## driver66 (Nov 20, 2009)

The best and easiest way I've found. Works on USB or a Hardrive. I have had 100% succes rate with it  

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/howtos/how_to_install_windows_7_beta_a_usb_key


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## Mussels (Nov 21, 2009)

shevanel said:


> ehh.. i dont think i'll do the usb method again. even though im on a fresh install now it took 4ever..
> 
> and was kinda flaky, had to reattempt a few times because on reboot it would start over.
> 
> all is well now though



after it installs/loads the first time, you need to disable boot from USB in the BIOS/remove the flash drive, so that the install continues from the files on the HDD


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## puma99dk| (Nov 21, 2009)

shevanel said:


> ehh.. i dont think i'll do the usb method again. even though im on a fresh install now it took 4ever..
> 
> and was kinda flaky, had to reattempt a few times because on reboot it would start over.
> 
> all is well now though



on some computers it does that and i don't know why, but on my P45 based motherboard it's as fast and faster than the dvd-rom but on my friends X38 and X48 based and my dad's P35 all Gigabyte based motherboards they are pretty slow don't know why but it's more handy to have it on a usb flash drive than a dvd-rom


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## Mussels (Nov 21, 2009)

it depends on the flash drives too, if you use a slow ass drive, its going to copy slow.


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## puma99dk| (Nov 21, 2009)

Mussels said:


> it depends on the flash drives too, if you use a slow ass drive, its going to copy slow.



i use a Kingston G2 8gb with NTFS partition ^^


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## Mussels (Nov 21, 2009)

puma99dk| said:


> i use a Kingston G2 8gb with NTFS partition ^^



i've got one flash drive that writes small files at ~4MB/s and four others that write these same files at ~150KB/s


no idea how good yours is, but most i've tested are total junk when it comes to speed. they show up good in HDD based tests since you're really only testing the cache/buffer on the drive, but in real world situations they're slow as crap.


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## shevanel (Nov 21, 2009)

Mussels said:


> after it installs/loads the first time, you need to disable boot from USB in the BIOS/remove the flash drive, so that the install continues from the files on the HDD



That makes so much sense!

Wow, I can't believe I didn't catch that.


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## puma99dk| (Nov 23, 2009)

shevanel said:


> That makes so much sense!
> 
> Wow, I can't believe I didn't catch that.



i just push F12 to select a boot device so i don't change anything boot order


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## HTC (Nov 26, 2009)

A question: is it possible to have more then one OS in the USB stick?

What i wanted was to have 3 partitions: one for XP, one for Vista and one for 7. Is this possible?


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## Mussels (Nov 26, 2009)

HTC said:


> A question: is it possible to have more then one OS in the USB stick?
> 
> What i wanted was to have 3 partitions: one for XP, one for Vista and one for 7. Is this possible?



not without making some kind of custom bootloader, with a menu to choose what one to boot.

i have no idea how to go about that.


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## <<Onafets>> (Nov 26, 2009)

Thx for the guide mussels...thats odd...I just ripped my windows 7 RC disk and put it on my passport drive and booted to it from the bios...it wasn't even formatted! Everything works fine too! As for HTC's question...you can do it with a HDD but as for a USB stick I'm not sure. You could buy 3 UsB's and swap them before boot-up to chose which OS to boot to...


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## HTC (Nov 26, 2009)

Mussels said:


> not without making some kind of custom bootloader, with a menu to choose what one to boot.
> 
> i have no idea how to go about that.



I feared as much 



<<Onafets>> said:


> Thx for the guide mussels...thats odd...I just ripped my windows 7 RC disk and put it on my passport drive and booted to it from the bios...it wasn't even formatted! Everything works fine too! *As for HTC's question...you can do it with a HDD but as for a USB stick I'm not sure. You could buy 3 UsB's and swap them before boot-up to chose which OS to boot to...*



It ain't to install them on the stick: it's to installed them *from* the stick.


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## wolf (Nov 26, 2009)

I did this exact install on all of my 3 current rigs, and my ex's (my old) eee pc 1000H

diskpart is just too awesome, even makes you feel 1337 and all using the console, works faster, just beautiful all in all.

credit where credit is due, nice easy to follow write up on it dude, damn good work.

I highly recommend this method over a disc, especially since only 1 of my 3 rigs even has a disc drive heh!


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## kyle2020 (Nov 26, 2009)

using the console just makes me feel all god like and nerdy


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## wolf (Nov 27, 2009)

Just like my first ipconfig


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 16, 2010)

well i tried this cant get it to work at all cant seem to get my mobo to boot from the usb drive no matter WHAT i do gives me the boot MGR is missing  aggrevating


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## DonInKansas (Jan 23, 2010)

I didn't sort through all the posts here; can you have other stuff on the flash drive besides the Win 7 files and have it still work?


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 23, 2010)

no idea to be honest i got it to just work after about 100 damn tries  my guess is no


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## puma99dk| (Jan 23, 2010)

i have some appz on my usb flash drive aswell, in a folder called Things i sometimes also got some music and other stuff on it ^^


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## ShRoOmAlIsTiC (Jan 23, 2010)

I had office ony my driver too.  I dont know if you guys seen this but you can make an all in one drive too.  I now have one usb stick that will install home premium, professional, ultimate and enterprise in 32bit and 64bit flavors.  It works awesome.

http://www.windowsvalley.com/blog/c...erge-all-editions-of-windows-7-in-single-dvd/


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## ShRoOmAlIsTiC (Jan 24, 2010)

Too bad you cant unthank people.  Rude people suck. Your threads not that great to be bossing others around in it.


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## Mussels (Jan 25, 2010)

ShRoOmAlIsTiC said:


> Too bad you cant unthank people.  Rude people suck. Your threads not that great to be bossing others around in it.



i believe you can un-thank people actually.


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## steelkane (Jan 25, 2010)

I did something similar on a laptop,, I took out the hdd & copied the windows 7 file on the hdd & put it back into the laptop & windows 7 booted from the hdd & installed..


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## bogmali (Jan 25, 2010)

DonInKansas said:


> I didn't sort through all the posts here; can you have other stuff on the flash drive besides the Win 7 files and have it still work?




Yup, just put it in it's own folder


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## Mussels (Jan 25, 2010)

kyle2020 said:


> I took the time to make my own guide, so why should someone else come in and hijack my thread? If anything, you are the rude one sir and I do not appreciate fingers being pointed at me when I made my hopes for this thread perfectly clear.



Generally, people dont mind having all the information in the one thread. That's the normal order of business here. All contest posted on TPU belongs to TPU, and all that.

What you're asking for (this is my thread, all glory to me - or gtfo) is definitely abnormal. The only reason i complied, was that i couldn't be bothered arguing.


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## ShRoOmAlIsTiC (Jan 25, 2010)

sorry I really dont think its hijacking when someone points out an opinion that isnt exactly as yours.  Yes that was rude of me to point fingers but the way your acting is nont what this forum is all about.  people appreciate that you did post this tutorial but its also nice knowing that "your way" isnt the only absolute way of doing things.  Im pretty sure that your not the one who thought of this anyways,  you most likey learned it from someone elses online tutorial and posted it in a way that was easiest for you.  

Mods if Kyle2020 wants it you may delete my "rude" posts.  But I truly believe that the way he handled that was wrong but so is the way im handling it.


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## kyle2020 (Jan 25, 2010)

Ok, I'm in the wrong. Guys, go nuts over different methods, I dont update this thread often anyway, ill delete my posts and be on my way. Sorry for an rude behaviour or anything disruptive to staff.


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