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Format USB for Windows 7 Bootable Drive

1. The document provides instructions to create a bootable USB drive from a Windows Vista or Windows 7 installation disk. It involves using the diskpart and bootsect commands in the command prompt to format and make the USB drive bootable, then copying the contents of the installation DVD over to the USB. 2. The key steps are to use diskpart to clean, create a primary partition, and format the USB drive to NTFS. Then bootsect is used to make the drive bootable and able to install Windows from the copied files. 3. Once the files are copied over, the BIOS must be set to boot from the USB drive before restarting with the installation process.

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16 views2 pages

Format USB for Windows 7 Bootable Drive

1. The document provides instructions to create a bootable USB drive from a Windows Vista or Windows 7 installation disk. It involves using the diskpart and bootsect commands in the command prompt to format and make the USB drive bootable, then copying the contents of the installation DVD over to the USB. 2. The key steps are to use diskpart to clean, create a primary partition, and format the USB drive to NTFS. Then bootsect is used to make the drive bootable and able to install Windows from the copied files. 3. Once the files are copied over, the BIOS must be set to boot from the USB drive before restarting with the installation process.

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jsuresh711
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1. USB Flash Drive (4GB+) [Link] OS Disk (Vista / Windows 7) 3.

A computer running Vista / Windows 7


Step 1: Format the Drive
The steps here are to use the command line to format the disk properly using thediskpart utility. [Be
warned: this will erase everything on your drive. Be careful.]
[Link] in your USB Flash Drive
[Link] a command prompt as administrator (Right click on Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command
Prompt and select Run as administrator
[Link] the drive number of your USB Drive by typing the following into the Command Prompt window:
diskpart
list disk
The number of your USB drive will listed. Youll need this for the next step. Ill assume that the USB flash
drive is disk 1.
[Link] the drive by typing the next instructions into the same window. Replace the number 1 with the
number of your disk below.
select disk 1
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=NTFS
assign
exit
When that is done youll have a formatted USB flash drive ready to be made bootable.
Step 2: Make the Drive Bootable
Next well use the bootsect utility that comes on the Vista or Windows 7 disk to make the flash drive
bootable. In the same command window that you were using in Step 1:
[Link] your Windows Vista / 7 DVD into your drive.
[Link] directory to the DVDs boot directory where bootsect lives:
d:
cd d:\boot
[Link] bootsect to set the USB as a bootable NTFS drive prepared for a Vista/7 image. Im assuming that your
USB flash drive has been labeled disk G:\ by the computer:
bootsect /nt60 g:
[Link] can now close the command prompt window, were done here.

Step 3: Copy the installation DVD to the USB drive


The easiest way is to use Windows explorer to copy all of the files on your DVD on to the formatted flash
drive. After youve copied all of the files the disk you are ready to go.
Step 4: Set your BIOS to boot from USB
This is where youre on your own since every computer is different. Most BIOSs allow you to hit a key at boot
and select a boot option.
I used these instructions to get my new Dell Mini 9 laptop loaded with Windows 7 (the PDC bits). HTH.

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